Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! This chocolate chip cookie recipe is made with only brown sugar and makes cookies that are the perfect blend of soft and chewy!
These Chewy Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies are easy to make!
They’re great spur-of-the-moment cookies because there is no need to soften the butter ahead of time. The dough comes together in a matter of minutes, and no chilling is required.
If you like a thicker cookie, you can refrigerate it for 30 minutes or so before baking, but no need to chill it if you don’t want to.
And the use of all brown sugar gives these cookies a deeper, richer flavor and makes for chewy cookies. So, the next time a cookie craving strikes, bake up a batch of these cookies!
What makes these cookies chewy?
- Melted butter: Using melted butter helps the cookies to come together quickly, and it also increases the chewiness.
- Brown sugar: Using only brown sugar helps to make them chewier.
- Extra egg yolk: The fat in the yolk helps to increase chewiness.
Ingredient notes and substitutions
- Butter: I use salted butter in this recipe. If you’re using unsalted butter, increase the salt by 1/4 teaspoon.
- If you want to brown the butter, you will need to use more butter because browning butter causes it to cook down. Otherwise, you will be left with a drier dough. You could also try my brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe.
- Brown sugar: Light brown sugar or dark brown sugar will work. Dark brown sugar will give you richer, more toffee-like flavor.
- This recipe uses only brown sugar, no white sugar, in order to make the cookies chewier.
- Flour: Correctly measuring the ingredients is key! I suggest weighing the ingredients. If you aren’t going to weigh the flour, then you need to aerate it (sifting or fluffing) and then lightly spoon into the measuring cup and leveling. If you don’t want to sift or weigh the flour, please use less flour. Packing in too much flour will cause the cookies not to spread.
- Chocolate: You can substitute 4 ounces finely chopped semisweet baking chocolate for chocolate chips. This will give you a flatter cookie that spreads more.
- Feel free to use a different type of chocolate chip – semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, or even white chocolate chips will work. Chocolate chunks can also be used.
How to make chewy chocolate chip cookies
Here you’ll find step-by-step photos showing how to make this recipe. The full recipe is given below.
Step 1: Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. or in a microwave-safe bowl. The butter should be just melted. If you want to brown the butter, please see the note above in “Ingredient notes and substitutions”.
Step 2: Add brown sugar to a large bowl.
Step 3: Stir to combine butter and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes.
Step 4: Add egg and egg yolk; stir to combine. Stir in vanilla extract.
Step 5: Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. Please see the comments about flour in the “Ingredient notes and substitutions” section.
Step 6: Stir in chocolate chips or chunks.
Step 7: Using a medium cookie scoop (1.5 tablespoon), drop scoops of dough 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
Step 8: Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. The centers should still look soft and slightly underbaked. That will help to keep the cookies soft.
Step 9: Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
Recipe Tips!
- Mixing: I suggest stirring this recipe together by hand rather than using a hand or stand mixer.
- Baking: It’s important to slightly underbake the cookies. This will give you a softer, chewier cookie.
- Oven temperature: If you’d like the cookies to spread more or brown less, decrease the oven temperature by 25F to 350F.
- Flat cookies: If your cookies are coming out too flat, cover and chill the dough for 30-60 minutes. Also, some people have had better luck using 3 cups of flour (360g).
- Topping: The cookies are great as-is, but if you like more salty/sweet flavor, sprinkle the cookies with a bit of sea salt or finishing salt.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! I recommend flash freezing the dough in scoops by placing scoops of the dough onto a baking sheet. Once the dough is frozen through, transfer the frozen balls of cookie dough to a freezer-safe container, and store in the freezer.
You can! Bake the cookies as-directed. Let the cookies cool to room temperature on a wire cooling rack. Place the cookies in a freezer-safe container, and freeze.
Storage
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep for up to 4 days when properly stored.
More easy cookie recipes!
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Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour Please see the note below about measuring the flour.
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt or scant 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 10 ounce package chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
- Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. The butter should be just melted. If you want to brown the butter, please see the note below.
- Add brown sugar, and mix in.
- Let stand 5 minutes.
- Add egg and egg yolk; stir to combine.
- Stir in vanilla extract.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir until just combined. Please see the comments about flour in the recipe notes.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (1.5 tablespoon), drop scoops of dough 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. The centers should still look soft and slightly underbaked. That will help to keep the cookies soft.
- Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- Recipe change note: I recently decreased the amount of flour called for in the recipe due to product changes. The previous amount of flour called for was 3 cups or 360 grams.
- Butter: If you want to brown the butter, you will need to use more butter because browning butter causes it to cook down. Otherwise, you will be left with a drier dough.
- Flour: Correctly measuring the ingredients is key! I highly suggest weighing the ingredients. If you don’t weigh the flour, you’ll need to aerate the flour (sifting or fluffing) and then lightly spoon it into the measuring cup and level. If you don’t want to sift or weigh the flour, please use less flour. Packing in too much flour will cause the cookies not to spread.
- Can substitute 4 ounces finely chopped semisweet baking chocolate for chocolate chips.
- I suggest stirring this recipe together by hand rather than using a hand or stand mixer.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
- Love chocolate? Try the chocolate chocolate chip version of this cookie!
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Originally published 1/26/16.
Reader Interactions
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Comments & Reviews
Jessica S says
Did you change something about the amount of eggs or measurement of eggs in this recipe. I’ve been using it for a couple of years but I was thinking it was 3 egg yolks but maybe I’ve mis remembered???
Kate says
Hi! I had a similar recipe on my site a few years ago that used 3 egg yolks.
Tom says
DEFINITELY brown your butter. These came out unbelievable, no white sugar involved, loved that, sooo good 10/10
Kate says
Thank you so much!
Jessica says
We had to cook them longer but these turned out incredible! I used 12.7 grams of flour and light brown sugar. Absolutely love these. Thank you!
Kate says
Thank you!
Lyssa says
These cookies are amazing! I’m never using a different recipe again. The only change I made was using almond extract instead of vanilla.
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that you liked them!
Katie says
Awesome flavor!! Love this (and the original recipe). But we did have a question: is it really meant to be 3 cups of flour? We used that much and ended up having to add more butter in later since the cookies were too dry. Thank you!
Kate says
Hi! Thank you! So, it’s 360 grams of flour. If you aren’t weighing the flour, you may find that 2 1/2 cups of flour works out better.
Vella Oliver says
I have made chocolate chip cookies for at least 40 years and this recipe is by far the best!!!! Although, I did not need to use a mixer, the results were chewy, tasty and a hit with my family. Thank you for sharing this easy recipe.
Kate says
Thank you so much!
Jess says
These cookies are amazing!
Just curious, is there a way to make these dairy free and they turn out similar? Would Crisco work for the butter or a dairy free butter? Thank you!
Kate says
Thank you! Unfortunately, I’m not sure how a dairy-free butter would melt. I have had really good luck using coconut oil in cookies. That’s probably where I would start. Hope that helps!
Marie says
Hi! These cookies were delicious! I didn’t need the whole 3 cups of flour, but I was curious how many grams of flour you would recommend. You mention weighing the flour, but only have a measurement in cups.
Kate says
Hi! You can find the measurements in grams by clicking “metric” directly beneath the ingredients.
Kristine Vaughn-Hulbert says
salted or unsalted butter?
Kate says
I use salted butter.
dona says
Wow this recipe looks so great! Can’t wait to try it! But is it ok if I lessen the sugar in the recipe? because i think it will probably end being too sweet for my liking.
Kate says
Hi! Thanks! The sugar helps to provide flavor and moisture, and it also helps to make the cookies chewy. So, you will lose some of those qualities if you cut the sugar.
Shelly says
I googled how much 3 cups of flour weighed since it’s not in the recipe. I got 15.34 oz. Using the aerate and spoon method, 3 cups for me was 14.5 oz which is what I used. The cookies came out poofy. What did I do wrong?
Kate says
Hi! Immediately beneath the ingredients, there’s a button that says “METRIC”. If you click on that, it will give you the weights for the ingredients. I use a 120 gram cup of flour, which would be 4.25 ounces per cup, for a total of 12.75 ounces. I’m not sure what other measurements you used, but the extra flour would make the cookies poofy. Also, if you’re cooking the butter down or browning it, be sure to follow those notes as well. Hope that helps for next time!
Jenny says
Best chocolate chip cookie ever! I do 1 c. Choc chips and 1 c. Macadamia nuts (halved). Best ever!
Kate says
Thank you so much!
Teresa says
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! I’ve used it countless times and have experimented with subbing the chocolate out and adding white chocolate, candy coated chocolate, nuts, etc. Such a versatile and easy recipe! :)
Kate says
Thank you so much!
Kellie says
This is our favorite cookie recipe. I sift the flour but can never seem to get the cookies to flatten. What am I doing wrong?
Kate says
Hi! There are three reasons why cookies may not spread. 1) Too much flour in the dough 2) the oven bakes hot, and the outside is setting before the cookies have a chance to spread 3) old or expired leavening. You could try turning the oven down 25F to see whether that helps the cookies to spread before the outside sets.
Cassandra says
Baking this tomorrow! Did I miss if it calls for light or dark brown sugar?
Kate says
You can use either! Light brown will give you a milder brown sugar flavor, and dark brown sugar will give you a richer, more caramel-y flavor.
Tay says
This is my favorite cookie recipe EVER!!!! My friends and family rave about how good these are. The brown sugar makes ALL the difference.
Kate says
Thank you so much!!
Kristen says
Brown sugar only is now my new favorite way to make
chocolate chip cookies! I had no idea the difference it would make, but it’s perfect.
Thanks!
Kate says
Thank you! I love the flavor that it gives the cookies, and I’m glad to hear that you liked it, too! =)
MICHELLE DARLENE MIRANDA says
Great cookie the brown sugar is a lot better cookie than the white sugar
Kate says
Thank you! I’m glad that you like them!
HA says
My favorite recipe. I did brown the butter, and I also froze the cookie dough balls before baking, so when baking from frozen, I lowered heat to 355 and added maybe 4 minutes to cook time. TONS of positive feedback for this recipe.
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that you liked it! =)
N says
I’m in India. Is it possible to see a picture of the brown sugar you use. It looks very different yet not so much from the two types we get here
miranda says
Tastes yummy! I’m just having an issue with the cookies not spreading. I made them first by fluffing the flour. When they baked they were basically the same ball shape they were when they went in. So for the second go around I purchased a sifter and tried that way. Same thing happened. Both times the dough seemed pretty wet so I didn’t think it was too much flour. All measurements were exact. You suggested weighing the flour. How much flour do you recommend i use in grams? Thanks!
Kate says
Hi! I’m sorry to hear that! It’s 360 grams of flour. Right underneath the ingredients, there is a link that says “metric”. If you click on that, it will give you the measurement in grams. Another thing that you can try is turning down your oven by 25F. If your oven bakes hot, it can set the outside of the cookie before it has had a chance to spread.
Anya says
I have tested like 8 different cookie recipes since quarantine started and this is the best one yet. They’re so chewy and thick with a lovely crisp exterior which is exactly how I like them!
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad to hear that! =)
Dani says
I’m new to baking and I just want to know if this recipe is not that sweet since it uses only brown sugar. Because I tried making chocolate chip cookies before with both brown and white but it was too sweet for me. :D
Kate says
Hi! I think the cookies are just as sweet as cookies made with granulated sugar (white sugar). If you’re looking for a cookie recipe that isn’t quite as sweet, you might like my whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe better.
Anna says
Came looking for a chocolate chip cookie recipe that only called for brown sugar as I was out of white & glad I did. Here’s how good these cookies are: I completely missed to add the tablespoon of vanilla and they’re still delicious! I did opt to use the entire 11.5 oz bag of chocolate chips & added half cup of chopped walnuts & they are practically melt in your mouth good. My first batch got a little too brown, so I lowered temp to 350 & found that 8 minutes at 350 worked for me. Looking forward to making again to see how they taste with the vanilla added! Thanks for the great recipe!
Kate says
I’m so glad that you liked them! =) Thanks for commenting!
Tan J says
I had some brown sugar that needed using so I searched online for some ideas and I came across your recipe so decided to try it. I am so pleased I found it! I’ve made many cookies over the years but yours are by far my favourite.
The cookies are really yummy.
I have some extra happy kids tonight :)
Thank you.
Kate says
Thank you so much!!
Rachel says
Well, I thought I could replace the brown sugar with Swerve brown sugar. Let me warn you right now – STICK TO THE RECIPE! Lol, they didn’t turn out terrible, but didn’t spread at all, so I had to flatten them out before putting them in the oven on the next batch. And they’re too sweet for my taste – which is probably due to too much Swerve brown sugar. I plan to make a trip to the store to get real brown sugar and try again…can’t wait and thank you for the recipe! :)
Kate says
Hi! Thanks for sharing that Swerve doesn’t work in this recipe!