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
Bre says
Great!!! 👏👏👏
Kate says
Thank you!
Bre says
Great cookies, Thank you.
I needed a fast recipe with my grandson.
Kate says
Thank you!
Daisy says
This would be very helpful to me as someone who has NEVER baked before, but there are somethings that confuse me. In this recipe, it doesn’t give the exact temperature to bake it in. Another thing, is that in the how to make it section, it tells you to add in salt and baking soda, but that was not in the ingredients list.
No hate, this is truly impressive to be so skill that your able to teach others, but it confuses an ABSOLUTE beginner like me. I just wish there was a bit more clarification on the details.
Kate says
Hi! The oven temperature is given in step 1 of the recipe. The baking soda and salt are the 7th and 8th ingredients listed in the ingredient section. I hope that helps, and if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.
Mathew says
PERIODT !!! These are amazinnnnnng.
With the egg pandemic going around, I wanted to sub apple sauce.
Have you done something like that before ?
I had some eggs left over before they removed eggs from shelves so i just did that, but for future id like to use apple sauce.
Kate says
Thank you! I’ve found that applesauce can leave a gummy texture in baked goods, so I don’t use it very often as a substitute. Many people use aquafaba or egg replacer in place of eggs, but I’m not sure how that would work in this recipe.
Lacey says
You mention weighing the flour but I can’t seem to find the weight suggested. Also, how much butter do you suggest adding when using brown butter? So excited to try these! They look perfect! So many recipes I find are for those thick fluffy chocolate chip cookies
Kate says
Hi! You can find the weights by clicking on “metric” immediately above the ingredients. I’ve found that I need to start off with about an additional 3-4 tablespoons of butter if I’m going to brown it because it cooks down so much.
Jesse says
Love this recipe. Mix by hand it’s such a great tasting cookie and most ingredients are readily available.
Kate says
Thank you!
Abby K says
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. Be sure to use dark brown sugar instead of light brown sugar for an even better and more dense cookie.
Kate says
Thank you!
Alexis says
If I freeze the dough should I left the dough thaw first! Or how long and what temp should I bake them?
Kate says
No, there’s no need to let the dough thaw before you bake it. It takes about 3-5 minutes longer when I bake the dough from frozen, but the timing may vary depending on your oven.
Melissa says
These are incredible!!!
Kate says
Thank you!
NJ says
Very easy and turns out to look exactly like the pictures. Recommend decreasing sugar. A little too sweet for me. Otherwise a great cookie!
Kate says
Thank you! You can use dark chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate chips for cookies that are a little less sweet.
Rosie says
My cookies went a bit flat, could that be because i didn’t have enough chocolate chips? I only had 7oz not 10, everything was fine. Other than that they’re great
Kate says
Thank you! If my cookies end up a bit flatter than I’d like, the first thing that I try is chilling the dough. You can either pop the scooped dough in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes or in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to see if that helps.
Laura B says
Made these today and they were delicious! I didn’t have enough brown sugar so I subbed in some coconut sugar. This will be our go to recipe. Thank you
Kate says
Thank you!
Ally says
I’m stuck up north at the cabin and got the munchies! I had almost everything on hand except baking soda, I substituted with a TBLS of baking powder and they came out amazing! My boyfriend is in heaven.
Kate says
I’m so glad that the cookies worked out well for you!
V says
Hi, what amount would you substitute almond flour for regular flour for? Thank you!
Kate says
Hi! I haven’t made that substitution to say for certain.
Gale Satrom says
it’s my go to!! I froze cookie dough and baked a week or so later no different!! I just made two batches in freezer so i have dessert always!!
has anyone tried dark chocolate chips etc?
Kate says
Thank you! Yes, I’ve used dark chocolate chips. You can use whichever type of chocolate chips you prefer.
narguess says
I just made it and froze the excess amount of dough, I tasted great! thank you for the recipe!
Kate says
Thank you!
Sascha.k says
I have a question. Can you use backing powder instead of the backing soda? (I live in Germany so it’s really hard to get. Here it’s not really sold)
Kate says
Hi! No, unfortunately, they aren’t interchangeable. Baking soda and baking powder do different things in cookies.
Esther says
What temperature should you bake the cookies at? Major omission from the recipe
Kate says
The oven temperature is given in step 1.
Bonnie Anderson Colon says
I love semi sweet chocolate cookies with pecans has just the right sweet. Yum
Kate says
Thank you!
Michelle says
I didn’t bake all of it, can I freeze the other dough?
Kate says
You can! I recommend freezing the dough in scoops.