Best Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe | Handle the Heat (2024)

Tessa’s Recipe Rundown

Taste: Full of sweet butterscotch & chocolate flavors, exactly how a chocolate chip cookie should taste!
Texture: Thick and chock full of gooey chocolate with slightly crisp edges.
Ease: No special ingredients, equipment, or skills needed!
Pros: Easy everyday delightful chocolate chip cookie recipe. I think you’ll love this one.
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? I’ve already made this recipe many times and have the dough in my freezer for when the craving strikes.

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My favorite type of recipe to bake is absolutely COOKIES. They’re so fun and simple and can teach us SO much about the science of baking.

The Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies is still one of my most popular posts, visited by over two million people.

Best Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe | Handle the Heat (1)

That post inspired the creation of my second cookbook, The Ultimate Cookie Handbook. And since THOUSANDS of you have purchased that cookbook, I think it’s clear that we’re all obsessed with cookies here.

That’s why I’m SO thrilled to share this Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe with you today. In my opinion, it’s the perfect easy everyday chocolate chip cookie recipe. This homemade recipe is simple to make and yields thick, beautiful golden brown cookies, crisp at the edges and gooey at the center.

Watch the video below to step into my kitchen and see exactly how to bake these delicious cookies with me. I give tons of tips and tricks for getting perfectly thick cookies with chocolate chunks, and you can see what every step of this recipe should look like!

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There’s actually a time-lapse video shot of these cookies cooling right after I took them out of the oven. You can see that they hardly shrink or deflate as they cool. If you only beat the butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes max, your cookies shouldn’t deflate!

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Best Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe | Handle the Heat (3)

How to Make The Best Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

How to make soft chocolate chip cookies:

The key to the best soft cookies is to take the chocolate chip cookies out of the oven just before they look like they’re done baking. They should still appear slightly wet in the very center. The residual heat of the oven and pan will finish cooking the cookies through to soft perfection once you allow them to cool completely.

Also, measure your flour correctly to improve your baking forever. Too much flour will lead to dry, dense, or crumbly chocolate chip cookies that barely spread.

Why are my chocolate chip cookies flat?

When making cookies, be sure your butter is at a cool room temperature before beating with your sugar. It shouldn’t be greasy or overly soft otherwise it’ll melt and spread the cookies too much.

The warmer your chocolate chip cookie dough is when it enters the oven, the thinner and flatter your cookies will be. To prevent flat cookies, try freezing your balls of cookie dough while your oven preheats. Learn more about how to bake THICK cookies here.

Better yet, refrigerate your chocolate chip cookie dough for 24 to 48 hours. This ‘marination’ process will transform your chocolate chip cookies by making them thicker, chewier, and more flavorful! Plus, this is a perfect way to make your delicious cookies ahead of time. Read more about the magic of chilling your cookie dough here.NOTE: chilling is OPTIONAL for this recipe but using chilled dough will enhance your cookies!

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How to make chewy chocolate chip cookies:

One of the keys to CHEWY chocolate chip cookies is to use more brown sugar than granulated sugar. The molasses in the brown sugar draws in more moisture, making the cookies thicker, softer, and chewier.

For extra chewy cookies, try adding an extra egg yolk to this recipe. You can also replace half or all of the all-purpose flour in this recipe with bread flour for an ultra chewy bite.

How to bake chocolate chip cookies:

For the BEST chocolate chip cookies, make the recipe below keeping these top tips in mind:

  1. Use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients for the BEST most consistent results.
  2. Make the recipe exactly as written, without substitutions, at least the first time you bake it.

Use the correct baking pan and a spring-loaded cookie scoop for bakery-quality cookies at home. More on that below!

Why use a cookie scoop?

Using a stainless steel spring-loaded cookie scoop when portioning out cookie dough is one of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped and evenly-baked cookies. My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets. A spring-loaded scoop saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough. When using a scoop, you ensure each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly, meaning you don’t have any small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies. Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!

What’s the difference between baking soda and baking powder?

Baking powder and baking soda are both chemical leaveners that work to create light textures in baked goods.

Although baking powder actually contains baking soda, the two leaveners are very different. Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable – just take a look at the impact the type of leavener used had on each of the cookies below!

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Find out more in my Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder article here.

Which baking pan is best for cookies?

Take a look at the chocolate chip cookies below. These cookies are all the same batch of cookie dough, baked at the same temperature of 350°F, baked for the same amount of time of 12 minutes. The only difference? The type of baking pan used!

Check out my Best (and WORST) Baking Pans article here for more details on the science of baking pans.

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How to Keep Chocolate Chip Cookies Fresh

The best cookies are the freshest, there’s no magical way around that. However, here are a few tricks to keeping them fresh and soft for as long as possible!

Can you freeze chocolate chip cookies?

I love the taste of cookies straight from the oven the best. I always keep pre-scooped balls of chocolate chip cookie dough in a resealable bag in my freezer, so I can bake cookies off and have them warm from the oven in a matter of minutes whenever I want. Here are more tips for freezing cookie dough.

But for those times when you need to keep already-baked cookies soft, see below for my tips. First of all, most cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temp for up to 5 days. Be sure they are completely cooled before storing.

How to keep cookies soft:

To keep your baked chocolate chip cookies soft, you can add an apple wedge, piece of bread, or a tortilla on the top and bottom of the cookies to the container a day or two after baking them, or whenever you find the texture starting to harden. The moisture from the bread or apple will migrate to your cookies, making them soft and chewy again.

A tortilla is a favorite of mine because it takes up much less room than a slice of bread, and doesn’t transfer any flavors or aromas like an apple wedge. Not to mention, it fits into a round cookie tin pretty perfectly.

How to refresh stored cookies:

What I like to do is reheat and refresh the cookies in a 350°F oven for 3-5 minutes. Your toaster oven should work just fine. This improves the texture and there’s nothing like a warm chocolate chip cookie!

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Tessa’s Favorite Tools for This Recipe

More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

  • Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies (these are CHEWIER than this recipe)
  • Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies (dairy free)
  • Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies (ultra flavorful!)
  • Giant Reese’s Pieces Chocolate Chip Cookies (thick and delicious!)
  • Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (for serious PB lovers only!)

See ALL of my !

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How to Make

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

By: Tessa Arias

4.93 from 922 votes

Yield: 26 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Cook Time: 15 minutes mins

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

Review Print

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Ultra thick Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies feature golden brown edges with ooey and gooey centers. This easy recipe can be made in 30 minutes!

Ingredients

  • 3 cups (380 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature (67°F)
  • 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups (247 grams) lightly packed light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 cups (340 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

  • In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

  • In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

  • If time permits, wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. This allows the dough to “marinate” and makes the cookies thicker, chewier, and more flavorful. Let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.

  • Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls using a large cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets.

  • Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

  • Although I prefer cookies fresh from the oven, these can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. See post for storage tips.

Show us!If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a picture and share it on Instagram with #handletheheat so we can all see!

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Photos by Jess Larson.

BAKERY STYLE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES MADE BY OUR COMMUNITY

Tag @handletheheat and use the hashtag #handletheheat for a chance to be featured!

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Best Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe | Handle the Heat (2024)

FAQs

What makes bakery cookies so soft? ›

The ingredients that make cookies soft do double duty: they add and maintain moisture and they add flavor that develops while the cookies bake. Butter is more than 15% water, so it plays a role in making cookies soft by adding water and fat, which contributes flavor and tenderness.

What temperature is best for baking chocolate chip cookies? ›

Bake at 375 degrees F until golden and tender, 12 to 15 minutes. For crispy-cakey cookies: Bake the cookies at 425 degrees F until golden and crunchy on the outside, 8 to 10 minutes. For chewy cookies: Use 1 cup light brown sugar and 1/4 cup corn syrup and omit the granulated sugar.

What kind of flour do bakeries use for cookies? ›

Pastry Flour: An unbleached flour made from soft wheat, with protein levels somewhere between cake flour and all-purpose flour (8 to 9 percent). Pastry flour strikes the ideal balance between flakiness and tenderness, making it perfect for pies, tarts and many cookies.

What is the perfect heat for cookies? ›

Cookie temperatures fluctuate, with some recipes as low as 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and a few as high as 425 degrees Fahrenheit, but most recipes land on 375 or 350 to evenly bake the entirety of the cookie.

What is the secret to baking soft cookies? ›

How to Make Soft Cookies
  1. Cream your butter and sugar well.
  2. Choose a low-protein flour.
  3. Don't overmix your dough.
  4. Chill your dough.
  5. Use a higher ratio of white to brown sugar.
  6. Don't chill your dough.
  7. Smash your dough and bang the pan.
Feb 19, 2021

What ingredient helps cookies stay soft? ›

For soft cookies, use: Brown sugar, as it has a high moisture content and retains moisture better than white sugar. Also, when combined with eggs, brown sugar can prevent spreading (taller cookies tend to be softer and fluffier). Shortening instead of butter or in addition to butter.

Is it better to bake cookies at 350 or 375? ›

We've found that the optimal temperature for cookie baking is 350F. It gives the butter in the dough time to melt and lightly spread before the remaining ingredients cook through. When your oven is too hot, it rushes this process, resulting in a puffy, dry and potentially burnt batch.

What percentage of cocoa is best for chocolate chip cookies? ›

Michelle Lopez of Hummingbird High recommended using a dark chocolate bar with a cacao percentage between 60% and 75%. “Baking bars don't use any stabilizers, and tend to have more cocoa butter instead of solids, making them more velvety and melty during the baking process,” she said.

What is the best oven setting for chocolate chip cookies? ›

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the cookies in the pan, evenly spaced. ...
  3. If using a ChefAlarm, insert the probe into one of the cookie balls and set its high-temp alarm for 180°F (82°C).
  4. Bake the cookies for until the alarm sounds, about 22 minutes.

What is the best sugar for cookies? ›

In that role, white sugar aerates the dough when creamed with butter for thick and puffy cookies. Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more.

Does sifting flour make a difference in cookies? ›

But is sifting flour necessary? That depends. Sifting flour is recommended for some desserts where the goal is light, delicate, and fluffy results (think angel food cakes, sponge cakes, and chiffon cakes). However, sifting flour isn't a must for desserts that are chewy or crisp, like cookies.

What is the best butter for cookies? ›

The best butter for your baked goods depends on what type of recipe you're whipping up. Unsalted, American-style butter works well in goods like cookies, pound cakes and pancakes that require the high-fat content of conventional butter and more flexibility with salt and flavor content.

Which oven setting is best for baking cookies? ›

Convection bake is best used for recipes that could benefit from the even heat distribution of hot air circulated throughout the oven via the fan and exhaust system. This heating method makes convection baking particularly useful for baking multiple batches of cookies or dishes on multiple racks.

Should I bake cookies on the top or bottom rack? ›

Which oven rack position should you use when baking cookies? Cookies should be baked on the center oven rack for even heating and air circulation. As a best practice, is it recommended to rotate the cookie sheet or sheets roughly halfway, or shortly thereafter, through the baking time, if needed.

What cookie ingredient will rise and be softer? ›

Creaming softened butter and sugar together incorporates air into the dough, helping cookies rise, puff up, and become lighter as they bake.

What is the trick to keep baked goods like cookies soft? ›

If you bake too many cookies (as if there is such a thing!) and are concerned about them going stale, just add a slice of white bread to the storage container to keep them from hardening.

What causes cookies to be too soft? ›

The butter or dough was too warm.

If the dough seems too soft, chill it for 10 to 15 minutes before baking. Use shortening instead of butter or a combination of the two if you don't want to sacrifice that buttery flavor.

How do companies keep their cookies soft? ›

How can manufacturers maintain or improve the texture of soft cookies without significantly impacting water activity? Sweeteners like molasses, maltose, glucose, fructose and maple syrup are commonly used to soften cookies.

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