Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email below & we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus get great new recipes from us every week!
These thick, chewy chocolate chip cookies are just like the ones from your favorite cookie shop– rich, buttery, and packed with melty chocolate chips. This best chocolate chip cookies recipe creates bakery-style cookies that are thick on the outside, gooey on the inside, and have the perfect balance of sweetness and texture. Whether you’re making them for a special occasion, gifting them to a cookie lover, or just treating your sweet tooth, these homemade mega cookies are sure to impress!
I’ve always been obsessed with chewy cookies from gourmet cookie shops. The secret to bakery-style chocolate chip cookies lies in the ingredients, a unique flour blend, and cold butter. With this recipe, you can skip the cookie delivery and create the best cookies in your kitchen!
The Chemistry of Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Understanding the baking chemistry behind these cookies ensures they turn out thick, chewy, and bakery-style:
- Use Cold Butter– Cold butter prevents excessive spreading, keeping cookies thick and dense.
- All-Purpose Flour and Cake Flour– Cake flour adds a lighter, softer texture, mimicking famous bakery cookies.
- Gooey Center with Crispy Edges– The balance of brown sugar and white sugar creates the perfect chewy-to-crispy ratio.
- Thick Cookies– To achieve extra thick cookies, use cold butter and not over-mix the dough.
Ingredients for Mega Chocolate Chip Cookies
Unsalted Butter
It is always important to use unsalted butter when baking. If you use salted butter, you have no way of knowing how much salt you are adding to your dough or batter and it will result in an overly salted treat.
Butter adds fats to your dough or batter which helps with moistness, flavor and texture. Butter melts at body temperature, which creates a ‘melt in your mouth’ sensation.
When baking with butter, the temperature is important. If the butter is too warm, your treat will melt too fast and overspread in the oven, leaving you with a greasy, flat mess. If your butter is too cold, it will have the opposite problem and not melt down enough, leaving your treat too thick.
Brown Sugar
Is granulated sugar with a little molasses mixed in. Molasses is a somewhat smoky flavored natural sweetener, which makes brown sugar a bit sweeter than granulated sugar. Brown sugar draws more moisture into your treat, keeping it softer for longer. It’s also more acidic, which means it will help activate your baking soda.
Granulated Sugar
Adds sweetness, provides a caramelized flavor and crisp texture. Sugar assists with rising when creamed with butter. It helps add moisture to your treat and helps it evenly spread as it melts into a liquid in the heat of the oven. Sugar also helps with naturally preserving your baked treat.
Fine Sea Salt
Enhances flavor, adds balance, masks any bitter flavors. Salt is the most powerful and oldest preservative. Always make sure to use fine sea salt so it melts down at the right speed in the heat of the oven. If you use larger granule salt, it will not melt down fully when baked and will leave salt crystals throughout your treat, making it crunch like you dropped it into sand. All of my favorite salts are from Redmond and I have a discount code for you to get 15% off.
Baking Soda
Elevates the pH level of your batter or dough. It increases the spread in your treat and encourages browning, which gives the crispy outside and soft inside texture that everyone loves. Baking soda needs both an acid and a liquid to react. Things that will activate your baking soda are: vinegar, fruit juice, molasses, brown sugar, tartar, buttermilk and sour cream. Baking soda only reacts once, which is right when it’s mixed into your batter or dough. The soda creates little air bubbles all throughout your treat. When the air bubbles get heated up in the oven, they expand.
Baking Powder
Puffs up your batter or dough instead of spreading it out. Baking powder contains a little bit of baking soda, an acid & cornstarch. Because of this, it only needs a liquid to react. It also consists of two different acids, so it’s double reacting. It reacts as soon as it’s mixed with a moisture and then again when it’s heated up.
Eggs
Adds both a protein (egg whites) and fat (egg yolks). The egg whites help with rising because, when foamed, little air pockets get trapped inside the egg white mixture. The water content in egg whites encourages steam while baking, which helps with gluten formation, resulting in nice and thick treats. Egg yolks have emulsifying properties that bring batters and doughs together and help them from collapsing. Unless otherwise specified, always use large eggs.
All-purpose Flour
Builds structure as it absorbs liquids and expands. All-purpose flour falls in the middle of bread flour (high in gluten) and cake flour (low in gluten). It’s exactly what it is named, all-purpose, the most universal flour that can be used in most baked goods.
Cake Flour
Has a lower amount of protein and is very fine. It gives your treat a specific flavor and makes them very white or light in color. It’s made of soft wheat so it should not be used in place of all-purpose or bread flour. Only use when your recipe specifically calls for it.
Cornstarch
Helps create a crumbly tender texture to toppings. Softens cookies, brownies and cakes. And it can also thicken sauces and fillings.
Vanilla Extract
When using pure vanilla extract, as opposed to imitation flavoring, it will add the deep rich flavor that everybody wants in a treat.
Chocolate Chips
Is a form of chocolate. Chocolate chips are not pure chocolate, they are typically made up of cocoa, sugar, emulsifier and vanilla. Chips are good for baking because they do not melt completely in the oven like pure chocolate would. That way you get confined pockets of chocolate throughout your treat.
Step-by-Step Instructions for Mega Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prepare the dough. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Mix cold butter (cut into cubes), brown sugar, and granulated sugar until just combined in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. It’s okay if small butter cubes remain.
- Add wet ingredients. Fold in eggs and vanilla extract, mixing until just combined.
- Incorporate dry ingredients. Add sea salt, baking soda, baking powder, all-purpose flour, cake flour, and cornstarch. Mix on low speed until a thick cookie dough forms. If butter cubes are still visible, mix for 30 more seconds.
- Add chocolate chips. Fold in dark chocolate chips, ensuring even distribution.
- Shape and bake. Line two light-colored metal cookie sheets with parchment paper. Divide dough into 12 large cookie dough balls using a kitchen scale or by eyeballing. Place 6 cookie dough balls per sheet, leaving space between each.
- Bake 13 minutes.
- Cool and enjoy. Let cookies rest on the pan for 5-10 minutes before serving warm.
Recipe Troubleshooting
- Cookies Spreading Too Much– The dough may be too soft, or the butter may be too warm. Use cold butter and avoid over mixing.
- Cookies Turning Out Too Cakey– Too much flour or over-mixing can cause this. Stick to the flour blend and mix only until combined.
- Chocolate Chips Sinking– The dough might be too thin or warm. Ensure the butter remains cold and the dough is thick.
- Not Achieving a Crispy Edge with a Chewy Center– Adjust the brown sugar to white sugar ratio for the perfect balance.
- Cookies That Don’t Taste Like Bakery-Style Cookies– Use high-quality chocolate, chill the dough before baking, and avoid over-baking.
- Cookies are Too Flat and Spread Too Much– Use cold butter and ensure you measure ingredients correctly (kitchen scale is best).
- They Taste Bland, Not Like Bakery Cookies– Use high-quality vanilla extract and dark chocolate.
- The Edges are Too Hard, and the Inside Isn’t Chewy– Underbake slightly, allowing them to set on the pan.
- The Chocolate Chips Didn’t Stay Evenly Distributed– Fold them in gently to prevent clumping.
- They Turned Out Dry Instead of Soft– Avoid over-baking and use cake flour for softness.
Chilling Not Required
This recipe does not require chilling because it calls for cold butter chopped into cubes. While not required, chilling will always help enhance flavor and texture, so you can chill if you want to.
Chocolate Chips
The best type of chocolate for this recipe is dark chocolate chips or rich semi-sweet chocolate wafers because they contrast well with the sweet and slightly salty dough. If you prefer very sweet cookies, you can use milk chocolate chips.
Customize- This recipe is easy to customize, whether you prefer white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or classic dark chocolate. You can replace the chocolate chips with whatever flavor you like.
Serving Suggestions
- Summertime– Chocolate chip cookie s’mores and ice cream sandwich cookies.
- Winter Time– Chocolate chip cookies with a cup of drinking chocolate.
- Nostalgic– Paired with a glass of cold milk.
- Sundae– A warm mega cookie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with homemade caramel and chocolate sauce.
- Salty– Topped with sea salt to enhance the sweetness and chocolate richness.
- Gifting- Packaged as a gift, wrapped in parchment paper and twine.
Storage Tips
Room Temperature– Keep cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Freezing Cookie Dough– Shape dough balls and freeze them in a single layer before transferring them to a zip-top bag for up to 3 months. Try freezing the dough so you can have fresh-baked cookies anytime.
Reheating– Warm in a 350-degree F oven for 3 minutes or in a microwave for 10 seconds.
Recommended Products
Best Cookie Shop Recipe
The best cookie shops inspire these bakery-style chocolate chip cookies. If you love jumbo chocolate chunk cookies, try making these homemade mega cookies. They’re the best for a soft and chewy texture. These cookies are packed with decadent chocolate chips, have a buttery texture, and stay soft and gooey in the center. They are perfect for a special occasion, a midnight craving, or simply satisfying your sweet tooth.
The combination of cold butter, a blend of flours, and the proper sugar ratio creates an incredible balance of crisp edges and soft center. If you love NYT cookies or Levain Bakery copycat cookies, this recipe delivers a similar experience. Give them a try, and let me know how they turn out in the comments below!
Want to save this recipe?
Enter your email below & we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus get great new recipes from us every week!
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies – Just Like a Cookie Shop!
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter **cold and cut into cubes
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 bag dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, add 1 cup of cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Mix until combined. Its okay if the butter is still a bit in tiny cubes.
- Fold in 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients: 1 tsp fine sea salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup cake flour, and 1 tsp cornstarch. Mix on low speed until a dough forms.
- If you can still see cubes of butter, turn the mixer on medium speed and beat for 30 seconds to break them up into the dough. Do not go over 30 seconds, though, or else it will be over-mixed.
- Fold in the bag of dark chocolate chips.
- Line two light-colored metal cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Break the dough into 12 even pieces and roll into balls. You can eyeball and cut the dough or use a kitchen scale.
- Place 6 large cookie dough balls onto each sheet. Leaving a good amount of space between each.
- Place the cookies in the oven and bake for 13 minutes.
- Remove and allow the cookies to rest on the pan for 5-10 minutes to set.
- Remove and enjoy!
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
I’d love to see it! Follow @_mrs.madi_ on Instagram and tag your photos with #mrsmadi.
Gris
These look amazing. I’m trying them this weekend!
Madison Reid
They are so good! Give them a try, and let me know what you think 🙂