These cookies are not your average treat. Theyโre thick, chewy, and absolutely loaded with gooey chocolate chips in every bite. With this recipe, you can achieve that perfect, professional bakery-quality cookie right in your own kitchen. Plus, they are so easy to make it means you can whip these up anytime the craving strikes.
Treat yourself to a different kind of cookie with chocolate chip shortbread cookies.
Why Our Recipe
- Extra-large cookies packed with chocolate chips for bakery-quality results at home.
- Uses a mix of all-purpose and cake flour for the perfect chewy texture.
- Quick and easy method for making impressively thick, soft cookies every time.
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies are all the rage. These giant, soft, thick, warm cookies are easy to make. The duo of flours gives the cookies their irresistible chewy texture and soft interior. Why pay $4+ per cookie when you can bake them fresh at home in less than 20 minutes!
Ingredient Notes
- Butter:ย Unsalted butter is preferred, but salted butter works tooโjust reduce the added salt by 1/4 teaspoon. Make sure itโs softened to room temperature for easy creaming.
- Brown Sugar:ย Light or dark brown sugar will work. Dark brown sugar adds a richer, caramel-like flavor and creates extra chewiness.
- Granulated Sugar:ย Balances the sweetness and helps the cookies achieve lightly crisp edges.
- Vanilla Extract:ย Pure vanilla extract provides the best flavor, but imitation works if thatโs what you have on hand.
- Cake Flour and All-Purpose Flour:ย The combination of these two flours gives the cookies their signature texture. Cake flour creates softness, while all-purpose flour provides structure. If you donโt have cake flour, replace it with an equal amount of all-purpose flour. The cookies will still be delicious, just not quite as tender.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda:ย These leavening agents ensure the cookies rise and puff beautifully. Be sure theyโre fresh and not expired for the best results.
- Salt:ย Enhances the flavors and balances the sweetness.
Milk or Semi-Sweet
Using milk chocolate chips versus semi-sweet chocolate chips is a matter of personal preference. Either will work in this recipe, or you can use a combination of both. If you like your cookies on the chocolate-y sideโฆuse 4 cups of chocolate chips in this recipe. If you like a ratio of more cookie to chip, then use only 3 cups.
Why Cake Flour?
Cake flour is the secret to getting that soft texture in bakery-style cookies. It has less protein than all-purpose flour, which means it makes less gluten. Less gluten equals lighter, fluffier cookies. We balance it with all-purpose flour to give the cookies enough structure so they donโt spread out too much.
No cake flour? No problem! You can swap it with the same amount of all-purpose flour. The cookies might be a bit less tender, but theyโll still be amazing.
Dark Brown Sugar vs. Light
The big difference between dark and light brown sugar is the molasses. Dark brown sugar has more of it, which means a richer, almost caramel-like flavor and a slightly chewier texture. Plus, the extra moisture helps keep your cookies soft for days. Donโt worry, light brown sugar works too if thatโs what you have on hand!
The Science of High Heat
We bake these cookies at 400ยฐFโhotter than your typical cookie recipeโand it makes all the difference! The high heat melts the butter fast, so the cookies spread just enough while the edges set quickly. This gives you that golden, crisp edge and soft, gooey center we all love.
Extra Thick Cookies
If you want these cookies to be extra thick and tall, shape the dough into balls and then refrigerate or freeze. This will help slow the spreading that occurs when baking. Baking the dough straight from the freezer will produce the tallest cookie.
Smaller Cookies
This recipe makes about 12 giant cookies (5โ6 ounces each), which is perfect for that bakery-style wow factor. Use a kitchen scale to weigh out each dough ball if you want them to be perfectly uniform.
Prefer smaller cookies? Divide the dough into 24 portions, around 2 ounces each, or grab a 2-ounce cookie scoop. Bake the smaller cookies at 400ยฐF for about 8 minutes.
Reheat Cookies
Warm gooey cookies are a must for many people. If you do not eat all these cookies in your first sitting while they are still warming no worries. You can put these cookies in the microwave for 15-second intervals until it is the desired warmness.
Storage & Freezing Instructions
Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Freeze baked cookies by placing them in a single layer on a baking sheet to freeze initially, then transfer them to a resealable freezer bag or airtight container for up to 3 months. This prevents them from sticking together. To enjoy, thaw at room temperature, or warm them in the microwave for 10โ15 seconds.
Freeze cookie dough in pre-portioned balls. After shaping the dough into balls, place them on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Then transfer the frozen dough balls to a freezer-safe bag or container for up to 3 months.
To bake from frozen, transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 400ยฐF (200ยฐC). Add 1-2 extra minutes to the baking time, and enjoy fresh, warm cookies on demand!
Store any leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
More delicious cookie recipes…
Watch the video belowย where Rachel will walk you through every step of this recipe. Sometimes it helps to have a visual, and weโve always got you covered with our cooking show. You can find the complete collection of recipes onย YouTube,ย ourย Facebook Page, or right here on our website with their corresponding recipes.
These are amazing! They have nice crisp edges but the middle stays soft even when they cool completely. I put in a less chocolate chips (only 2 cups) because I like more cookie to chocolate.
These are best CCC I’ve ever made ! They are light , fluff, full of flavor. I opt to make 31/2 ” cookies which came out to 27 cookies. My husband love this size over larger ones, says it’s just enough for his sweet tooth! I know I will be making them again. Next test is my daughter who is a baker and makes excellant cookies also.
These cookies are the BEST! I have made them for years and everyone LOVES them. I make the batter, use my scoop, freeze them and store them in a ziplock bag. That way I can make a small amount whenever we want fresh cookies. It makes it easy to make a batch in a short amount of time.
Love these cookies! Made them exactly the same as the recipe the first time and they came out perfect! Subsequent batches yielded a more sticky batter (despite bring refrigerated for an hour) and they ran. Any thoughts? Thank you!
Oh MY GOSH! People always say it but I have never ever left a review but this deserve one. I wanted a bakery cookie and wasnโt expecting to much from the google search. Stumbled upon these and I wonโt ever bake another chocolate chip cookie. I made mine only 3oz cookies and they were perfect at 14min. Thank you so much for sharing!
Rachel, these are the best chocolate chip cookies Iโve ever had in my life. So fudgy, but light, chewy, and I must say the texture is amazing. I really like the combination of AP and cake flour, very smart idea. Btw I dusted the chocolate chips with a heaping tablespoon of flour to avoid over mixing a bit and to make sure they can get distributed a bit easier without sinking to the bottom.
I just made these. 8 large cookies. Made two separate pans because not enough room for two pans at same time. They would have been perfect at 17 minutes IF I had flipped the pan front to back!! My bad. It’s quite a bit hotter in the back of my oven at 400! Still yummy and pretty, just very back edges scorched a wee bit on first batch.
For your own planning purposes….
–I live at 3100 ft.
–My oven runs accurate on temp
–I made them straight from room temp dough, no fridge or freezer.
GREAT recipe! Thank you so much.
I love a big bakery cookie, so I figured I would give these a try. OMG! I had assumed it would be one time for fun for the family – Nope! Definitely making them again, and next time for guests. These are SO good!
These cookies are AMAZING!! Perfect taste and texture. I add one bag of semi sweet chocolate chips and one bag of white Chocolate chips and they are So Good!