Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Nothing beats a classic, right? Pillow soft brown sugar cookie dough is loaded with chocolate chips and chocolate chunk pieces for an irresistible chocolate chip cookie. Theses cookie are baked to golden perfection with crisp edges and stay melt in your mouth soft for days after baking.
Looking for stuffed chocolate chip cookies? Check out my recipes for Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookies and Nutella Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies !
There are so many cookies to love in this beautiful world and none other are so popular here in the states than the classic chocolate chip cookie. What’s not to love? Brown sugar buttery cookie dough is filled with melty morsels of chocolate and baked until golden perfection. And let’s not forget the crisp edges and chewy bites of dough that keep us hooked on taking just ‘one more bite.’ There is no wonder these cookies are loved by the masses and a big reason why many people are passionately opinionated about what makes the perfect chocolate chip cookie. There are several schools of thought on what a chocolate cookie needs to be and more recipes than you can imagine for any style of chocolate chip cookie you could ever desire. But, all of these recipes have a simple theme, baking science and the magic of taking simple ingredients, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and chocolate, and creating something beautiful. And addictively delicious. Whether you prefer crisp, chewy, pudgy, cakey, or extra chocolatey, one thing we can all agree on: it’s a classic combo that we always want more of.
I am sharing with you my take and techniques on a classic pudding chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is a very simple recipe to follow and is basically fool proof if you want to make thick, soft, chocolate chip cookies.
Why I Love This Cookie
-Soft- the addition of vanilla pudding mix keeps these chocolate chip cookies soft for DAYS. This is one of my favorite cookie recipes to make during the holidays since they have a fresh baked softness up to a week after baking.
-Chocolate Ratio-I am a big fan of tasting cookie and chocolate in my chocolate chip cookies. I think this recipe has the perfect ratio of cookie dough and chocolate chips. Of course if you like a more chocolate heavy recipe, you can increase the chocolate chips up to a cup extra.
-Thick-Oh how I love a thick cookie! These cookies not only stay soft, they stay tall and doughy. When they bake, they will puff up slightly then settle and create the cutest ripples on the outside of the cookie.
-Quick-This recipe requires no chill time. You can scoop these straight onto a baking sheet and bake right after mixing. If you have time and want to chill for 30 minutes to allow the dough to relax and the flavors to develop you may, but it is not a necessary step in this recipe. These will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
-Staying Fresh-These cookies stay fresh for up to a week in a covered container. The crisp edges will soften, thanks humidity, but the cookie and the chocolate chips will be soft and delicious just like the day they were baked.
-Easily doubled. Or tripled. Or quadrupled-Like I mentioned, I bake a lot during the holidays and I love giving out goodie boxes filled with all types of cookies. This has always been a tradition of mine and these chocolate chip cookies are a favorite. You can easily scale this recipe up for your baking needs. This cookie dough also freezes well, up to 6 months in a plastic sealed bag.
-Versatile-there are so many additions you can make to this recipe, it is a great beginner-friendly chocolate chip cookie recipe if you are just starting out with fun flavors. I have added these following ingredients as a one cup substitute for one of the cups of chocolate chips, but you can adjust as needed:
-M&M candies, regular or minis
-Oreos, chopped
-Peanut butter cups, minis
-Snickers, chopped
-white and dark chocolate chips
-sprinkles
-butterscotch chips
Ingredients You Need
The ingredients for this cookie are pretty straight forward, most of these you will probably have on hand in your kitchen.
-Butter
-Granulated & Brown sugar-I have less granulated sugar than brown sugar because I don’t want my cookies to spread or be too crispy. The brown sugar keeps the cookie soft. Also, the sugar in the pudding mix adds to the sweetness of the cookie so not much granulated sugar is needed.
-Eggs and egg yolk- the egg yolk is not absolutely necessary, I have made this recipe without it and achieved great results. I do feel the extra egg yolk gives the dough a richer flavor and softer texture to the cookie, so I like to add it in.
-Salt
-Vanilla extract- I go a little heavy on the vanilla in this recipe because I like the warmth it gives the cookie dough. You can reduce the vanilla by a teaspoon if you don’t want too much vanilla.
-Vanilla pudding mix- I use a small box of vanilla pudding in this recipe. It will give your cookies a nice vanilla flavor while also keeping them soft from the cornstarch in the mix. If you want to avoid pudding mix you can substitute for 3 tablespoons of cornstarch.
-Flour
-Baking Soda
-Chocolate Chips-When I am making chocolate chips cookies, I like to use the highest quality of chocolate I can afford at the time. Good quality chocolate can make a good cookie into a great cookie. Higher quality chocolate also melts better, giving you the yummy pools of melted chocolate in the center. In this recipe I used Godiva semisweet chocolate chips and also a small bag of chocolate chunk pieces to add variety to the cookie.
Let’s Make Some Cookies!
I am not creating anything new here, I’ll be honest with you. I first made pudding cookies many years ago when I first discovered Pinterest and its plethora of amazing blog recipes. I wish I could credit who I first got the recipe from but now you can type in ‘pudding cookies’ and get literally hundreds of results. Adding pudding mix to cookies is a fool-proof way to make delicious soft cookies and has been a secret ingredient of many bakers throughout the years. What I will share with you is how I make my version of a popular cookie and why I make them a little different now than when I first started.
I start with room temperature butter and both types of sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. I cream these together on medium high until it is light and creamy.
Next up, adding in the eggs and additional egg yolk. I will scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times to make sure it is mixing in evenly. I beat the eggs, butter and sugar mixture on medium high for 5 miuntes or until the mixture is light and fluffy. This will help the cookies stay thick after baking since the dough has air whipped into it.
I add in the vanilla extract then get my dry ingredients sifted. With the mixer on low, add the flour and mix until just combined. Over mixing will flatten out all of the air we just mixed and make your cookies tough.
I opted for a mix of chocolate chunks and semisweet chocolate chips to add to the dough. Mix on low for a few turns then remove bowl and paddle to mix by hand. I focus on the bottom of the bowl, folding the dough up and over on itself to make sure the chocolate is mixed well in the dough.
I turn on my oven before I start scooping the dough so that the oven is ready to go by the time I’m done. I don’t want to leave my oven on for longer than it needs to during this Texas heat wave!
Here is the part where I had a little cookie fun. This dough bakes up beautifully at any size. I used a 4, 3, and 1-ounce cookie scoop for a variety of sizes of cookies. All these sizes bake at the same temperature, 375*F, and below are their corresponding bake times:
-1-ounce cookies-bake for 7-9 minutes, place 9-12 cookies per baking sheet.
-3-ounce cookies-bake 9-12 minutes, place 6-8 cookies per baking sheet.
-4-ounce cookies-bake 12-15 minutes, place 4-6 cookies per baking sheet.
You can scoop these cookies directly onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake them directly after making them, no chilling required. You can store the unbaked dough for up to 3 days in the fridge or up to 6 months in a sealed container in the freezer. I love freezing cookie dough so I can bake up a fresh batch of cookies when friends and family visit, or when I need a warm cookie treat.
These cookies will dome slightly while baking and you will know they are ready when the edges start to turn a golden brown. They may look slightly pale when you take them out of the oven, but they will set up and bake from the residual heat coming off the cookie sheet. This is the reason why I leave these cookies to set up on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
While the cookies are cooling, I will put a few chocolate chips on top for deco to give them a classic chocolate chip cookie, fresh form the bakery-type of look. Plus, the residual heat from the cookies as they cool will melt these chips to the perfect gooey chocolate consistency. So delicious.
You can eat these cookies warm, room temperature, or cold, they are good any way you like. The pudding keeps them soft and pudgy, and the chocolate chips stay soft as well. These are great for storing in a cookie jar since they stay soft and fresh for so long. The crispness of the edges is not long-lived however, the humidity in the air will soften the edges to a nice soft dough consistency after a day. There really isn’t any way to fight this other than baking fresh or re-toasting your cookies.
If you would like to crisp up the edges my best advice is to heat in an air fryer for a couple of minutes (start with 2 minutes and work your way up) or in a very hot oven for a few minutes. I will reheat cookies at 375*-400*F for 3-5 minutes. But let’s be honest, use an air fryer or toaster oven if you have one. No one wants to heat their house in the middle of July for one cookie.
I don’t recommend heating cookies in the microwave if you want crisp edges on the cookie, it won’t happen in the microwave. But, if you want an ooey gooey soft cookie that is warm and perfectly pairs with some ice cream, then microwave on high for 5-10 seconds or until the chocolate chips start to melt. So yummy!
If you try this recipe and love it as much as I do, please tag, follow, and like @sunshinetxcookies on Instagram and Facebook. New posts every Tuesday and Thursday so be sure to follow me for more delicious cookie recipes. Happy Baking!
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter unsalted, room temperature
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 pckg vanilla pudding mix 3.40 ounce box
- 2 tspn vanilla extract
- ½ tspn salt
- 1 tspn baking soda
- 2½ cups flour
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips I used one cup of chocolate chunks and one cup of chips.
Instructions
- In a mixer, add room temperature butter and both sugars. Mix on medium high until creamy.
- Scrape down sides of bowl then add in eggs and egg yolk.
- Mix on medium high for 5 minutes or until the mixture is light and creamy.
- Add vanilla extract and salt, mix to combine.
- Sift flour and baking soda in a bowl, then add to the mixer on low speed along with the package of vanilla pudding. Mix until the dough just comes together.
- Add in chocolate chips and mix for a few turns until combined. Do not overmix.
- Remove bowl from mixer and remove the paddle attachment. Mix the dough with a spatula to make sure the bottom is mixed well and the chocolate chips are distributed evenly.
- Preheat oven to 375*F.
- Using a 3 ounce cookie scoop, portion 9 scoops of dough per baking sheet. These cookies will spread slightly during baking so make sure to leave a 2 inch space between the dough.
- Bake one batch at a time for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cool cookies on pan for 5-10 minutes. You can place additional chocolate chips on top of the cookies as they cool for a picture perfect cookie.
- Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!
