The BEST Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

My chocolate chunk cookies are absolutely the best chewy chocolate chip cookies you will ever have! Crispy edges and deliciously soft chewy middles make these to die for. Plus, they are packed with plenty of chopped dark chocolate, making wonderfully chocolatey gooey cookies everyone will love! Top with a final sprinkle of sea salt for a wonderful contrasting flavour!

What is the difference between cookies and biscuits?

Cookies are generally made from a dough that is much softer than biscuit dough. It means you cannot roll or stamp it out in the same way you can with biscuits. When baked, cookies tend to be softer and chunkier than biscuits, often with a bit of chewiness too. The result is that you can almost “bend” your cookies. Biscuits on the other hand will bake much firmer and will have a more fragile texture to them meaning they can snap or be broken and do not bend. Biscuits tend to be used more often when a filling is required, or if decorating with icing art. However, cookies can be “stuffed” resulting in the filling being baked within the cookie itself.

Having said all this, I am well aware the word “biscuits” are used in parts of the world to also mean a tender baked dough not dissimilar to what we in the UK call “scones”. They are both made in a very similar way, but served differently.

Ah the joys of the English language!

What ingredients do I need to make these chocolate chunk cookies?

• Unsalted butter: I like to use unsalted butter so I can control how much salt is in the bake. For best results, use butter at room temperature
• Brown sugar: for sweetness, but also chewiness, in these simple chocolate chip cookies.
• Caster sugar: for sweetness, and a little crisp, in the cookies.
• Vanilla: for delicious flavour in the best chocolate chip cookies ever!
• Egg: helps with the binding and structure of the cookies.
• Flour: I use plain/all purpose flour to make these soft baked cookies. I prefer adding raising agents separately, as I do with salt, so I can control the rise of each of my bakes.
• Cornflour/cornstarch: gives the cookies that beautiful soft tenderness in texture we all love!
• Baking powder: the leavening agent in this bake, to give the soft chewy chocolate chip cookies enough lightness so they bake into chewy delights!
• Salt: enhances the flavours in the cookie. You won’t taste it, I promise! I like to add a sprinkling of sea salt onto my finished chocolate chunk cookies too. This gives a wonderful extra flavour profile to the cookies!
• Chocolate: I use dark chocolate, chopped into large chunks in this recipe. This gives me wonderful melty puddles of chocolate in my cookie!

What equipment do I need to make cookies?

• Baking tray*: to bake the chewy chocolate chip cookies on. I would recommend at least couple of baking trays so you can bake multiple trays of cookies at a time.
• Digital kitchen scales*: I always recommend using digital kitchen scales to weigh ingredients out over using a volume based measuring system, as cups. Weighing out the ingredients is much more accurate than measuring by volume, and will ensure better results in the cookies, so I would definitely take the plunge if you have not already. 
• Measuring spoons*: for measuring smaller quantities such as tablespoons (tbsp) and teaspoons (tsp), a set of dedicated measuring spoons is a must! These are far more accurate than everyday eating spoons, and are really easy to get hold of too.
• Mixing bowl*: to mix all the ingredients together to make the chewy chocolate chunk cookies
• Handheld electric mixer*: investing in a good electric mixer is a brilliant help with all baking, and will make baking these chewy chocolate chip cookies a total breeze!
• Sieve*: to remove lumps from the dry ingredients, ensuring everything gets mixed together evenly.
• Spatula*: to help with mixing ingredients and scraping the mixing bowl down.
• Ice cream scoop*: helps to portion out the cookie dough evenly into cookies so they bake up evenly in the oven. My scoop holds about 2 tbsp or 50g of cookie dough, so measuring using either of these methods would work too!

How to make my homemade chocolate chunk cookies

Cookies are one of my favourite bakes, because they come together so quickly and easily! The hardest part is waiting: for them to chill before baking and to firm up after. If you can be patient, cookie making will be effortless!

Step 1: Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set it aside.

Step 2: In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until smooth and paler. Add in vanilla and egg and mix through. Sift in the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt. Mix until you have a thick cookie dough. Tip in most of the chocolate chunks, reserving a generous handful for the top of the cookies.

Step 3: Divide the mixture into about a dozen cookie dough balls. Place them on the baking tray and press a couple of extra chocolate chunks into each cookie ball. Chill for at least an hour.

Step 4: When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a second baking tray with parchment paper. Place the cookie balls about two inches apart on the two trays. Pop the trays in the hot oven and bake for 9-10 minutes or until little cracks appear right to the middle of the cookies.

Step 5: Whilst the cookies bake, prepare a large round tool such as a cookie cutter, mug or small bowl. As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, quickly use the cookie cutter to encircle each cookie. Move it in a circle around the cookie to reshape it so the cookies are perfectly round.

Step 6: Push a few additional chocolate chunks on each cookie then leave to cool on the tray. The heat from the cookies will melt the chocolate, leaving irresistible pools of melted chocolate on the cookies! Sprinkle with additional sea salt if desired. Enjoy!

Cookies FAQ

There are several factors that can affect your homemade chocolate chip cookies and how they turn out. Whilst I will try to answer as many questions as I can, I’m bound to miss some, so please ask away in the comments below!

Why should I use cornflour (cornstarch) in my cookies?

Cornflour, or cornstarch, gives the cookies a soft and tender consistency that just flour alone doesn’t achieve. It also helps keep the cookies chunky when baked. You can swap it out for the same amount of flour if you wish, but you will love the result of it in the cookies so I would definitely recommend including it!

How do I make my chocolate chunk cookies chewy?

I have found I prefer a mix of white and brown sugar in my cookies. The white sugar adds to the crispy outside of the cookies. However, it is the brown sugar that is key for a wonderfully chewy cookie. The reason for this is the molasses in brown sugar. Molasses helps retain more moisture in the cookies, making them thicker, softer and deliciously chewier!

Can I use oil instead of butter in my cookies?

Oil and butter are unfortunately not interchangeable particularly in my cookie recipes. This is because oil has a lower melting temperature to butter. The result is they will spread more when baking, even after chilling, so it just is not possible to get the same final results.

What if my cookie dough is too soft?

If your cookie dough feels too soft, chill your dough for 10-15 minutes before separating into balls. Please keep in mind if you did not use block butter when making the cookies, they will remain soft and not firm up. I always use block butter, not oil or the kind that is spreadable from a tub, in my cookies. Using butter should result in the cookies really firming up, especially if chilled or frozen, and holding their shape beautifully when baked.

How do I know if my sea salt chocolate chip cookies are done?

You know the chocolate chunk cookies are done if their edges are slightly darker and the little cracks on top have found their way to the middle of the cookie. Remove them from the oven, but keep them on the baking tray! They will continue to bake in the residual heat from within the cookie and the baking tray. Leaving them on the tray to cool and firm up is super important for beautiful chewy cookies.

Why are my cookies cakey?

There are several reasons why these soft chocolate chip cookies might have turned out cakey. The most likely is that there was too much leavening agent or egg in the cookie mixture. Egg can act as a leavening agent and give cookies more rise than desired, making them cakey.

Why are my cookies crumbly?

Again, there are many reasons cookies turning out crumbly, but there are two highly likely culprits. It could be that they were baked too long, and so have dried out. Or alternatively, it might be that too much flour was used when making the cookie dough, hence leading to drier cookies.

How long will these easy chocolate chip cookies keep? And how should I store them?

These soft baked cookies never last long when I make them! Having said that, they are at their best if devoured within 3-4 days from baking, and kept in an airtight container.

Can I freeze these soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies?

Yes! You can freeze them both unbaked and baked. Keep reading for how to freeze both unbaked and baked cookies.

For unbaked cookies, freeze the cookie dough in individual cookie balls for a couple of hours until really firm. Once frozen, transfer them into a lidded container suitable for the freezer. These dough balls will keep for two months in the freezer. 

For baked cookies, make sure they are fully cool, then wrap individually tightly in cling film and place in a lidded container before freezing.

How do I thaw my cookies?

If you froze the cookies as unbaked cookie dough, simply remove the frozen cookies and place them on a lined baking tray. Remember to leave about 2 inches between each cookie ball for them to spread as they bake. Pop them in a preheated oven straight from frozen, and bake. It really is that simple! Just remember to add a couple of minutes extra to the baking time since they are being baked from frozen.

If you baked the cookies before freezing, you can just defrost them fully at room temperature and enjoy. However, if you want to get the crunchy edges and soft middle back, you might need to reheat them. Simply pop them on a cookie sheet (no need to spread out too much, since they are just being heated up again) and reheat in the oven at 180C/350F for about 3-5 minutes. Then leave on a cooling rack for a few minutes before enjoying.

Additional tips for making this soft chewy chocolate chip cookies recipe

• Take time to read through the recipe so you are familiar with what steps come next. Do not skip details, ingredients and instructions given as it could affect the results of your final bake.
• This chocolate chip cookie recipe can certainly be made by hand too, if you do not have an electric mixer. Just make sure the butter is nice and soft and cream it together with the sugars as best you can.
• I love using chopped chocolate in these cookies rather than chocolate chips. The chopped chocolate, especially dark chocolate, melts so easily and is silky and glossy. It balances out the sweetness of the cookie so well so the cookies feel decadent but not overly sweet.
• The addition of extra sea salt on top of these homemade chocolate chip cookies elevates them from really good cookies to being out-of-this-world, OMG I need to eat another cookie RIGHT NOW! Try it, you will certainly not regret it!
• To make these into giant cookies, increase the amount of dough used in each cookie. You can easily double the amount of cookie dough, and make just six cookies if you wish. Just remember to adjust the baking time accordingly, as larger cookies will require longer to bake through.

Troubleshooting

If you have any other questions about this recipe, please leave me a comment below, I will do my best to help you. And if you do make this recipe for chocolate chip cookies from scratch, please do leave me a rating and review below. I would so appreciate your feedback and it is incredibly helpful for others looking for a recipe too. Additionally, you could also post a picture on Instagram and tag me when you share it with the world. Please do, you know I would love to see it!

More chocolate recipes for you to enjoy

Please do check out these other unmissable recipes on my blog:

Brownie cookies aka brookies: If you have ever been stuck choosing between cookies and brownies, fear not! You can make both in one delicious bake: these brownie cookies! These yummy double chocolate brownie cookies bring the best of both worlds together in a wonderfully fudgy, chewy creation. A perfect mix of half brownie half cookie!

Raspberry ruby chocolate cookies: These delicious and deeply chocolatey cookies are packed with ruby and white chocolate chips and freeze dried raspberries for pops of yummy flavour. Perfect for a fruity chocolatey cookie fix!

Chocolate raspberry cupcakes: These are delicious light and fluffy chocolate cupcakes topped with a tangy and sweet fresh raspberry buttercream. Each cupcake is crowned with chocolate curls and a raspberry to finish. Perfection!

Thanks for joining me today, my friends. Enjoy these gorgeous chocolate chunk cookies and happy baking! x

Recommended equipment I used *

Baking tray	Digital kitchen scales
Measuring spoons	Mixing bowl
Handheld electric mixer	Sieve
Spatula	Ice cream scoop