Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Name: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 27 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: British, American
Ingredients: 225 g Unsalted Butter; 200 g Light Brown Sugar; 100 g Caster Sugar; 2 Medium Eggs, at room temperature; 1 Egg Yolk, (the extra yolk adds richness and chewiness); 2 tsp Vanilla Extract; 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda; 1 tsp Fine Salt; 200 g Chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks (use a mix of dark 70% and milk chocolate for the best result - a bar chopped with a knife gives better pools than chips); Flaky Sea Salt (Maldon or similar), to sprinkle; A few extra chocolate chunks, to press on top before baking (optional - gives a bakery-style appearance)

These chocolate chip cookies are the bakery-style kind that ruin you for anything less - thick, generously sized, with crisp golden edges, a soft and gooey centre that stays chewy for days, and generous pockets of melted chocolate in every bite. They're the kind of cookies that stop people mid-conversation when they walk into the kitchen, and they're considerably easier to make at home than you might expect.

The secret to a proper bakery-style cookie lies in three things: brown butter for depth of flavour, a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar for chewiness and caramel notes, and chilling the dough before baking to control spread and develop a more complex flavour. The dough benefits enormously from an overnight rest in the fridge - the cookies bake thicker, chewier, and with a more developed, almost toffee-like flavour that's noticeably better than same-day baked cookies.

This recipe makes 12 generously sized bakery-style cookies. Use a combination of dark and milk chocolate chunks rather than chips for the most dramatic melted chocolate pockets - chocolate bars chopped roughly give irregular pieces that melt into glossy pools rather than the neat, intact chips you get from a bag. All ingredients are available at any UK supermarket.

Ingredients

For the cookies

225 g Unsalted Butter
200 g Light Brown Sugar
100 g Caster Sugar
2 Medium Eggs , at room temperature
1 Egg Yolk , (the extra yolk adds richness and chewiness)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp Fine Salt
200 g Chocolate , roughly chopped into chunks (use a mix of dark 70% and milk chocolate for the best result - a bar chopped with a knife gives better pools than chips)

For finishing

Flaky Sea Salt (Maldon or similar) , to sprinkle
A few extra chocolate chunks , to press on top before baking (optional - gives a bakery-style appearance) (optional)

Method

Brown the butter. Place the butter in a light-coloured saucepan over a medium heat. Melt, then continue cooking, swirling occasionally, for 4–6 mins until the butter turns golden brown and smells nutty and caramelised - you'll see brown specks forming at the bottom of the pan. Pour immediately into a large mixing bowl, scraping out all the brown bits. Leave to cool for 10–15 mins.

Tip: Browning the butter is the single most impactful upgrade to a chocolate chip cookie. The Maillard reaction creates hundreds of new flavour compounds that give the cookies a deep, nutty, almost toffee-like flavour. Don't skip it - and use a light-coloured pan so you can see the colour change clearly.
Add both sugars to the browned butter and whisk vigorously for 2 mins until the mixture is smooth and well combined. Add the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and whisk for a further 2 mins until the mixture is thick, pale, and slightly ribbony.

Tip: Whisking the eggs and sugar together thoroughly at this stage dissolves the sugar and incorporates air, which contributes to the slightly crisp exterior of the finished cookie while keeping the centre soft and chewy.
Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and salt. Fold gently with a spatula until just combined - stop as soon as no dry flour remains. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
Cover the bowl tightly with cling film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour - overnight gives significantly better results. The chilled dough is easier to portion and produces thicker, chewier cookies with a more developed flavour.

Tip: If you can wait 24–48 hours, do. The longer the dough rests in the fridge, the more the flavour develops and the better the cookies bake. Refrigerated dough also spreads less during baking, giving you a thicker, more bakery-style result.
When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 170°C fan / 190°C conventional / Gas Mark 5. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, portion the dough into 12 balls of roughly equal size (approximately 80g each - these are generously sized bakery-style cookies). Place on the lined trays with at least 6cm between each cookie - they spread during baking. Press a few extra chocolate chunks on top of each ball if using.
Bake for 11–13 mins until the edges are set and golden but the centres still look slightly underdone and glossy - they will continue cooking on the hot tray as they cool. Do not overbake - the cookies firm up significantly as they cool and an underdone-looking centre produces the perfect chewy texture once set.

Tip: The moment to pull them from the oven is when the edges are set and lightly golden but the centres look almost raw and are still puffed and glossy. They will look dramatically underbaked. Trust the process - this is exactly right. Overbaking produces a crunchy cookie rather than a Millie's-style chewy one.
Sprinkle immediately with flaky sea salt while the chocolate is still molten. Leave to cool on the tray for at least 10–15 mins before moving - they are too soft to transfer immediately and will hold their shape as they cool.

Air Fryer Method

Preheat the air fryer to 160°C for 3–5 mins. Cut a piece of baking paper to fit the basket.
Place 2–3 chilled cookie dough balls on the baking paper with plenty of space between them - they spread during baking. Cook in batches.
Cook for 9–11 mins until the edges are set and golden but the centres still look slightly underdone and glossy. They will continue cooking on the hot paper as they cool.

Tip: The air fryer bakes cookies slightly faster than the oven due to the intense circulating heat - start checking at 9 mins. The cookies should look almost identical to the oven version: golden edges, glossy, slightly puffed centres. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt immediately after removing.

Alternatives & Variations

Reduce the total sugar to 250g (keeping the same brown-to-white ratio) - the cookies will be less sweet but still deeply flavourful and chewy; the brown butter and chocolate carry the flavour well at a lower sugar level
Use 70% dark chocolate only rather than a milk and dark mix - significantly reduces the sugar content of the chocolate component and adds antioxidants
Reduce the butter to 200g - cuts the fat and calories noticeably; the cookies will spread slightly more and be a little less rich, but still very good
Make smaller cookies (50g portions) - makes 16–18 cookies at a lower calorie count per piece

Swap the plain flour for a gluten free plain flour blend - Doves Farm works well at the same quantity. Add ½ tsp of xanthan gum if it isn't already in the blend. The cookies will be slightly more fragile when warm but set to a very similar texture once cooled. All other ingredients - butter, sugar, eggs, bicarbonate of soda, vanilla, and chocolate - are naturally gluten free. Check the chocolate packaging if you have a severe intolerance as some are made in facilities that handle wheat.

FAQs

Around 27 mins of active prep and baking, plus at least 1 hour of chilling - overnight gives the best results. If baking the same day, allow 1 hr 30 mins from start to finish. For overnight cookies, the active work is just 15–20 mins the night before.

Rated Easy. The brown butter step adds a few minutes and requires attention, and knowing when to pull the cookies from the oven takes a little confidence the first time - they look underdone but aren't. Everything else is straightforward mixing and baking.

The most common causes are butter that was too warm or melted when mixed (the brown butter should be cooled before adding the sugar), not chilling the dough before baking, or too little flour. Chilling the dough for at least 1 hour - and ideally overnight - is the most effective way to control spread and achieve a thick, bakery-style cookie.

Yes - this is one of the best doughs for freezing. Portion the dough into balls, freeze on a tray until solid, then transfer to a zip-lock bag for up to 3 months. Bake from frozen at 170°C fan for 14–16 mins - no defrosting needed. Having a bag of frozen cookie dough balls in the freezer is one of the finest things you can do for your household's morale.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. They actually improve on day two as the texture settles into the perfect chewy consistency. Adding a slice of bread to the container is an old baker's trick - the bread keeps the cookies soft by providing moisture, and goes stale in their place.

Browning the butter removes the water content and creates hundreds of new flavour compounds through the Maillard reaction - the same process that browns bread and caramelises onions. The result is a deep, nutty, almost toffee-like flavour that elevates a standard chocolate chip cookie into something genuinely exceptional. It takes 5 extra minutes and makes an outsized difference to the finished result.

Yes - the air fryer produces excellent cookies, particularly useful for baking 2–3 at a time rather than a full tray. Preheat to 160°C, place on baking paper with plenty of space between each cookie, and cook for 9–11 mins until the edges are set and the centres look slightly underdone. They continue cooking as they cool, just like the oven version. Bake in batches for the best results.