Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bakery style chocolate chip cookies are my favorite. They always come out chewy and thick, with the perfect balance between the sweet brown sugar base and the chocolate chips.

There is a reason that no matter how many new chocolate chip cookie recipes I try, I always return to this one. This bakery style chocolate chip cookie recipe is my favorite. It always comes out chewy, always thick, and always has the perfect balance between the sweet brown sugar base and the chocolate chips. And I ALWAYS get tons of compliments.

If you find yourself in need of another chocolate chip cookie recipe, might I suggest my other favorite, these thick chocolate chip cookies! Maybe you are looking for a gluten-free cookie, well, I got you these almond flour chocolate chip cookies, which are perfect!

Ingredients & Substitutions

• All-Purpose Flour
• Cake Flour
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda
• Butter: Butter is the primary fat and the detail that matters most here. Slightly softened means cool and pliable, not greasy or warm to the touch. Butter that is too soft will melt too quickly in the oven, leaving you with flat, greasy cookies instead of tall, chewy ones.
• Light Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds moisture, chew, and a mild molasses depth that rounds out the sweetness without competing with the chocolate. Its hygroscopic nature pulls in moisture and keeps the centers soft well after the cookies have cooled. Don’t have brown sugar? Make these chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar!
• Granulated Sugar
• Eggs: Eggs bind the dough and contribute to the thick, tender interior. Weighing them to 100 g is worth doing precisely because larger or smaller eggs will shift the dough’s hydration and change the final texture.
• Vanilla
• Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: Semi-sweet chips deliver bold chocolate flavor without tipping the sweetness too far. At 12 oz, the ratio is high relative to the dough volume, so nearly every bite has chocolate, which I love.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations on These Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Smaller Cookies. Portion the dough into smaller balls and reduce the bake time to around 10 minutes, checking early for set edges and a still-soft center. This is exactly how the cookies pictured here were made, by special request.
• Double Chocolate. Swap 3 tablespoons of the all-purpose flour for Dutch-process cocoa powder to turn these into double chocolate chip cookies with the same thick, chewy structure.
• Autumn Spiced Version. Swap the semi-sweet chips for white chocolate and adding 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom would shift these toward a warmer, spiced profile, similar in spirit to my pear upside down cake, which leans on those same warm notes.

Professional Tips

• Do not overbake. Pull the cookies when the edges are set and golden. They will continue to firm up on the hot sheet pan, and a fully baked-looking cookie in the oven is an overbaked cookie on the cooling rack.
• Use a stand mixer if you have one. This dough is thick enough to strain a hand mixer, and I say that from painful personal experience. A stand mixer handles the heavy creaming and the final incorporation of chips without protest.
• Chill the dough for the best results. Chilling firms the fat and allows the flour to fully hydrate, which produces taller cookies with a denser, chewier center. Even 30 minutes makes a noticeable difference if 2 hours is not realistic.
• Add the flour in stages. Dumping all the flour in at once increases the risk of overmixing once the gluten begins to develop. Adding it gradually gives you more control and stops you from working the dough past the point where the texture is still right. I always do this with these New York Times chocolate chip cookies and cream cheese chocolate chip cookies!

How to Make Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Use these instructions to make soft, chewy and thick bakery style chocolate chip cookies! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Step 1: Whisk together the dry ingredients. Combine the flour, cake flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl and set them aside.

Step 2: Cream the butter and sugars. Add the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar to the stand mixer bowl and beat until the mixture is creamy and uniform.

Step 3: Add the eggs and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition before adding the next. The mixture should look smooth and fully emulsified before you move on. Beat in the vanilla last.

Step 4: Add the flour mixture gradually. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in 5 to 7 additions, letting each incorporate before adding the next. Once the last of the flour has almost disappeared, fold or stir in the chocolate chips.

For the chewiest, thickest cookies possible, chill the dough before portioning. Chilling deepens the flavor and gives you a taller, denser result.

Step 5: Portion the dough. For full-size, bakery-style chocolate chip cookies, roll the dough into balls approximately the size of a half lemon.

Step 6: Bake the cookies. Place the portioned dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 375°F (conventional without fan) or 350°F (convection with fan) for 13 to 14 minutes. The edges should be set and lightly browned, but the centers will still look soft and slightly underdone when you pull them. That matte, soft center is exactly what you are looking for. The cookies will continue to set as they cool on the pan, so pulling them at this point is correct, not early.

Step 7: Cool on the pan, then transfer. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before moving them. This resting time is what allows the structure to finish setting without overbaking the centers. After 10 minutes, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe FAQs

Before You Go

These thick, golden-edged cookies with their pools of melted chocolate are worth making again and again. If you are looking for more to bake, browse my Cookie Recipes or make these chocolate pudding cookies next!