Shut the front door (and get baking). After testing and testing, I’ve created what I believe is the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. It’s mine at least and you know I’d never lead you astray. They’re outrageously good and have everything a perfect CCC should have;
- Crispy edges, chewy yet tender middle,
- a rich, buttery and slightly nutty flavour,
- a delightful balance of sweet and salty,
- they’re thick but not too thick,
- and have just the right amount of chocolate.
Over the years, I’ve tried many chocolate chip cookie recipes – both mine and other bakers’ recipes. I enjoy them but I can’t say they have me craving a second, or a third straight after. So, I set out to create the best ever chocolate chip cookie recipe and here it is. While I know deliciousness is subjective, I challenge anyone to try this recipe and not swoon.
Try these fan favourite marshmallow chocolate chip cookies and these chunky date cookies too.
Never Miss a Recipe!
Get the latest recipes straight to your inbox.
The secret to the best chocolate chip cookies
I’m about to reveal the multiple secrets that when combined create a truly craveable cookie. They truly blow every other recipe I’ve ever tried out of the water. Phenomenal! Mind blown and yours will be too.
Let’s not mess around – what is the secret to the best chocolate chip cookie, IMO? There are a few;
- Browned butter (I use this trick often in cookies already),
- toasted milk powder (new to me with this recipe and I love it),
- a combination of flours,
- and an extended chill time (have patience, it really pays off).
All of these things lead to not only the best flavor but also the best texture of any chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever tried.
But don’t worry, you don’t need to spend hours making the perfect chocolate chip cookie. While there are a couple of extra steps, they take no longer than 10 minutes and those extra few minutes will not be in vain.
Ingredients & substitutions
Every ingredient in these best ever chocolate chip cookies has a very important role. Let’s break down the most important ones;
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
- Browned butter: When you brown butter, it develops a more complex, toasted, nutty flavour and aroma. It adds depth to baked goods.
- Toasted milk powder: Similarly to the butter, milk powder is toasted in a pan until it turns golden brown (almost cinnamon colour) and it creates a nutty, toasty flavour and aroma as well.
Doubling down on that toasty flavour already makes these cookies worlds better than a basic CCC.
- Two flours: Bread flour has a higher protein content, so using it in conjunction with plain flour (all purpose flour) means we get a chewier, more structured cookie. A higher protein content also helps with moisture retention so these cookies stay soft and chewy in the middle for days. If all you have on hand is plain flour, you’ll still get a lovely cookie.
- Chocolate chips: I love to use a combination of dark chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks chopped from a bar of good baking chocolate. The one thing I discovered in testing is that you can indeed add too much chocolate – who knew there was such a thing?! Too many choc chips overwhelms the cookie and you get practically no cookie flavour at all. The perfect amount means the cookie and chocolate work harmoniously together to give you a delicious cookie.
Extended chill time, you say?
I try to create most cookie recipes in a way that means you don’t need to take time to chill the dough before baking simply because the quicker I can devour said cookies, the better.
However, if you take the time to chill the dough on these chocolate chip cookies, you’ll be richly rewarded. Please plan ahead as you’ll get the best flavour after 3 days.
While you can bake them immediately after making the dough and get a delicious cookie, 72 hours chilling time is where the real magic happens. It gives the flavours more time to develop and become more complex. Chilling allows the dough to dry out a bit which concentrates the sugar and overall flavour (a little like the difference between watering down a glass of orange juice and a full flavoured glass of OJ).
With some of the excess water gone via the dough drying slightly in the fridge, the cookies don’t spread as much as they do on a day 1 bake, and they’re darker in colour (aka getting even more toasty amazingness). That doesn’t make for a dry cookie though. The flour in the cookies absorb and hold moisture too so when baked, they stay soft and lovely for days.
Suffice to say, chilling them longer makes a more delicious cookie but if you can only wait 3 hours, it’s better than nothing. But please, please try the 72 hour chill and taste the difference.
How to make the best chocolate chip cookies
Yes, there are a couple of extra (easy) steps but did you come here for the ULTIMATE chocolate chip cookie recipe or just another run-of-the-mill choc chip cookie that tastes like all the other recipes out there? If your answer is ULTIMATE please!, then we’re going to toast some milk powder, brown some butter and chill that dough. You will be richly rewarded, I promise.
Jump to the recipe card for full ingredients and instructions.
1. Brown the butter
Start by browning the butter in a pan. Just let it melt, then bubble, stirring regularly and in about 5 minutes it will turn amber and become really foamy. Done! Pour it into a mixing bowl and let it cool for about 15 minutes.
2. Toast the milk powder
Toasted milk powder is my new favourite ingredient. It adds richness and a nutty, buttery flavour that can’t be beat. If you’re really good at multi-tasking, you can have the butter browning in one pan while browning the milk powder in another but be careful as they both take about the same amount of time and require regular/constant stirring.
Just add the milk powder to a non-stick pan (I find non-stick much better for this), and cook it stirring constantly until it’s a deep, dark cinnamon colour. Add it to a mixing bowl and let it cool.
3. The dry ingredients
Once the milk powder is cool, add the rest of the dry ingredients and whisk well to combine.
4. The wet ingredients
Beat the cooled browned butter and sugar until lightened and creamy – about 5 minutes. Then beat in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. I just use a hand mixer for this but you can use a stand mixer. If doing that, you’ll want to pour the browned butter into the bowl of a stand mixer to cool.
5. Turn it into cookie dough
Now add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until 90% combined.
For amazing chocolate chip cookies we need some good chocolate. I add a combination of dark chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks (aka semi sweet chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chunks). Fold them into the dough.
6. Portion and chill
I use a cookie scoop with roughly a ¼ cup volume for these cookies. A cookie scoop helps to give them that lovely crackly top but you can also just rolls balls of dough. Line them up on a baking tray lined with baking paper, then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Do the full 3 days if possible. After chilling, let them come to room temperature then bake for 11 minutes.
Tips and tricks
- Weigh the flour and milk powder: Using a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients will always give you a more accurate result. Scooping from a container will generally end up in more flour than you need and that will lead to dry bakes. Bonus, using a scale means you don’t have all the cups to wash up.
- Don’t overmix the dough: Mixing the dough for too long can result in dry or tough cookies rather than the soft and chewy cookies we’re after.
- Be patient: You can of course bake your ultimate chocolate chip cookies straight away and they’re totally delicious (and probably still my all time favourite chocolate chip cookie) but for the absolute best chocolate chip cookie, wait the 72 hours for the flavours to develop and become more complex.
- Add a light sprinkle flaky sea salt over the top of the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven for an even more amazing flavour.
Storage
Store the raw chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge in an airtight container or covered tightly with plastic wrap for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the raw dough balls in the freezer but let them thaw at room temperature before baking.
Store the baked cookies in an airtight container in the pantry for 4-5 days.
These ultimate chocolate chip cookies are lovely just zapped in the microwave for 12 seconds or so to soften the chocolate again or make it a little gooey.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Did you try this ultimate chocolate chip cookies recipe?
Show it some love in the comments below.
Hungry for more?
- Subscribe via Email, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.
- Add Sugar Salt Magic as a Google Preferred Source.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup powdered milk (35g / 1 ¼oz)
- 170 g unsalted butter (¾ cup / 6oz)
- 1-2 teaspoons whole milk , as required
- 130 g bread flour
- 95 g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup light brown sugar , packed
- ½ cup caster sugar (or white granulated sugar)
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 215 g dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks (7 ½ oz), (notes 1)
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Equipment
- Non-stick pan
- Large baking sheets
Instructions
- Place milk powder into a non stick pan over medium heat, stirring every so often. Once it starts browning, don’t stop stirring as it will continue to get more brown and can burn easily. Cook, stirring until it’s the colour of ground cinnamon. Transfer to a medium bowl to stop the cooking process and let it cool to room temperature.
- Add the butter to a pan and cook over medium heat until it turns amber brown in colour. It will begin by sizzling, then bubbling then will eventually get foamy and the sound will die down. Pour it into a measuring jug and let it cool for a few minutes, then add enough milk to bring it back to ¾ cup. Let it cool to room temperature (15-20 minutes). You can speed this up in the fridge but don’t let it set.
- Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan forced) / 350F. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
- Add both flours, baking soda and salt to the milk powder and whisk to combine.
- Add both sugars to the browned butter in a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) and beat on high until lightened and creamy – 4-5 minutes. For the first few minutes it will look like it won’t change but it will.
- Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and beat on low speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until only just combined.
- Add the dry ingredients mixture and beat on low until 90% combined.
- Add the chocolate chips and stir them in until just combined. Don’t overmix.
- Scoop balls of cookie dough using a ¼ cup volume cookie scoop or simply rolls balls (a cookie scoop gives a better finish if you have one).
- OPTIONAL BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Chill the cookie dough balls covered with plastic wrap or in an airtight container for up to 72 hours. The full 72 hours will give the best flavour but the more you chill up to this point the better, so if you can only fit in 24 hours, do that. The dough doesn't need to be chilled if you want to bake them straight away, however you won't get the full ULTIMATE choc chip cookie flavour.
- Bring the cookie dough balls to room temperature if you chilled them, then bake for 11 minutes until the edges turn golden.
- As soon as you remove the cookie sheet from the oven, lift and bang the pan on the benchtop 3 times. Let them cool on the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool further.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Chocolate: I use a combination of dark chocolate chips and dark chocolate chunks simply chopped from a block of good quality baking chocolate.
- For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
- All ovens vary – test for doneness 1-2 minutes before the recipe suggests. With cookies, it’s always great to take the opportunity to just bake one cookie to give you a better idea of how long your oven takes to get them just right for you.
- Nutrition details are approximate only – scroll below the recipe to find the full nutritional information.
This post may contain affiliate links that earn me a small commission for my referral, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting Sugar Salt Magic.
4 Comments on “The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe”
Beautiful recipe. I had a question though. For those of us in the US reading ur recipes can you specify what type of milk powder you want us to use. In the US there’s nonfat milk powder and I think whole milk powder and buttermilk powder. Nonfat is the most common and easy to get at any store. I’ve seen milk powder listed in this recipe and your custard powder recipe but neither specified what type of milk powder. Thank you 😊
Hi Jackie. Great question. This is purely a flavour consideration. Full fat / whole milk powder will give a richer result than skim/non-fat milk powder. I’ve never tried buttermilk powder (not common where I am) but I believe it would still work, just give a different flavour profile.
This sounds delicious!,
They sure are, Guanciale.