Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies – Thick, Chewy & Melty

If you've been hunting for that ultimate bakery style chocolate chip cookie that's crisp at the edges and soft and gooey in the center with plenty of chocolate, you're gonna love this chocolate chip cookie recipe and I'm craving cookies, so let's get started. The beauty of this recipe is you don't have to chill these, but if you want them extra thick, that's the trick. And the temperature of your ingredients matters. You want butter that's just soft enough to indent with your fingertip. Make sure it's not too soft. To that, we're gonna add packed light brown sugar and granulated sugar. Cream that together. Start on lower speed and once it starts coming together, kick up the speed to medium-high. Mix for just one to two minutes or until it's creamed together, then add your eggs one at a time. And egg number two. Now we're gonna beat in the vanilla. Of course, I'm using homemade and I will link to this in the notes. Set that aside and we're gonna work on our dry ingredients. You're gonna whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisking combines it, but also makes the flour fluffier. Now we're gonna add this in thirds. And as soon as that's incorporated, add your next third. The key is not to overmix. Overmixing is the enemy of soft cookies. And that last bit of flour goes in. And then we're gonna mix it in. We're gonna mix it just a little bit. The flour goes in. Okay, this is the fun part. Clearing the beaters without making a giant mess. Oh my gosh. Don't do that. And I like to mix in that last teensy bit of flour on the walls with the spatula just to make sure I'm not overmixing. Okay, just as soon as we don't see any more streaks of flour, it's time to add the best part, chocolate chips. Set aside a quarter cup. This is gonna be our secret weapon for the ultimate bakery-style cookies. You'll see later. Just add the rest. Okay, and it's a lot of chocolate chips, but you want every bite to have a chocolate chip. And you definitely wanna do this with a spatula, not your mixer, because that could spell disaster. Once those chocolate chips are evenly incorporated, it's time to scoop these. To form the cookie balls, I like using a trigger ice cream scoop. This keeps them even-sized so they bake up evenly. You want about 55 grams or three tablespoons per dough ball. Once all your dough is scooped, you're gonna roll it into balls. I love a classic chocolate chip cookie, but if you wanted to change it up, you could totally use mini M&M's. You could add nuts to these. When you have a good basic recipe, there's so many possibilities. And I would love to know how you make your cookies. You can bake these right away if you want to, but if you want your cookies to taste better and be a little taller, you'll wanna pop them in the fridge for at least 30 to 60 minutes or even overnight. All right, these have chilled nicely. You can see they are firmed up. And you wanna spread these out onto a baking sheet, keeping them at least two inches apart. That way, when they bake, they don't spread into each other. And bake one baking sheet at a time in the center of the oven. Now the key is to take them out of the oven when they're just barely golden at the edges and the top no longer looks shiny. They're done. Even if they feel a little soft to the touch, like they're underbaked, they're perfect. And here's how to make them look bakery beautiful. So you take those extra chocolate chips that we set aside and you're just gonna push them into the top. You push them in, it looks a little more natural. And then it makes those little like waves in the cookie that we all love to look at. You wanna do this while the cookies are still hot, just fresh right out of the oven and it'll melt those chocolate chips and it will become irresistibly gooey and delicious. While these rest for about 10 minutes, I'm gonna go bake the next batch. You do wanna keep the next batch refrigerated until ready to bake. I've definitely baked more cookies than we can eat. So what I'm gonna do with the rest of these is pop them into a freezer safe bag. And from here, you can just keep them in the freezer and enjoy them for a special treat after school. Also, this is something you should know for your cookies. You can bake these right away and that's what I did with this small batch here. And you can see they're noticeably shorter, not as thick as these cookies which I baked an hour after refrigerating. You can tell they're taller, they're puffier, they're thicker, they're also softer and more tender on the inside and they seriously will taste better. It's worth refrigerating. And now we're just gonna dive right into this taste test because I cannot wait any longer for a gooey chocolate chip cookie. I'm gonna take one of these that has been resting for a good 10 minutes. Ooh, and they're still a little bit warm and so soft and so gooey. Check this out. So thick and so chocolatey. This is making my day. Okay, it's time to dig in. Let's try these. Oh. Ooh. Got milk? Got milk for real. Hahaha. Seriously, look at that texture. These are bakery quality. They are soft, tender, foolproof and so chocolatey. You can find the complete ingredient measurements and step-by-step instructions in the description. Let me know if you guys have any requests for more recipes on Natasha's Kitchen. And where you spotted Sharky in the video. And we'll see you on the next episode. All right, I do need milk. Don't forget to subscribe and happy baking. So good.