THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Published by Nellie on October 22, 2018

The best Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft, chewy and easy to make too! Tried & true, this is our all-time family favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ever.

I have spent many years trying to make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies! Over the last 10-15 years, I have made dozens of variations of this classic cookie recipe in hopes to find the very best one. Homemade chocolate chip cookies are one of my most absolutely favorite treats and I was determined to perfect my chocolate chip cookie making skills! Although some of the recipes were not great, many of the chocolate chip cookie recipes that I tried were really good. It really does come down to a personal preference – some cookies are a little bit cakier, some are a little bit crispier, some are more buttery, etc. What’s your favorite?

I found myself always coming back to this particular chocolate chip cookie recipe every time I needed to take cookies to a party or gathering. There are several reasons why this recipe is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe!

First of all, they are very simple to make and I really wanted an easy chocolate chip cookie recipe since I like to make them often! I’ve tried some “best” chocolate chip cookie recipes that require a lot of extra steps and I haven’t found the results to be worth the extra time and effort involved.
The dough is amazing! I have a couple recipes that make good cookies, but the dough isn’t quite so good and to me, the dough is the best part so it has to be perfect.
They always turn out perfectly – they are soft and don’t end up being flat or crunchy which is very important to me.
Everyone loves them! Every time I take these cookies anywhere, everyone is begging me for the recipe which is always a good sign for a must-have recipe. This recipe makes a ton of cookies too (about 6 dozen) which is perfect if you need to take a treat to a party or a bake sale or somewhere.

How to make The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies:

After trying out multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes over many years, I have picked up several important tips for making the absolute BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Make sure that you have enough flour in the dough. If the dough is too sticky, you may need to add a little bit of flour.
Spend a little extra time when you mix the shortening and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
Use a cookie scoop! If you want all your cookies to be perfectly shaped and have them all be the same size, a cookie scoop is the way to go.
Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Doing this will make it really easy to remove the cookies from your cookie sheet so that you don’t have to scrape them off the pan – they will just slide right off in perfect shape!
Don’t over bake the cookies – when I take mine out of the oven, they still look slightly under baked but they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet for a couple more minutes so that’s ok!

Chocolate Chip Cookie ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups butter-flavored Crisco
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
5 cups flour
2-3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Steps for making Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream together the sugars and Crisco with an electric mixer.
Add the eggs and vanilla and mix.
Add the salt, baking soda and flour and continue to mix until well combined.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Use a cookie scoop to scoop cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet; place the cookies about 2″ apart.
Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let sit for 4-5 minutes and then transfer to wire cooling racks. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie troubleshooting tips

Over the years, I have had many cookie failures along with all of my successes and I have learned a few things along the way! You may have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe that you love, but they don’t always turn out perfectly. Why?! Here are some helpful tips for some common cookie problems!

Why are my chocolate chip cookies flat?

If your chocolate chip cookies are flat and spread out too much while baking, you may need to add a little bit more flour. Start by just adding a few tablespoons of flour to the batter and see if that is enough to help the shape of your cookies. If you are using a recipe with butter, make sure you aren’t melting the butter. There are a few cookie recipes that actually call for melted butter, but most of them just require the butter to be softened to room temperature. Which leads to the next question…

How do you soften butter to room temperature?

The best way to soften butter is to set it out for a few hours before you make your cookies. Since most of us (or maybe just me!) aren’t that prepared or don’t think that far in advance, there are a few tricks to softening butter perfectly in just a matter of minutes. My favorite way to soften butter is in the microwave. It’s definitely fast, but you do have to be very careful not to melt it. Just put the whole stick of butter in the microwave (as long as it isn’t wrapped in foil!) and microwave for about 6-7 seconds. If the butter is still really cold, try another 5-7 seconds and check it again. You may need a few intervals, and if the butter is starting to feel soft, you can shorten the final interval to just a few seconds to make sure it doesn’t start melting.

actually prefer to use the defrost setting on my microwave – I don’t know exactly what that mode does differently, and it takes a little bit longer (closer to 30 seconds), but it seems to be easier to get the butter to soften without melting.

Why are my chocolate chip cookies crispy and hard?

If your chocolate chip cookies are hard, crunchy or crispy, you probably baked them too long. Cookies will continue to bake for a couple of minutes on the hot cookie sheet even after you remove them from the oven, so you don’t want to wait until they are golden brown before taking them out! My husband really likes a few cookies to be a little more well-done so that he can dip them in milk, so I usually make half a tray of cookies for him that get cooked a couple minutes longer.

Most of my cookies are baked until barely done. I don’t even wait for the tops to start turning golden brown, but look at the edges on the bottom of the cookies. If the edges look like they are turning a little bit golden brown, they’re done! You don’t want the centers of the cookies to look doughy, but they shouldn’t be even slightly brown on top either.

Should I use butter or shortening in my chocolate chip cookies?

I’ve made great chocolate chip cookies with butter and I’ve made great cookies with shortening – both can work very well! This particular chocolate chip cookie recipe uses butter-flavored shortening which is the best of both worlds! All of the flavor of butter, but the texture of shortening. I actually have tried to avoid using shortening in most recipes because it just doesn’t seem as healthy, but it sure makes for a perfect consistency in this cookie recipe! It really helps the cookies to be soft and chewy and prevents them from spreading too much.

Why do my chocolate chip cookies burn on the bottom but aren’t done in the middle?

If your cookies are always burning on the bottom, it is probably a cookie sheet issue! If you are using really dark cookie sheets, the bottoms of your baked goods will tend to burn before they are actually cooked all the way through. If you use a lot of cooking spray, the same result can happen. I prefer to use lighter colored non-stick pans so that I don’t have to use cooking spray at all. As mentioned above, I have been converted to silicone baking mats over the last couple of years and I love how easy it is for cookies to come off the tray – no sticking ever!