Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies (2024)

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Jessie Bakes Cakes

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Crisp on the outside, gooey in the middle and packed with milk chocolate chips – these are my best-ever Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Why these cookies are the BEST

Chunky AF – each cookie weighs in at 120g!
Rustic, golden brown exterior
Crisp on the outside, gooey lava in the middle
Chockablock with milk chocolate chips
An easy, one-bowl recipe

The cookie debate: thick & gooey vs. thin & chewy cookies

Which side of the fence do you sit on?

If you were to ask me, I sit right in the middle on the fence! Sometimes a thick, gooey cookie in all its molten lava glory is exactly what is needed! But then other times, I love a thin chewy cookie to dunk in a cup of tea. Which is why I’ve created a recipe for both!

Here you’ll find the recipe for my thick NYC-style chocolate chip cookies. But if you’re looking for thin chewy chocolate chip cookies (similar to Millie’s cookies) then check out this recipe instead.

5 tips for baking thick chocolate chip cookies

This recipe took a lot of testing, trial and error to make sure it was absolutely fool-proof and perfect. Along the way, I learnt a few tips that will help you bake the best ever thick chocolate chip cookies.

1: Use cold butter

It may seem strange to use cold butter for cookies, as typically you would start with room temperature or even melted butter. But for thick cookies, it’s all about reducing spread in the oven as much as possible and that’s why we start with cold butter.

The cold butter is creamed with two types of sugar, so it’s best to take it out of the fridge 30 minutes or so before starting the recipe to make sure it’s not completely solid.

2: Use good-quality chocolate chips

Thick cookies are stuffed with lots of chocolate chips which turn into melted pools of chocolate when baked into the cookie. For the best result, use a good-quality chocolate chip like Guittard or Food Thoughts, they’re maxi in size and taste delicious! Alternatively, you could chop up bars of milk chocolate into big chunks and fold them into the cookie dough.

3: Freeze the cookie dough before baking

For this recipe you will bake the balls of cookie dough from frozen rather than from chilled. Frozen cookie dough = less spread = thick cookies!!!

I recommend at least 90 minutes (enough time to tidy up, make a cuppa and watch an episode of your favourite series). However, the longer you leave the cookie dough, the thicker your cookies will be. 24-48 hours is ideal!

TIP: prep the dough in advance and leave it in the freezer for up to 2 months. On the day, bake the cookies so they’re fresh, gooey and delicious!

4: Use a pre-heated, dark baking tray

What makes thick cookies extra special is their crisp golden outside with a gooey texture inside. Using a pre-heated, dark-coloured baking tray will heat up the outside of the cookie more quickly, making it crisp and golden. It also stops the cookies from spreading too quickly which keeps them nice and thick.

5: Thick cookies are best enjoyed straightaway

The fresher the cookies the better the flavour and texture! If you do need to bake ahead of time, freshen them up in the oven for 5 minutes 100°C (fan) to make the gooey and delicious agin.

Have you made this recipe?

I really hope you enjoyed it! And I’d also love to hear what you think, so feel free to leave a comment or rating below. You can also drop me a DM onInstagramor tag me @jessie.bakes.cakes so I can see your delicious cookies.

Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies

Crips on the outside, gooey in the middle and packed with milk chocolate chips – these are my best-ever Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies!

4.86 from 14 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Freezing time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 55 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine Baking

Servings 10

Ingredients

200 g Cold unsalted butter Take the butter out of the fridge 30 minutes before you start baking so that it's not completely solid
180 g Light brown sugar
80 g White caster sugar
2 large Eggs at room temperature
250 g Self-raising flour
150 g Plain flour
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking powder
300 g Milk/white/dark chocolate chips – or a mixture of all three see notes above on choosing the best chocolate chips

Instructions

Start by making the cookie dough

Chop up the butter into chunks and place in a large mixing bowl. Beat using an electric mixer or wooden spoon for 1 minute. You want the butter to be slightly softer, broken up, but not at the 'creamed' stage.
Add the light brown sugar and white caster sugar and beat together until just combined. Try not to over-mix at this stage otherwise the butter will become too soft.
Mix in both of the eggs. The mixture won't look very appealing at this stage but don't worry it will do soon!
In a separate bowl, stir together the self-raising flour, plain flour, salt and baking powder until well mixed. Tip into the butter mixture and fold everything together until it forms a thick cookie dough.
Now add all of the chocolate chips and use your hands to mix them into the dough.

Shaping the cookies

Line a baking tray or tin (one that will fit inside your freezer) with greaseproof paper.
Weigh out 120g of the cookie dough, then use your hands to roughly shape it into a ball and place it on the baking tray. Thick cookies are meant to look rustic, so lumps and bumps on the cookie dough is exactly what you're looking for.
Repeat this step until all the cookie dough is used up. You should get between 9-10 cookies in total. At this stage, you don't have to worry about the cookies being too close together on the baking tray. As long as they're not touching it's all good.
Cover the baking tray with clingfilm and freeze the cookie dough balls for at least 90 minutes or up to 48 hours for best results. The longer you leave them, the thicker your cookies will be.

Baking the cookies

Whilst the cookies are in the freezer, preheat your oven to 180°C (fan).
Do this step 5 minutes before the freezing time is finished:
Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper and place in the oven for 5 minutes to heat up. The heated tray will help the cookies crisp up and brown on the outside but still keep a gooey centre.
Place 3 to 4 of the frozen cookie dough balls onto the tray. These cookies are very chunky so make sure you leave plenty of room between them.Bake the cookies in batches if you need to.
Bake on the middle shelf of your oven for 15 minutes until golden on the outside edge but still only lightly browned on the top and in the middle. The cookies should still be nice and thick, with very little spread.
Leave to cool for 5 on the baking tray, or just until you're happy to pick them up without them falling apart.
Enjoy your cookies straightaway!

Notes

Store your cookies in a cake tin at room temperature. They’re best eaten within 24 hours, but will keep for up to 4 days.

Keyword Chocolate chips, Cookie dough, thick cookies

Tried this recipe? Leave a review here!

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47 Comments

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Sadia

1 month ago

This recipe was tasty, but there is way too much flour. They came out very pale and tasting like a biscuit, I think next time I make it I will cut down the amount of flour needed 🙂

Adam

1 month ago

Is there a maximum time they can be left in the freezer for before baking?

Author

Jessie

1 month ago

Reply to Adam

Hi Adam,

Up to 4 weeks 🙂 The longer they freeze for the thicker they will be!

Lisa

2 months ago

The best! This is my only bookmarked cookie recipe, I make them often and everybody LOVES them. Never had so much success with thick, chewy cookies, the freezing for at least 2 hours is a godsend. Sometimes I’ve put oreos/nuts/marshmallows/different types of chocolate in as direct substitute to the chocolate in the recipe. Thank you 😊🙏🏻

Author

Jessie

1 month ago

Reply to Lisa

What a gorgeous review!!! thank you so so much, keep enjoying this recipe and I love the flavour twists you’ve tried… marshmallows… YUM!

Chloe

2 months ago

One quick question. Do you absolutely have to put them in the freezer because it’s just a lot of extra effort but these cookies look so good. Thank you

Author

Jessie

2 months ago

Reply to Chloe

Hi Chloe, it really depends on how thick you’d like the cookies to be. Freezing them will give the cookies more structure so they spread less in the oven and have that classic NYC-style cookie texture. But what you could do is test-bake one rolled cookie at room temperature and see how it comes out. Some people have made this recipe without freezing the cookies first and loved them! All personal preferences and also different ovens/baking tray materials/temperature of ingredients can all have an effect on how the cookies bake 😊 Hope that helps!

Chloe

2 months ago

Reply to Jessie

Thank you that helped a lot gonna go make them now!

Lisa

3 months ago

Finally I found a thick cookies recipe that don’t have nuts in it! These are SO good, I keep them in the freezer and pop one in the oven when I have a craving.
Only thing is, my cookies don’t spread at all in the oven 🙁 Not sure why

Author

Jessie

3 months ago

Reply to Lisa

Hi Lisa, thanks so much for this lovely review 🙂 If your cookies aren’t spreading, I would try freezing them for less time or even test baking one from room temperature. Baking tray material/oven temperature/temperature of the ingredients… can all effect the spread of the cookies. Hope that helps!

Tanya

3 months ago

This recipe is my fave choc chip recipe ever, thank you for sharing ❤️

Author

Jessie

3 months ago

Reply to Tanya

This review has made my day, thank you Tanya!!! Keep enjoying and happy baking 🍪

Annie

3 months ago

These were delicious, I found that they needed longer than instructed in the oven due to the freezing / size, but once cooked these were fantastic, lovely chunky and chocolatey. The only problem is holding back and not eating the whole tray!

Author

Jessie

3 months ago

Reply to Annie

I LOVE this review! Thank you Annie, I’m so pleased to hear you loved the cookies and the baking time is always a guide as it can differ oven to oven.

Darly-Skye

4 months ago

Jessie, this was amazing ti follow and the pictures really helped me, im bot a confident baker and I struggle usually following a recipe.
I made these a couple if weeks ago, I doubled the mix and kept them in the freezer. Each night I made a ritual of cooking myself 2 after the baby went to bed and putting on my current show and eating my delicious warm cookies 🤩 in the 2 weeks I perfected all the timings so that my cookies were exactly how i liked them and ready not tok long after bubs went to bed. I’m making another double batch rn to last me another couple of weeks 😋😍
Incase anyone would like to know I heat my fan oven and pizza stone for 10mins, cook for 20mins, leave them on the stone outside of the oven for another 10mins. Perfection 🍪🍪

Last edited 4 months ago by Darly-Skye

Author

Jessie

4 months ago

Reply to Darly-Skye

What a lovely review! Thank you so much for sharing and I’m over the moon to hear how much you enjoy the cookies. The perfect treat once baby is sleeping peacefully 🙂

Ellie

4 months ago

Just made these and they are absolutely delicious! Big, chunky cookies, crunchy on the outside and perfectly soft and gooey on the inside. The only thing I changed was reducing the brown sugar to 150g and they were still plenty sweet. If I made them again I might try and make the dough balls slightly smaller, around 90-100g and reduce the baking time slightly accordingly. But that is just personal preference for wanting slightly smaller cookies.

Author

Jessie

4 months ago

Reply to Ellie

What a lovely review! Thank you so much for sharing 😊