These bakery style chocolate chip cookies are deliciously soft, chewy, and thick with gooey centers. I’m sharing all of my bakery secrets to achieving the BEST chocolate chip cookies at home!
As a professional pastry chef, I’ve worked in enough bakeries to know all of the tips and tricks to make a perfect chocolate chip cookie. With just a few secret ingredients, these cookies will rival any from a bakery.
They’re large and in charge and bursting with chocolate flavor. My recipe testers collectively agreed this is the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe they’ve ever made!
Aside from my chewy toffee cookies or pecan chocolate chip cookies, of course.
Table of Contents
What are Bakery-Style Cookies?
- Soft and chewy: Bakery cookies are known for having a perfect balance of crispiness, chewiness, and softness.
- Rich and flavorful: They are loaded with 3 different kinds of gooey chocolate chips for a rich and chocolatey flavor.
- 5-ounces: These cookies are giant, weighing in at 5 ounces each!
- Easy to make: The dough is simple to make and comes together in just 30 minutes!
Key Ingredients
This is an easy recipe that relies on a handful of high-quality ingredients. Each one transforms a boring homemade chocolate chip cookie into a bakery-style version!
High-quality chocolate: To elevate them with a balanced flavor and texture, we’re blending semisweet chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate. My bakery-approved brands are Guittard wafers, Guittard chocolate chips, and Lindt milk chocolate bars. The only brand I don’t recommend is Hershey’s.
Vanilla bean paste: This is a concentrated paste made from vanilla bean seeds and extracts. It creates an intense and gourmet vanilla flavor!
Vanilla powder: This secret ingredient is made from ground vanilla beans. Because it contains no alcohol, it can hold up to higher baking temperatures to preserve the extra vanilla flavor!
Brown sugar: The molasses in brown sugar adds a rich, caramel-like flavor. Its high moisture content also yields a super chewy and soft chocolate chip cookie! Use either dark brown sugar or light brown sugar.
Cultured butter: (Like Kerrygold) This butter is fermented with beneficial bacteria, giving it a tangy, buttery flavor and creamy texture. Sweet cream European butter is the best substitute!
Find the full list of ingredients, measurements, and instructions in the recipe card below!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
Step 1: Cream the butter and sugars together. In a stand mixing bowl or with a hand mixer, cream the softened butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 2: Mix in the wet ingredients. Mix in the egg and vanilla bean paste, scraping the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.
Step 3: Mix in the dry ingredients. Mix in the all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla powder until almost combined with some dry flour pockets remaining.
Step 4: Fold in the chocolate chips. Then gently fold in the dark chocolate wafers, semisweet chips, and chopped milk chocolate bar until just combined.
Step 5: Scoop the chocolate chip cookie dough. Drop 5 ounces of cookie dough onto a parchment-lined baking tray using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop. Ensure accuracy with a scale.
Finish the bakery-style look by adding chocolate morsels on top. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight or a minimum of 5-6 hours.
Step 6: Bake the cookies. Bake 2-3 cookies 4-5 inches apart, rotating the pan halfway through baking, until they have golden brown edges with a soft and underbaked center.
This is key to achieving super soft and gooey centers! While the middle will seem raw, they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet out of the oven.
Importance of Chilling the Dough
Chewy texture: Chilled cookie dough minimizes spreading during baking, yielding thicker and chewier chocolate chip cookies instead of thin and crispy ones.
Thickness: The butter in the dough solidifies when chilled, and this slows down the spreading during baking.
Tender cookies: While the dough rests and chills, the flour can become fully hydrated from the moisture in the dough, reducing the risk of dry or crumbly cookies.
Flavor concentration: Chilling the dough is key for a better balance of flavors!
Running out of time? Try my chocolate butterscotch cookies!
Top Baking Tips
- Use a kitchen scale. Baking with a scale is my #1 baking tip! If you do not have a scale, use a spoon to fluff the flour first, then spoon it into your measuring cup.
- Use cool room-temperature butter. Overly warm and greasy butter can lead to excessive spreading. The perfect temperature is between 65-68 F.
- Underbake for a melt-in-your-mouth gooey center! Baking them longer will result in a crispy and cakier texture.
- Don’t overmix the dough! Stop mixing when everything is just combined to maintain a tender texture.
- Don’t use a smaller cookie scoop– this recipe was developed to bake as very large cookies so that the middles are very gooey. Try my espresso chocolate chip cookies or M&M cookies for smaller options!
- Optionally, sprinkle with sea salt out of the oven– salt balances the sweetness and gives them a more salty flavor.
How to Keep Cookies Fresh
- Store in an airtight container with a piece of bread or apple slice: These items release moisture, helping to keep them soft and fresh. Replace the bread or apple slices as needed.
- Store at room temperature: Cold temperatures and dry air can cause them to become dry and stale.
- Reheat or refresh: You can reheat them at 350 F for 5-6 minutes or in the microwave for 20-30 seconds to help restore their soft texture.
FAQs
Yes, although you will miss out on the rich and buttery flavor that European butter gives them!
The number one brand I recommend is Guittard. Other great brands include Lindt, Ghiradelli, and Valhrona! You can find Guittard at Whole Foods or online.
Using too much flour, cold butter, expired leaveners, or overmixing the cookie dough can cause this.
They will stay soft and chewy for 3-4 days if stored properly.
To prevent flat cookies, make sure your butter is no warmer than 68F!
Yes, the cookie dough balls can be frozen and then defrosted in the fridge for 24 hours before baking. I don’t recommend freezing baked cookies but if you want to, they can be frozen in an airtight container with parchment paper in between layers.
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
If you tried this or any other recipe on my website, please let me know how it went in the comments below, I love hearing from you! Also, please leave a star rating while you’re there! You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can check it out!
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted cultured butter, cool room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed (I like using half dark brown sugar and half light brown sugar)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- 1 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, *See notes below for measuring*
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla powder, optional, but adds tons of flavor!
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate wafers
- 2/3 cup chopped milk chocolate bar
- 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Before you start, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Note that the dough must be chilled overnight or at least for 6-8 hours before baking! Baking them any sooner will result in excess spreading.
- Cream the butter and sugars. Cream together the butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.1 cup (226 grams) unsalted cultured butter, 3/4 cup (150 grams) brown sugar, 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- Mix in the wet ingredients. Mix in the egg and vanilla bean paste until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed.1 (50 g) large egg, 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- Mix in the dry ingredients. Mix in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla powder, and salt until almost combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.1 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp (240 g) all-purpose flour, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, 2 teaspoons vanilla powder, 3/4 cup (100 g) dark chocolate wafers, 2/3 cup (80 g) chopped milk chocolate bar, 1/4 cup (40 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- Scoop and chill the dough. Scoop the cookie dough into six 5 oz balls onto the prepared baking sheet. Mold the dough so that it is just over 2 inches tall. This allows them to bake slowly and not spread as much. Press more chocolate morsels on top for melty pools of chocolate. Use a scale for accuracy, it's a little more than a 1/2 cup of dough. Cover the tray tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least 6-8 hours.
- Bake! Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Place 2-3 chilled cookies max on a parchment-lined baking tray (leave the others in the fridge). Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown but the center is still soft and underbaked. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt out of the oven if desired. After 10 minutes, use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. You won't be able to fully pick them up for about 30-60 mintues!
- Storage: Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. They can be reheated in the oven or microwave to soften.
- For freezer chill: Chill the dough balls until firm, then transfer them to an airtight container or freezer bag for 1-3 months. Defrost them in the fridge for 24 hours before baking!
Video
Notes
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below & tag @cambreabakes on social!The calorie information provided for the recipe is an estimate. The accuracy of the calories listed is not guaranteed.
What brand of vanilla powder do you use? It looks like yours is white vs the brown ones I’ve seen on Amazon.
Hi Sarah! I used Watkins because it was all I had. The vanilla powders that are brown are higher-quality and cost more than the Watkins one, but any vanilla powder will work!
Everyone at the office loved these!
Take her word for it…these are the BEST chocolate chip cookies! While they were super large, we cut them into halves and quarters and they were delicious. Whole batch was gone in just 1 day!