The Hungry MouseBest Ever Chocolate Chunk Cookies
I have a confession to make. I just ate a handful of these cookies—and then went back for two more. I really only meant to have one. I’m not sure how my plate is half empty. Dotted with relatively colossal chunks of chocolate, these cookies are soft, chewy, just a wee bit cakey—and wickedly addictive. Among other ingredients, half a pound of butter + a pound of chocolate = pure bliss, in baked form.
The short instructions for these cookies go something like: Make, bake, inhale.
These cookies also stay nice and thick since the dough has a fair amount of flour compared to butter (so they don’t flatten out when baked).
I’m a sucker for a warm cookie.
Use any semi-sweet chocolate you like a lot, chopped into large pieces.
Let’s take a closer look at all that chocolate.
The best way to chop chocolate
The best way that I’ve found to chop up chocolate is with a serrated bread knife.
Don’t saw, just press down on the back of the blade, like you would a regular knife. The teeth will bite into the chocolate a little and keep your knife from slipping. (Try using a regular butcher’s knife to do this and you’ll see what I mean…it’s borderline dangerous.)
Best Ever Chocolate Chunk Cookies
16 Tbls. butter (that’s 2 sticks)
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch of salt
16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
Yields about 4 1/2 dozen cookies (if you make the balls of dough about the size of a ping pong ball).
About a half an hour before you’re going to bake, set the butter out on your counter to soften up.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set them aside.
Chop up the chocolate
Grab your chocolate.
Chop it up into large-ish chunks (about the size of a blueberry or a small-ish cherry). I do this by pressing down on the chocolate with a serrated bread knife. Works like a charm and the knife doesn’t slip like a butcher’s knife would.
Set the chopped chocolate aside while you put the dough together.
Mix the dry ingredients
Put the flour in a medium-sized bowl. Toss in the baking soda and salt.
Mix together well with a whisk. Set the bowl aside for a few minutes.
Make the cookie dough
Put the softened butter in the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large mixing bowl if you’re using a hand-held mixer).
Toss in the white sugar.
Measure out the brown sugar (be sure to smoosh it down and pack it tightly into the measuring cup).
Toss the brown sugar into the bowl.
Beat them together until they’re well combined.
The butter and sugars will form a thick paste.
And will look kind of like this:
Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Crack in the eggs.
Beat the eggs together with the butter/sugar mixture.
Let the mixer run for a few minutes, so the mixture is a little fluffy, like this:
Add the vanilla. Beat to combine it well.
Combine the dry ingredients with the wet
Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture.
Beat on medium-high to combine well. Stop when the dough just comes together. (If you beat it too long, your cookies can get tough.)
It’ll look about like this:
Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the chopped chocolate to the dough
Toss the chopped chocolate into the dough.
Beat the dough for maybe 20 seconds, until the chocolate is just incorporated.
Form and bake the cookies
Grab a blob of cookie dough.
Roll it between your palms until it forms a ball. You want it to be about the size of a ping pong ball.
Set the ball of cookie dough on your prepared pan.
Repeat with more dough until you have about a dozen cookies on the pan, evenly spaced out.
Repeat with another dozen cookie dough balls on your other prepared pan. Pop the pans into your preheated 350-degree oven. Bake for 13 minutes.
How can you tell when the cookies are baked?
Bake at 350 degrees for 13 minutes. As they bake, the cookie dough balls will flatten out into gorgeous little mounds of baked cookie goodness. Take the pans out of the oven when the tops of the cookies are *just* lightly brown. (If you let them get dark, they’ll be crispy, not chewy.)
Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes to set up a little more.
Then slide them off onto a rack to finish cooling.
At this point, you really *should* start taste testing. You know, just to be sure. It’s the responsible thing to do.
Repeat with the rest of the dough until you’ve used it all up.
(This is the part where I stop counting the cookies that I’ve, um, tested.)
It’s like you have a little cookie army.
Enjoy!
27 Comments on “Best Ever Chocolate Chunk Cookies”
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Oh my gosh, the pics did it! Must make these. Soon!
I just literally said out loud “Oh my gosh!” those cookies are just calling my name in those photos. Chocolate Chunk cookies are one of my (many) favorites kinds of cookies
Oh Jessie, This look positively dangerous.I bet you can eat just one!
Great photos!
This is another choc chip cookie recipe to try! They look soooo good!
I wish I could eat and eat this kind of stuff and never put on a pound. Looks so yummy!
Stunning. I love me some chocolate chunk cookies!
WOW! I’m totally making these!!!
Woman, you are a genius. Nice to see that you don’t sully the brilliance of this cookie with nuts. I like nuts, but they have no place in cookies or brownies. Slide one of those bad boys this way, would ya?
Made these today with a slight variation. I had a couple bars of Hershey’s Cookies and Cream bars you see. Nomf! The slight cakeyness calls for a very tall glass of milk indeed! (or it could just be because there was a lot of cookies that looked like they needed, uh, testing…)
I made them a couple of days ago – took a dozen to a friend recovering from knee surgery who loved them. The s.o. thought they were incredible. Well done!!
Now, that is just plain wrong! How am I supposed to stay on my diet after looking at this?
I wish I was your trusty friend or neighbor that you are willing to share these delicious sinfully rich treats!!! I am totally jealous of my computer, hogging all the yummy stuff! Well I have to wait till tomorrow to scrummage up the ingredients to make me some!
Thank you for sharing with us!
Another excellent recipe, Jessie! I made these a couple of days ago with chocolate chips since that’s all I had. This is exactly what I want from a chocolate chip/chunk cookie. They are still soft and cakey two days later. (Not that you have to worry about them lasting too long.) Love your blog, your recipes and your instructions!
Thanks so much, Dani! So glad you liked ‘em! This is one of my favorite cookie recipes.
+Jessie
Hi! This is my first time trying out one of your recipes, although I do come and drool over the pictures often.
My cookies did not come out quite like yours, they flattened out a bit and were not nice and high. I followed the directions exactly. Do you have any idea what I might have done wrong?
Thanks!
Mine did the same thing! they still tasted lovely but they didnt look as scrumptious as the pictures do.
Hi.
I just wondered, how many grams does 2 sticks of butter weigh?
Everywhere I see “2 sticks of butter” or something like that, but for those who don’t live in America, it’s kind of hard to find out…
Hey Vikky,
Thanks for stopping by.
OK, so! American butter usually comes in sticks. There are 4 sticks in a 1 pound box. Each stick is 4 ounces.
4 ounces x 2 sticks of butter = 8 ounces
8 ounces = 226.8 grams
Hope that helps!
+Jessie
Oh, for future reference, I have a culinary converter on my Tools page, here:
http://www.thehungrymouse.com/home/tools/
Just plug in the amount and units you want to convert, and it will do the math for you.
Cheers!
+Jessie
I made these a few weeks ago and they were indescribably good! I want to make them again next week and am wondering if I make the dough the night before and leave it in the fridge to bake the next morning will they be as good?
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi mouse! I was wondering if i can use honey instead sugar since doctor restricted my regular sugar consumption.
These are delicious, plain and simple. Just made them and they turned out perfectly!
How many cookies does this make?
im makin these rite now they are amazing!
I just love your recipes and your mode of writing – so clever and witty! Thanks for sharing this recipe! My husband loves chocolate chip cookies and these were a cinch to make. I flattened the balls just slightly before baking so that they would have more of a flat cookie shape and they turned out amazing! I must admit, some of the dough didn’t quite make it into formed cookies…. With a bowl of french vanilla ice cream, these cookies made the perfect Easter treat! Thank you!
I just made these….they came out PERFECT! I used unsalted butter and it wasn’t exactly softened when I started beating it. But when I beat it alone for a few minutes it softened right up. I thought of a neat little twist….dip a fresh hazelnut in chocolate and gently push it into the top of a right out of the oven cookie….YUM!
3 cups of flour is too much. Did you mean 2 cups. I was wondering when I red th recipe but made it your way anyway and thy came out kinda cakey.