Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Oct 20, 2014, Updated May 07, 2023
Soft and chewy chocolate chunk cookies! You will love these!
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The main reason why I love cookies is because it is what made me fell in love with baking. Cookies were the first thing I ever baked, probably because they looked pretty simple to bake. However after baking them a couple of times I figured out things weren’t really as simple as they appear to be. All cookies are baked using 4 basic ingredients – flour, butter, sugar and eggs, everything else is added for flavor and texture. But baking them is not easy as it sounds, especially when you are looking for certain textures.
The most popular cookie in America has to be the Chocolate Chip Cookies and from my understanding everyone here loves a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie. At first I did not understand the craze because I come from a country where cookies = crispiness. We never ate soft cookies and hence had no idea. In fact this year when I was in India for vacation I baked a batch of soft cookies and someone asked me, so these are not done right? you are going to bake them more and make it all crispy? I really didn’t know what to say, nobody understands a soft cookie in India!
But now I love crispy and soft cookies equally. Crispy for dipping in my tea and soft and chewy cookies as treats. It’s amazing how different baking time, sugar, flour, egg, everything has an effect on the final cookie texture. Well that’s why baking is so exciting 🙂 Let’s talk a bit about cookie science in making these soft and chewy chocolate chunk cookies.
What makes a cookie chewy and soft is the high moisture content in the cookie dough. I don’t think one ingredient can make a cookie soft and chewy, it is the interaction of a number of ingredients which gives a perfect texture to your cookies. Using brown sugar, extra egg yolk, cornstarch and oil all contribute to a soft cookie. How? Let’s see.
# Brown sugar is hygroscopic which means it absorbs moisture from air and ensures that cookies stay soft & chewy. So I used a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar in this recipe.
# Egg yolk helps to add moistness whereas egg whites dry out the cookies, so when you add an extra egg yolk you increase the moistness leading to a softer and denser cookie.
# One of the main ingredients for soft and puff cookies is cornstarch. It acts as a tenderizing ingredient and helps prevent gluten development.
# We all know that fat plays an important role in how your cookie will spread. I like using cold, room temperature butter for my cookies and also add 2 tablespoons of canola oil to it. Oil really kept these cookies soft for a longer time. What is cold, room temperature butter? If you press butter with your finger you should be able to make an impression/dent but it should still be firm to touch.
# Now we come to chilling the dough. If you are at a place where it’s really warm, it is a good idea to chill the dough for at least 2 hour or even overnight. Cookie dough which is chilled before baking holds it shapes and results in puffier cookies. I did not chill my dough because a) I had no time, I made these for an event at the last minute b) it was quite cold the day I made these so I thought they would hold well even without chilling.
If you are looking for thick puffy cookies, make sure that the dough is piled high on the baking sheet. Like you can place 1 tablespoon of dough on the baking sheet and then place another tablespoon of dough over it. Also do not bake them for a longer time if you want soft cookies, bake them anywhere between 9-11 minutes and take them out while center is still puffy. Let them cool down on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them on to a wire rack to cool completely. I baked mine for 11 minutes.
I was able to get 24 cookies out of this dough, you might get more or less depending on how much dough you use per cookie.
* You can add more or less of chocolate chunk depending on taste and preference.
* Bake longer and skip the cornstarch for crispier cookies.
Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 3/4 cup butter [1.5 sticks] unsalted, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- 1.5 tablespoons canola oil
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract [i used pure]
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk at room temperature
- 1.25 cups chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a bowl sift together all purpose flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.
- Beat together butter, oil and both the sugars until creamy.
- Add in the vanilla, egg, egg yolk and beat till well combined.
- Gradually beat in the flour mixture. [Add it in 3 parts and not dump it all in one go].
- Stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Chill the mixture for 1-2 hours. [I did not because I had no time]
- Drop heaping tall tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheet. You can push few chocolate chunk on top of cookie dough for presentation purpose but that's optional.
- Bake at 350 F degrees for 9-11 minutes, I baked mine for 11 minutes.
- Take out of the oven and let the cookies cool down in the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring them on to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi thanks for sharing. These look great but how are the measurements in metric system?
this is an old recipe hence it doesn’t have measurements in grams, sorry. I will need to work on this recipe again and then update it. For reference I use 1 standard US cup which is 8 oz (240 ml).
Hi Manali,
Can we use any substitute to egg. Since we don’t eat eggs?
use flax egg or chia egg!
cookies are so tempting and perfect dear!
These look so good. I would have to eat half a dozen of these!
Thank you!
oh my gosh soft cookies!!! my ultimate weekness 😉 love these they look ah-mazing!
Thank you Michele! Who doesn’t love soft cookies?!
Have you visited Sally’s Baking Addiction? She’s a big fan of soft and chewy cookies and a big corn starch devotee. I’m with her on that! These do look perfect, Manali! You can inspire people in India to love soft-baked cookies.
Thanks Mir! Yes I have visited her blog, totally cornstarch does make a difference. We replace APF with cornstarch when making cake flour at home, the logic is same. There it leads to a softer cake, here soft cookies! 🙂
Oh wow! These look amazing Manali! Look like they are store bought but better 😀 Love how you chilled the dough first. Brilliant!
Thanks you Vanessa! 🙂 you are too kind!
Soft and chewy are the only way to have cookies. Here, cookies are usually harder, which I don’t enjoy as much.
Thanks Dannii! Oh you should come to US then, here it’s all about soft cookies! 😀
Oh wow!! These look just perfect! I am such a sucker for soft chocolate chip cookies!
Thanks Annie, glad you liked it!
I love crisp and soft cookies, too! Although these chewy ones definitely look like the ultimate treat! I love the chunks of chocolate in here. Sounds like these cuties would be perfect to dunk in a glass of milk!
Thanks Gayle! I can never have enough of chocolates so that’s why I added lots of chocolate chunks in there! They are great with a glass of milk or as it is!
These are picture perfect and they look exactly like my kind of chocolate chip cookie! I have never understood the allure of the crisp chocolate chip cookie (other cookies, yes). To me the bigger and softer the better! I 100% agree with all your tips and ingredients that make the softest, chewiest cookies! I’ve never tried oil, but that makes complete sense! Pinned!
Thanks for pinning Lindsey! Well maybe because chocolate chip cookies weren’t exactly popular in India [now they are yes] so all we ate growing up were crisp cumin cookies, plain chocolate cookies, almond cookies, cashew cookies, coconut cookies etc. The crispy chocolate chips cookies that we ate were very different from the American version and were made without egg. In fact all cookies in India are till date made without eggs. We call them biscuits, not cookies 🙂
These chocolate chip cookies look perfect Manali! It’s really interesting that chewy cookies aren’t a thing in India!
Thanks Stacey! Yeah isn’t that weird but it is coming up now I guess!
Wow ,these cookies look absolutely perfect!!!!
Thank you so much! 🙂
I adore soft and chewy cookies! It’s so interesting how different cultures have their own ways of enjoying the same foods. I enjoy coming to your blog and learning more about your culture.
Thank you Jen! Yeah in India we all love crispy cookies and call them biscuits whereas biscuits mean a totally different thing in US!
That’s so interesting to hear that over in the UK you guys like your cookies crispy! I’m a soft ‘n’ chewy cookie lover American myself, but still that’s kinda cool to hear! 😉 Speaking of which, these cookies? I am DYING over how perfect they look. All hail the classic CC cookie!
P.S–your photos are totally stunning. Pinned!
Thanks for pinning Sarah! No, I was talking about India! that’s where I am from and we have no concept of chewy and soft cookies!