How to Make Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies from Scratch: My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe (2024)

This is my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is my own recipe. I started with a few basic recipes and tweaked them together to come up with a soft, chewy, chocolaty, cookie. It has taken me years of trial and error, but I've finally found the right combinations and techniques. Everyone loves my cookies, and everyone will love yours, too, if you use my chocolate chip cookie recipe.

First, get your ingredients together.

You will need the following:

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups (12 oz.) semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

Make sure you have all the ingredients. If you're missing some, pick them up at the store before you start. Make a list and double check it before you go so that you don't forget anything. If you find out half-way through you're missing something, you're going to be upset. Once you have all the ingredients to make homemade chocolate chip cookies from scratch, you can start mixing them together.
You can use an electric mixer to mix the dough, but be careful not to 0ver-beat it once you add the eggs. It will also be more difficult to use a mixer when you're stirring in the flour. I prefer to stir it all by hand.

Once the butter and sugar is creamed together, mix in the vanilla and eggs. Don't beat it together, you don't want it to be frothy. This is when I usually suggest you stop using a mixer if you began with one. If you mix it too much with the eggs, you'll make your chocolate chip cookies spongy instead of chewy and moist.

Start mixing together your dry ingredients for your homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Next, get a separate bowl and measure and mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix it together well so that there are no lumps in the flour. Do not use a mixer for this step or else your kitchen will be covered with flour. You just need to stir it enough with a spoon to smooth the lumps and incorporate the baking soda and salt.

Now, you can slowly start adding the flour to the wet mixture. Mix is slowly but thoroughly. You can use an electric stand mixer with a dough hook initially, but keep it low. Again, I prefer to just use a spoon. It's a pretty simple dough that you really don't need a mixer, unless you're making several large batches.

Finally, pour in the chocolate chips and mix it all together. When you learn how to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch, you will need to mix it correctly and use all the right amounts or else they won't come out right. However, you can add an extra 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or use mini chips instead if you really love the chocolate part. This won't mess with the baking too much. They'll still taste great.

When the dough is all mixed, you can either bake them right away or put them in the fridge. The dough will stay fine in the fridge for about a week or in the freezer for about a few months. I've tweaked my recipe enough that you really don't need to refrigerate it before baking. I do recommend keeping the dough in the fridge in between scooping batches.

Time to bake your homemade chocolate chip cookies.

When the dough is ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Get a nonstick cookie sheet. You can put a sheet of parchment paper on the pan to make it easy to remove the chocolate chip cookies, but that is optional. If you do, be careful when you move the pan around after they're baked so that they don't slide off the pan. Parchment paper makes cookies easy to slide off, even when you don't want them to.

Use a spoon and make small 1 1/2 inch balls with the homemade chocolate chip cookie dough. Roll them in your hands to make perfect circles, but don't handle them too much or they will start to get warm before they get into the oven. You can also use a cookie scoop. It looks like an ice cream scoop but it is smaller and the perfect size for cookies. This will also make sure your chocolate chip cookies are even in size.

Place them on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and 2 inches from the edges. Put them in the oven and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on your oven and how big you made the cookies. Keep an eye on them and remove them when they are lightly golden brown.

Remove them from the oven and let them cool for about 3 to 5 minutes on the pan. Then, remove them from the pan and put them on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely or you can serve them warm.

It is not hard to learn how to make chocolate chip cookies even if you are making them from scratch. Make these delicious cookies for a party, get together, or for your cookie jar. Everyone will love these warm, delicious chocolate chip cookies and will come back for more!

If you follow this chocolate chip cookie recipe, you'll make great, chewy, and chocolaty cookies every time. If you find your cookies don't come out just right, make sure you did everything correctly. Here are a few common mistakes to avoid when following this chocolate chip cookie recipe:

1. Don't melt the butter, but make sure it's soft.
2. Don't put in too much butter or they will flatten out too much.
3. Don't put the balls of dough on a hot or warm cookie sheet. Let it cool completely before preparing the next batch.
4. Don't put in too much flour or they will crumble.
5. Don't forget the baking soda!
6. Don't bake them too long or they will become hard.
7. Use the light on your oven to check on the cookies instead of constantly opening the door or else you'll lose heat making them bake inconsistently.