Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (without brown sugar!)
These delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies without Brown Sugar have a perfectly crisp edge and chewy, gooey middle. Even better, these easy, one-bowlcookies are no-chill, and ready in just 30 minutes!
Prep and line: preheat your oven to 375°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Cream butter, sugar, and extract: cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla together until thoroughly combined, for about 2 minutes on medium speed using a hand or stand mixer.
Beat in the eggs: add in the eggs and beat for 1 minute more on medium until the batter is smooth and blended (the batter may look a touch broken still which is okay).
Add in dries: add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the batter, and mix on low speed just until the flour is incorporated and a smooth dough forms (be sure to scrape the bowl really well about halfway through mixing!).
Add chips: add in the chocolate chips all at once, and mix in by hand or carefully on low speed, just until they’re evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Scoop dough balls: scoop dough into 2” rounds, using a scant ¼ cup of dough per cookie (an ice cream scoop works well for easy portioning). Roll dough balls between your hands to fully round (if not using an ice cream scoop).
Tray and top: place scooped cookies on prepared baking sheets at least 2” apart. For an extra hand-made touch, gently press a few extra chocolate chips into the top of each dough ball. If using, sprinkle a few crushed flakes of sea salt on top of each cookie as well.
Bake: bake for 13-15 minutes, just until the bottoms are a medium golden brown, and the top edges are lightly browned as well (if baking one sheet at a time, they may cook faster so start checking around 11 minutes). The middles should still be fairly pale and crackly, but look dry although they’ll be soft to the touch (a touch underbaked is actually good for these cookies as they’ll crisp up when they cool).
Cool, share and enjoy: cool cookies as long as you can keep away from them (aka about 5 minutes max in my kitchen), then pass some molten chocolate goodness and enjoy!
Notes
To salt or not to salt? The sea salt flakes are optional in this recipe as they only serve as a garnish, but I highly recommend them for a perfect salt balance to the sweet chocolate cookie base.If you don’t have them or choose not to use them, up the salt in the recipe to 1 teaspoon.
Which chocolate chips? I prefer dark chocolate chips in this recipe (I used Hershey's Special Dark Chips as a good, less expensive option); in general, the higher the quality, the better in my book, but if Nestle’s semi-sweet chips is what you grew up loving, then definitely stick with those if you like for that extra touch of nostalgia!
Chilled bakes: if you’d like, you can bake these cookies directly from the fridge or freezer too. Just know that doing so will make the cookies spread a little less and add a little chewiness too, but they'll still be delicious! You can chill scooped dough balls for 1 month in the freezer or 4 days in the fridge. If baking from the fridge or freezer, just tray up the chilled, scooped dough balls on your baking pan, sprinkle with sea salt, and bake according to regular recipe instructions, noting you may need an extra few minutes for cookies to fully bake.
Small-batch chocolate chip cookies: Want just a few cookies? Toggle to "0.5X" at the top of the ingredient list and you'll have a recipe for just 8 delicious cookies!
Storage: these cookies will keep for 5-7 in an air-tight container at room temperature.
It’d mean so much to me if you could please give the recipe card a ⭐ rating on the site and leave a comment to help others find this sweet recipe! Xo, Jocelyn @ Mint+Mallow