Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cookies equal comfort. Especially warm right out of the oven eating them straight off the cookie sheet.
It just feels like warmth, love, and home. And while I love fancy cookies, sometimes I just want easy chocolate chip cookies.
I don’t think there is any secret by now that I have a certain obsession affection for cookies. Especially the kind mentioned above.
I have this memory of visiting my aunt in Alabama when I was very young. It was time to take a bath and I was protesting (I apparently hated being clean). My aunt told me “if you take a bath I will have warm chocolate chip cookies for you when you get out…”
Sold. That’s all it took. Bribery via warm chocolate chip cookies and I’m diving into the tub.
I think sometimes people who don’t bake very often do not realize that cookies can really be a simple thing to make. You really only need 5 ingredients to make fantastic easy chocolate chip cookies and I bet most of us already have them in our pantry!
I created this simple chocolate chip cookie recipe that comes together quickly and uses things that you probably only have in your pantry!
Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Cookies
NOTE: If you are wanting an easy vegan recipe, check out my post specifically for Easy Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies.
#1: Butter:
The fat in the butter is important for creating tenderness and flavor. The moisture from the butter is also necessary to hold the cookie together and to create some tenderness when it heats in the oven and steam is released.
This recipe is created for the use of regular butter, salted or unsalted. You can substitute margarine or vegan butter, but results will vary.
#2: Sugar:
Sugar is for the purposes of sweetness as well as structure in the cookie. Brown sugar gives the cookies chew and moisture.
Granulated sugar will not work for this recipe. You must use light or dark brown sugar for these cookies.
#3: Egg:
A large egg is preferable. This recipe has been made successfully with other vegan egg substitutions (such as Ener-G egg replacer) however, results will vary. Baking is science!
When you alter recipes the results will also be altered. Check out my recipe for 6 ingredient vegan chocolate chip cookies if you are looking to veganize these!
#4: Flour:
All-purpose, self-rising, or bread flour. All of them work!
Because this recipe does not add any leaveners you can use self-rising flour in this recipe. To measure flour, lightly spoon it into measuring cups (do not pack down!) and level the cup off with a knife.
#5: Chocolate!:
Chips or chunks. Milk, bittersweet, or Dark. I guess you could even do white, but don’t offer me any (who am I kidding, give me one!)
#6: Salt:
If you used salted butter or self-rising flour, then the dough will already have salt in it. However, if you used unsalted butter and all-purpose flour or bread flour then you definitely need to add a bit of salt.
While technically the cookies will bake perfectly fine without the salt, the flavor will be completely flat and just taste overly sweet without the addition of a little salt.
That’s it! 6 ingredients: Butter, sugar, egg, flour, chocolate, salt. You don’t need baking powder and baking soda to make very simple cookies.
Sure, if you have the time and want to make a more complicated recipe, then go for it! But this is that recipe for a quick, throw it together, I need cookies in my mouth in less than 15 minutes, kind of recipe.
Easy chocolate chip cookies win! Go make them. It is time.
Note: The point of this recipe is that it is very stripped down and simplified. They are simple and perfect in that way. If you have the time and want to try more over the top cookies, check out this post for my Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.
How to Make The Easiest Chocolate Chip Cookies: Watch the Video
Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies
These easy chocolate chip cookies only require 6 ingredients! With only butter, flour, sugar, egg, salt, and chocolate chips you can make great chocolate chip cookies!
Ingredients
- 1 stick (4 oz, 113 grams, 1/2 cup) softened butter- salted or unsalted, at room temperature (or you can microwave it for about 15 seconds)
- 3/4 cup (5.6 oz, 158 grams) light or dark brown sugar (do not use granulated white sugar)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 1/4 tsp salt, or large pinch
- 1 cup plus 1/4 cup (5.3 oz, 150 grams) all-purpose flour, lightly spooned into measuring cup & leveled off, being careful not to pack down when measuring
- 1 cup chocolate chips (any kind your prefer or have on hand)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer) cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. (NOTE: if you do not have a mixer you can do this with a wooden spoon. Beat together the butter and sugar until completely combined and fluffy. This will take some time.)
- Add the egg and vanilla (if using) to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until incorporated.
- Stir in the flour (make sure your flour has not been packed down into the measuring cup when measured or there will be too much flour in your cookies), salt, and the chocolate chips just until combined. Do not mix for a long time after adding the flour, it will create cookies that are too tough or cakey. Scoop into mounds about 2 TBSP each onto ungreased cookie sheets (you can use a silpat or parchment paper to line your sheets). Do not put more than 9 cookies per sheet.
- Bake at 350ºF until just set on the edges and middle still looks a little bit undercooked. About 8-12 minutes. (these cookies do not brown as much as other cookies because of the lack of baking soda or baking powder.)
- Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing. Cookies will continue to cook on the sheets for a few minutes.
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Nutrition Information:
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 0
Made these. Just came out of the oven, I have a picture but nowhere to post. They look good. I ended up baking mine for 15/18 minutes. I also added a cinnamon sugar mix to mine. I would have followed the 2tbs mounds but I wanted a nice amount of cookies. So I used a little less than 1 tbs and it still only gave me a dozen.
Not very sweet by any means. Very moist, dense, like airy. I think that’s the proper term. All in all I would say not too bad for a quick recipe. Just wish the dough was sweeter and more.
I found that this recipe was not very sweet. Although they tasted okay, it was lacking the overall cookie taste to me. I also added half a teaspoon of baking soda and powder and they came out very fluffy which I preferred.
Hi Kara! These are meant to be “in a pinch” cookies for people with few ingredients on hand and needing cookies quickly. If you want cookies with more flavor I would suggest trying out my best chocolate chip cookie recipe or my soft and chewy cookie recipe!
Very simple to make and so good. We didn’t have any left.
So glad to hear you enjoyed them Georgia!
DELICIOUS!!! I babysit three toddlers and they get fussy quick. One day, the oldest (5) asked for cookies so, to keep down the fussing, I searched for an easy recipe and this one was perfect. I recommend it for any quick cookie crisis.
Thanks so much, Dee Dee! Glad you enjoyed it!
Perfect for what it is. I used butter with canola oil added because that’s all I had on hand. This is possibly my first time ever making cookies from scratch, and my husband and I both think they turned out good.
We’ve been making these cookies for awhile, in fact it’s my go to recipe now. We absolutely love them for their taste and their simplicity! I always double the recipe and they never last long. Marvelous cookies, baker & recipe. Thank you for these 🙂
That is so great to hear Misty! Thank you for sharing! <3
My new go to cookie recipe! I used self- rising flour instead of all-purpose flour and omitted the salt. Super moist cookies!!
So glad you enjoyed them Connie! <3
Can I use oil or mix salted butter with unsalted cuz I have less unsalted butter
Hi Sofia! Oil is not a good substitute for solid fat in baking. The recipe states you can use salted or unsalted butter for this recipe. So if you all you have is salted you can use that and you do not need to add the pinch of salt into the recipe.
I made the easy chocolate chip cookies my family loved them I liked all the cooking tips that you gave also. I look forward to try and more of your recipes they all look delicious. Thank you
So glad you enjoyed them!
Just wanted you to know – I’ve had this recipe saved for about four years – and I STILL use it time and time again! Such a great recipe!!!
That’s so great to hear Samantha! Makes my heart happy! <3
These were great!! This recipe shows up for a google keyword “self-rising flour cookies”, so I made them with self-rising flour without thinking. They came out wonderfully – nice consistency, fluffy, with really good flavor. Thank you!!
That’s so great to hear Mia! So glad you enjoyed them!
I think I did something wrong.
Oh dear, John! It looks like there was not enough flour in your dough. Was the dough very wet? Also possible that your oven was not cooking hot enough so all the butter melted before the cookies could set. Do you by chance have an oven thermometer in your oven?
These were amazing and simple to make, I used a mix of chocolate chips and chunks and it worked out perfectly, though I did add a few extra tablespoons of flour in to get the batter to thicken up, the outcome was amazing! Definitely making these for Christmas.<3
That makes me so happy Ashley! Thanks for sharing your picture! The look great!
Very yummy but only made 10 cookies. If I’m putting in effort to bake it’s nice to have a bit more of a result.
Hi Rosie! Make sure you are creaming your butter and sugar together well until light and fluffy. This actually increases the volume of the dough. This recipe is also easy to double if you want more cookies. Glad you enjoyed them!
I am looking for eggless gluten free cookies which I made by incorporating coconut flour , sorghum flour and corn flour and I also used honey instead of sugar so can you tell me the correct ratio of flours. Does using honey instead of sugar taste good??
Hi there! I’m sorry but this style of baking isn’t really my expertise. I really focus more on traditional baking so I’m not really sure what ratios you should use. You can use honey instead of sugar if you like in baking, but it definitely changes the texture!
I made these yesterday they were easy and delish.
Hi Mia! I’m so glad you enjoyed them and I love your picture! <3
Great recipe. I love how simple it is
I’m so glad you enjoy it Jennifer! <3
im gonna make it again cause it was good
I’m so glad you enjoyed them Mia! <3
These are our new favorite cookie. They are so quick and easy with minimal ingredients that it is not a huge ordeal to make .
Love them- thank you for sharing.
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoy these cookies Olivia!
I have been making these for several years. They used to be 5 ingredient ones :). They taste great and I havent seen the need for a more complicated recipe.
The prep and cook time is however not correct. Overall, 30-35 min at least. Probably abit more till you can eat them.
Thank you for the recipe 🙂
Glad you enjoy them!
So surprised this recipe didn’t have any soda in it.First time baking this and they’re better not too sweet opposed to,too sweet!
So glad you enjoyed them Viola!
I love these cookies I’m not much of a baker but these cookies could make anyone enjoy baking thank you for sharing this great story about how you came up with the idea but the only bad thing about this is it takes allot of butter and there’s too much but overall if it were up to me I would put this recipe in a cookbook
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed these cookies Aaron!
These came out great! I didn’t have any vanilla or chocolate chips so I improvised with 1tsp bourbon and chopped up leftover Halloween candy (Hershey’s chocolate and Reece’s pieces) . Definitely a good cookie to make with minimal ingredients.
Glad you enjoyed them Nicole!
These are my favorite chocolate chip cookies to make! Do they freeze well?
they came out pretty good, although i think they could use more flavor. it could be because i used milk chocolate chips. also wondering if i could add Hershey chocolate baking powder to up the chocolate flavor. if so, how much? i topped mine with a simple chocolate frosting (powdered sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, Hershey powder) which brought them over the top.
WHAT ABOUT ADDING HERSHEY POWDER TO INCREASE THE CHOCOLATE FLAVOR? IF SO, HOW MUCH? I MADE A SIMPLE CHOCOLATE FROSTING(MILK,HERSHEY POWDER, BUTTER, VANILLA, POWDERED SUGAR)
Thanks for this! Loved the recipe. My 6 year old baked the cookies with some guidance yesterday. They came out really well . Thank you.
Quick question: My cookies were a little thin and not fluffy. They tasted great though and I kinda prefer the thinner version. Should I add baking powder next term if I want a more fluffier version, or any other ingredient?
That’s so great to hear! If you want them to be fluffier, then adding the baking powder will definitely help that! That is what I would suggest. I would use 1/2 tsp for this amount of dough.
They were terrible! Taste more like flour then anything else. Very disappointing!!
Hi Mel! So sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy these cookies. Since this is a tested recipe made many times with success, I would love to help you troubleshoot! The way you describe the cookies makes me believe that you may have ended up with too much flour in your dough. Make sure that when you measure your flour you fluff it up with your spoon, lightly spoon it into the measuring cups without packing it down at all, and then level it off.
I cannot cook to save my life – but these turned out oh so perfectly!
I didn’t have any chocolate chips – so I used cacao powder and maple syrup. Sprinkled with sea salt before I popped them in the oven. They turned out delicious! Very addictive. Beautiful!
I’m not much of a baker but I made these with my 7 year old daughter, she thought they were so good she has been raving about them to everyone and now wants us to open a cookie store.
That’s so great to hear Megan!
Can this dough be either frozen or kept for sometime in the fridge?
I’d love to have a batch on hand at most times.
Hi Ann, yes you can do that. I would suggest that you go ahead and scoop them into cookie dough balls and store that in the fridge or freezer. You can store the raw dough in the fridge for up to 3 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months. Increase the baking time, just keep an eye on them.
Can you use gluten free flour with this recipe?
I would recommend substituting a gluten free blend like Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten free baking flour or cup4cup flour.
Super easy, super good! My 3 year old grandson and I made these today. I added 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of caramel chips. We will make these again and again!
I’m so glad to hear that you and your grandson enjoyed them! I love the idea of using caramel chips! Sounds delicious!
My sister keep on taking the cookies from me even when it just cook.. and the sad things is that she didn’t leave me abit
Oh no! I guess you’ll have to make them again for yourself! 🙂
I love this recipe, I think I’ve made about 4 batches in the past few weeks haha. I use cut up milk and white chocolate instead of chocolate chips. I also use granulated sugar and it turns out fine (I’m living in Switzerland and brown sugar is really hard to find)
These turned out great! I doubled the recipe, and because it was doubled I relied on the fact that it was a “use what you have” methodology —only had the equivalent of one cup of brown sugar so added the extra half cup in white. I also used the self rising flour, tossed in about a half teaspoon of cinnamon and toasted pecans. I made larger cookies using an ice cream scoop and they baked about fifteen minutes. I wish you could see how beautiful they look… like bakery cookies with the crinkled surface. I will definitely keep this recipe on hand!
That is so great to hear Wendy! Your rendition sounds amazing!
Just made these tonight. Very quick and easy. They taste good although they have a very fluffy airy texture to them..very different from your classic cookie. A little odd for me but my boyfriend loved them.
So glad to hear that your boyfriend loved them!
They taste like they have a little bit of peanut butter in them. Really good flavor and simple to whip up in a pinch. Even better when there’s too much month at the end of the money and you want to give the kiddos a little treat and there ain’t a lot in the cupboard.
Sweetness is just right.
Thank you for sharing.
Can I make these WITHOUT Chocolate?
Yes, you can leave out the chocolate chips if you like or replace them with something else. Nuts, or dried fruit.
Haven’t used this recipe for awhile. It’s is fabulous and the cookies don’t last an hour in our house. Simply the best.
Hi, I just backed some cookies but somehow the texture inside is a bit funny. The inside is quite dry and crumbly..
Baked
Hello! I’m interesting in trying these as all of the comments seem to love them and the instructions are so perfectly simple but I’d like to know, will plain flour work instead of all-purpose-flour?
Hi I’m interested in making these because of how many people are happy with the results but I don’t have all-purpose flour, only plain. Will the recipe still work?