Sweet, delicious, easy to make, chocolate cookies. Moist and chewy on the inside with a crunchy crumbly exterior. Goes great with cold milk, making it the perfect late-night snack.
Let me first start off by saying, I hate baking because everything has to be so accurate and precise – there is literally no room for error.
Just “a little too much of this or not quite enough of that” can completely ruin a cake, pie, or cookie. It’s a whole science and if baking isn’t your thing, you will struggle to master these types of recipes.
I finally nailed this cookie recipe however and something tells me y’all are gonna love these simple but delicious chocolate cookies.
Let me first start off by saying, it took me some time to master this recipe and get the cookies to taste as good as they do. Trust me, this wasn’t an overnight process or one of those recipes I get right on the first try.
But all the experimenting and adjustments were worth it because these cookies are so freaking good and this is coming from someone who isn’t a big fan of chocolate.
I don’t eat ANYTHING with chocolate in it… I don’t like chocolate ice cream, chocolate candy, or chocolate pudding. I will eat some chocolate cake though if it’s made right though.
By the way, if you’re looking for an easy but super delicious chocolate cake recipe, give my Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe a shot, trust me you won’t regret it.
But yea, overall, I’m just not a fan of chocolate even though I am chocolate! LMBO! I’m sorry but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t throw that in there!
Childhood memories of cookies
One thing I remember about cookies growing up is how my mom would bake them for my sister and I shortly after dinner before we’d watch 7 Heaven together on Monday nights.
Some nights we’d watch a movie together and eat ice cream and sometimes pie if she had any made. But cookies were the one thing my mom didn’t really attempt to make from scratch.
She’d by the cookie dough by Pillsbury that you store in the freezer and when it was time to make them, she’d just cut them and place them nicely on a baking sheet.
I remember watching her do that and always begging her to have some before they were done. I think because I wasn’t the biggest cookie fan and the fact that I saw cold air rising from them after she cut into the, they reminded me of ice cream and I just wanted to bite into them.
Sometimes she’d give in and break off a little piece and give it to me. I don’t think she realized eating them cold wouldn’t have made me sick or anything. She was just a mother being cautious.
Memories of Boy Scout cookies
When I was in about 6th grade, age 11 or so… they would give us order forms to take home to our parents to sign to pre-order Boy Scout cookies they would sell during Easter and close to the end of the school year.
My mom and I loved the Caramel deLites!!! Those were her favorites and the ONLY kind I ate because again I wasn’t a fan of cookies, I just enjoyed those. I might try to find some btw – writing about them have me in the mood for some.
Anyway, while everyone else loved cookies, I was a yogurt, pudding, and ice cream kind of kid. Those were the kind of sweets I loved most.
And I couldn’t stand chocolate chip cookies for some odd reason. The only thing I liked about them were the chocolate chips.
I remember picking the chips out when my 6th grade teacher would bring them in for us and she’d get on me about wasting them and picking out the chips. Memories, memories, memories… now I’m an old man creating homemade cookie recipes.
What makes this a good chocolate cookie recipe?
With all that being said, these are pretty darn good… they’re so good even this CHOCOLATE HATER couldn’t resist going back for more.
- Moist and chewy: What I love most about these cookies is how chewy and moist they are. Don’t you hate those flat, hard, teeth-breaking, hockey pucks they call cookies? Believe it or not, some people like flat hard cookies but I DON’T AT ALL!
Now don’t get me wrong, these cookies aren’t anywhere near as moist as my famous chocolate cake, but they are chewy on the inside with a crunchy exterior, just the way most of us love our cookies. - The perfect flavor: Another thing that makes these cookies so good is the balance of flavor. They aren’t too sweet nor are they bitter.
I found the perfect cocoa to sugar ratio which is imperative. I think one of the reasons we anti-chocolate folks don’t care for chocolate is because of how sharp and bitter it can be sometimes.
These chocolate cookies right here are far from that though. They have the perfect amount of sweetness and the chocolate flavor isn’t overwhelming. - The perfect school snack for kids: Kids love sweet snacks, especially cookies and they’ll love these before out how crunchy sweet, and soft they are.
- Great snack for family movie night: This is the perfect family movie night snack because it’s also a snack kids would love.
It’s also the perfect late-night snack because they’re light on the stomach so you don’t have to stay up for 2 hours to avoid sleeping on them because they’re heavy. - Your kids can have fun making this: This is a kid-friendly recipe not just because its something they would love but something easy they can help you make.
Kids love helping mom and dad make things like pies, pudding, cake, and cookies. And with the blending, and cookie cutting, kids will find this interesting and fun.
Use good brands of ingredients
Before I get into the ingredients it’s important that I emphasize using high-quality name-brand ingredients like butter, sugar, cocoa, and vanilla.
You only need a few ingredients to bake cookies, so you want those few ingredients to be rich in flavor and high in quality.
So make sure you’re using pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla, and use a good brand of unsalted butter sugar, and cocoa powder.
Cookware you’ll need:
- Measuring cups: To measure the ingredients so that you’re using an accurate amount.
- Knife: To level off the ingredients so that you’re not going over the amount required.
- Strainer: The strainer is for sifting, scroll below to read more on that.
- Whisk: I like to use this tool to ensure all the dry ingredients are well incorporated when I combine everything
- Large mixing bowl: I like to use a large mixing bowl to cream and combine my dry ingredients just to prevent everything from splashing everything. I hate making a mess.
- Hand mixer: A hand mixer is needed for creaming.
- Spatula: I use a spatula to scrape the ingredients that splash on the sides of the bowl down into the mixture so everything gets blended in.
- Rolling pin: To flatten and roll out the cookie dough.
- Cookie cutters: To cut the cookies into nice even circular shapes.
- Parchment paper: This prevents the bottom of the cookies from burning and sticking to the baking sheet.
- Baking Sheet: To bake the cookies and the cooking rack that comes with it to rest the cookies on once they’re done.
Ingredients you’ll need:
- Cocoa Powder: Without this, you’ll have sugar cookies and not chocolate cookies. Lol!
- Flour: This is what gives the cookies its structure and what makes the cookie! Haha
- Sugar: For sweetness and moisture.
- Eggs: For structure, leavening, and flavor.
- Vanilla: This is one of the most important ingredients besides cocoa for flavor. What vanilla does for pie, cakes, pudding, and cookies can’t be understated.
- Baking Powder: This is purely a leavening ingredient to help the cookies rise a little.
- Salt: Salt just enhances the overall flavor and only a pinch of it should be used.
About the flour, cocoa, and baking powder
- Use new baking powder: Make sure the baking powder, which is a leavening ingredient which is responsible for making the cookies rise, is no more than 2 months old.
If your cookies didn’t rise much and are kind of flat, using outdated baking powder maybe one of the reasons why. - How to properly measure the flour and cocoa: Scoop the flour and cocoa into measuring cups and level it off with a knife to make sure you’re not using more flour and cocoa than you should.
Scooping the flour and cocoa into measuring cups and leveling with a knife ensures that measurements are accurate. - What kind of cocoa powder should I use? I use Hershey Milk cocoa. Hershey is one of the best brands of cocoa on the market and the milk kind gives the cookies the perfect balance in flavor.
I dont like chocolate like that so I don’t want to use dark chocolate for this cookie recipe but you can if you prefer richer chocolate.
The importance of sifting the dry ingredients
People always ask if sifting dry ingredients like flour and cocoa are necessary. I don’t know if necessary is the word I’d use, but I would it is recommended.
The purpose of sifting flour through a sieve or sifter is to break up clumps, aerate the ingredients, and to remove any hard pieces that may be in the flour you don’t want going into the mixture.
Why the salt?
Let me talk about the salt I use in the dry ingredients because I know some of you may be confused by the salt in the ingredients list.
For you cooking novice out there wondering why I added salt to the dry ingredients, it’s simply to enhance the flavor of the cookies. Salt is a flavor enhancer, so it’s frequently used in sweet/dessert recipes.
Trust me, without the salt these cookies won’t taste as good so don’t omit it. Hope yall are clear now on why I add salt to this recipe. LMBO!!
Why are my cookies spreading and flat?
One of the dilemmas people face when trying to make and perfect cookies from scratch is making cookies without them spreading and coming out flat and thin as a sheet of paper! Lol!
A flat cookie is probably one of the worst outcomes you can experience in baking – almost as bad as a sunken cake! And I’m sure if you’ve attempted to bake some from scratch, at some point in time you’ve experienced this.
Well below are the 3 most common sins when baking cookies and what causes the forbidden flat cookie. Read these causes thoroughly and make sure not to do them again.
- Melted butter: Cold butter keeps everything in place because it’s solid whereas melted butter turns everything into a runny mess.
It’s liquidy which softens the flour to where it’s almost muddy to where it can’t rise. - The oven is too hot: OK so although your butter may not be melted and even if it’s room temperature or cool, if the oven is too hot it will cause the butter in the cookie dough to MELT super fast.
It will melt before the other ingredients like the eggs and flour, which are responsible for the structure and rising of the cookie, get to do their job.
So because the butter is melting and spreading fast in the heat, it’s causing a wet liquidy cookie. - Not enough flour: Flour is responsible for the structure of the cookies and IT IS THE COOKIE, that MAKES THE COOKIE!
If there isn’t enough flour there’s nothing to absorb the butter and keep the structure of the cookie upright when the butter melts which will cause everything to spread along with the butter.
About the butter
- What’s the best kind of butter to use? Now I’m using unsalted butter by Land O Lakes which in my opinion is a good rich brand of butter. Make sure you’re using a good brand of unsalted butter as well.
- Salted or Unsalted butter? If salted butter is all you have on hand, reduce the amount of salt by half or just omit it altogether because using too much salt will result in salty cookies and that’s the last thing you want!
About the sugars
- Brown sugar: Brown sugar adds sweetness and flavor, white sugar just adds sweetness so I prefer using brown sugar.
- Confectioner’s sugar: I use powdered sugar to replace the additional granulated sugar needed to sweeten the cookies.
Sugar doesn’t dissolve much while these cookies are baking which is for a very short time and what happens is you end up biting into granulated crystals of sugar.
So to get the cookies to the desired sweetness without having to add granulated sugar, use powdered sugar.
You must make these ahead of time!
Ok so usually in this section Im just telling you how to make these cookies ahead of time but I must say it’s important to make this particular recipe ahead of time before of the softness of the cookies.
After you remove them from the oven, sit them on a baking rack in room temperature for a few hours before devouring them!
It’s probably best to make these cookies in the morning and then leave them covered and sitting out throughout the day so they can harden and by night.
They’ll be all ready for movie night. They not only taste better after giving them time to sit but they harden into the perfect crunchy moist cookie.
How to make chewy chocolate cookies
1. Pour all the dry ingredients into a big mixing bowl through the sifter as shown below.
2. Whisk it all in to make sure all the ingredients are well incorporated.
3. Mix the butter and sugar which is called creaming. Make sure the butter is at room temperature so sit it out if it’s frozen before starting the recipe.
4. Add in the egg and vanilla and then give it all another blend.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and blend until crumbs form.
6. Mend and bring the crumbs together with your hands to form a ball of cookie dough.
7. After combining the dry and wet ingredients wrap the cookie dough with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to give all the ingredients time to marry.
8. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
9. Get the cookie dough and cut it in half.
10. Press down on it then spread it out using the rolling pin. You want the cookie dough to be about 1/8 inch in thickness.
11. Take some cookie cutters and cut out the cookies then place them on the lined baking sheet.
12. Gather the remaining cookie dough and flatten it out again to make more cookies as shown in the photo below.
13. When you place the cookies in the oven make sure you bake them on the top rack. The bottom of the cookies will burn due to being so close to the fire on the bottom rack.
14. Bake them for 10 minutes and when they’re done, Once the cookies are done, place them on the baking rack and remove the parchment paper from underneath.
Otherwise, the butter and moisture will seep to the bottom of the cookies and they may fall apart.
Tips for best results
- When you combine the butter and sugar make sure you scrape the mixture down from the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula.
Stir the bottom of the bowl so that everything is well blended and incorporated because the hand mixer can’t get to everything. - If your cookies for whatever reason don’t spread to your liking, press and shape them to your liking with a spoon when they’re soft straight out the often then let them sit.
What to serve with chocolate cookies?
- Milk: Well let’s get the obvious out the way, MILK! Lmbo! Cookies and milk are another one of those classic food combos that we’ll always love and never get old.
Milk and cookies and like milk and cereal, a perfect union. - Vanilla ice cream: Cookies in vanilla ice cream are like cookies in milk. Sometimes I crunch the cookies up and put them in the ice cream for a bowl of cookies and cream lol. Good combo though!
Frequently asked questions
How to make these ahead of time?
There’s no special way to make them ahead of time! Just make the cookie dough, wrap it in plastic wrap, and store it in the freezer like you would do store-bought pre-cooked cookies.
You can always bake them when you want! Just sit the cookie dough out at room temperature ahead of time because it will probably be rock-hard and need time to unthaw.
How to get my cookies harder?
If you want traditional, harder, crunchier cookies, just leave them in the oven to cook longer.
How to store them?
I leave my cookies out in a cookie jar! You can place them in the refrigerator though, it won’t hurt! I just like to bite into chilled cookies.
How long do they last?
These cookies can stay fresh for a few days, maybe 4 to 5!
Chocolate cookies can’t get too much better than this folks! Chocolate haters may even enjoy these bad boyz for their moistness alone.
So I hope you guys enjoy them…. they are AMAZING! Check the recipe out below, and please share and comment; it helps a lot!
Enjoy, later!
PBJ~
Easy Delicious Classic Chocolate Cookies Recipe
Sweet, delicious, easy to make, chocolate cookies. Moist and chewy on the inside with a crunchy crumbly exterior. Goes great with cold milk, making it the perfect late-night snack.
- Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
2–1/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
3/4 Cup Hershey’s Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 Cup Unsalted Butter
1 Large Egg
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsps Vanilla
1 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Tsp Salt
Instructions
- Combine all of your dry ingredients. Get a mixing bowl and add your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, then stir in well. Make sure all the dry ingredients are well blended.
- What you’re going to do next is add the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar to another mixing bowl, With a hand mixer, blend the sugar and butter together on low speed until well blended.
- Then add the egg and vanilla and blend again until well blended.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and blend until crumbs form. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl while blending everything in to make sure everything is well incorporated. Then with your hands, bring the crumbs together to form a big ball of chocolate cookie dough.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degree
- Get a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Then scoop pieces of cookie dough onto the baking sheet. Flatten them a bit with a spoon and make sure they are at least 1/4 inch apart.
- Place the cookies into the oven on the high rack and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven. While soft, with a spoon, press them into the shape of a cookie if they didn’t melt into shape.
- Sit the cookies on the counter in room temperature for about 4 hours so they harden, then bake the second batch.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
by
One Response
These are Awesome !!!!!
Even better with additions I adapted from a Cranberry Chip cookie Recipe… I ADD…
1.5 cups Chocolate Chips.. – I use Hersheys Special Dark
1.5 cups Dried Cranberries.. – Reg, or the Cherry soaked ones
3/4 Cup Chopped Pecans – I toast mine.. can also use Sliced Almonds toasted
I also use Hersheys Special Dark Cocoa in mine.. and sometimes sub almond extract for the vanilla…
That recipe you fold in Dried Cranberries, Chocolate Chips, and Chopped Pecans. but the batter is not dense so its easy
with this, I did it in the food processor in 2 separate batches… threw it all in and pulsed til combined