My ideal cookie has to have three things: a soft center, chewy exterior, and crispy edges. These Chewy Chocolate Cookies deliver on all three criteria! With a perfect chocolate flavor and amazing texture, this recipe is sure to become a family favorite. Plus, the addition of fun mix-ins makes for unlimited cookie possibilities!
Ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Cookies
Butter
I prefer to use salted butter, because that’s what I always have on hand. But if you prefer to use unsalted butter, you may want to add a pinch more salt.
Make sure that the butter is softened and not melted. Softened butter helps create a soft and slightly chewy texture as it blends well with the sugar. Melted butter makes cookies spread more, resulting in a thinner, crispier texture.
Brown Sugar + White Sugar
Brown sugar has three main purposes here: add sweetness, moisture, and chewiness. White sugar encourages the cookies to spread out and creates slightly crispy edges!
Eggs
Eggs hold the cookies together. Without them the dough would be dry and crumbly. If for some reason you can’t use eggs, you could try a chia seed or flaxseed egg. To make 2 chia or flax eggs: mix 2 tablespoon of ground flaxseed or chia seeds with 5 tablespoons of water and let it sit for 5 minutes to gel.
Vanilla
Even in a chocolate cookie, you need vanilla extract for flavor.
Flour
I always use unbleached all-purpose flour for cookies. When adding the flour, note that the dough will be sticky, so try not to add too much. Too much flour will leave you with dry cookies, but just the right amount will create a perfect balance of softness and chewiness.
It’s so hard to know how much flour is the right amount, especially if you are looking for a specific cookie texture. That’s why I suggest baking one cookie before you bake the rest, so that you can decide if it’s the texture you’re looking for.
Just roll one cookie and bake it for the allotted time. If your cookie comes out flat, add 2-4 more tablespoons flour to the whole bowl of dough. If you like the texture, don’t add any more flour.
Cocoa Powder
Use cocoa powder to create a perfect chewy chocolate cookie base. I use regular unsweetened cocoa powder. The acidity in regular cocoa powder reacts with baking soda to create more rise and lift in this cookie. Dutch-processed cocoa powder isn’t acidic, so it won’t react with the baking soda. The texture will be all wrong!
Baking Soda + Salt
Don’t mix up baking soda for baking powder, and don’t forget the salt!
Mix-Ins For Chewy Chocolate Cookies
You can truly use anything that you like for this recipe, but here are a few of my favorite combinations.
Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips
Nothing is better than chocolate and peanut butter. Add Reese’s peanut butter chips to the cookie dough before baking for an explosion of melty peanutty goodness!
Ghirardelli Peppermint Chunks
Add peppermint chunks to the dough before baking for a festive holiday treat. They are so yummy and perfect for Christmas.
Andes Mints
I actually have a whole other blog post dedicated to a version this cookie! But all you do is add a mint right on top of each cookie after they come out of the oven. I like to let them melt and spread them around kind of like a chocolate mint frosting. So good!
Milk Chocolate Chips
Make double chocolate chip cookies by adding milk chocolate chips to the dough before baking. If you’re really going for a rich chocolate flavor, go for semisweet chocolate or dark chocolate chips.
Green Mint Chips
A similar flavor profile to the Andes Mint variation, these cookies are perfect for when you want a fun pop of color. These would be great for Christmas or even St. Patrick’s Day too. Add mint chips to the dough before baking.
Rolos
Everyone loves a Rolo cookie! Some people differ on the placement of a Rolo though. Some people put the Rolo on top after baking, but I like to roll the cookie dough around each Rolo candy, taking care to completely envelop the candy. You’ll be left with the most delicious melty chocolate and caramel center that perfectly complements these chewy chocolate cookies.
More Delicious Cookie Recipes
Ginger Spice Cookies– One of my favorite cookie recipes. It has a perfect warm andspicy flavor that is great on a cold winter day!
Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies– Not to be confused with these cookies! Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies are a delicious chewy chocolate cookie dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes sprinkled overtop. They are beautiful and so delicious!
Browned Butter Sourdough Molasses Cookies– These cookies have such a rich and delicious molasses flavor. These old-school cookies are perfect to bring to family gatherings.
Browned Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies– Maybe the most popular cookie recipe on my whole site. These cookies are just unreal. Try them out for yourself!
Happy Cooking!
I hope you love this Chewy Chocolate Cookies recipe as much as I do. If you want to follow along on my cooking adventures, follow me on Instagram @AMBERSKITCHEN
Chewy Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) softened (not melted), room temp salted butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup cane sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups plus 1/4 cup unbleached flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two cookie sheets or line them with parchment paper.
- Combine softened butter and sugars, beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add eggs one at a time and continue to beat for about 1 more minute.
- Add vanilla and mix.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Whisk together until there are no lumps, then slowly add the dry mixture to the butter mixture, combine well but don’t overmix.
- Form dough into two-tablespoon sized dough balls and place evenly spaced on cookie sheet.
- Add any mix-ins that you choose. In these, the mix-in options I had was 1- a smashed Rolo, 2-green mint chips, 3-white chocolate peppermint chunks, 4-peanut butter chips, 5-chocolate chip,s and 6-one with no mix-ins, to which I added an Andes mint to the top of the hot cookie and let it melt, then spread it with a knife.
- Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes, then let cool.