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Tips for Making Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

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You don’t have to be a professional baker to make fluffy, chewy, perfect chocolate chip cookies. Follow these tips and your cookies will come out flawless every time.

Chocolate chips cookies are a universally-loved dessert, right? If you’re out of baking ideas- or if you just don’t like to be in the kitchen- you can never go wrong with chocolate chip cookies.

Then why are they so hard to make? They must be because people continue to be satisfied with store-bought logs of dough or place-and-bake imitations. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed both of those varieties on more than one occasion. I’m not known to turn down a chocolate chip cookie, no matter its origins.

You don't have to be a professional baker to make fluffy, chewy, perfect chocolate chip cookies. Follow these tips and your cookies will come out flawless every time.

But the thing is, people think those cookies are as good. Like as-good-as-homemade good, even though they’re far from it. And I’m convinced that cookie lovers everywhere would reject those pre-made impostors and make their cookies from scratch if only they realized how easy it is.

It is. Easy, that is. So easy. Can I tell you a secret? My homemade chocolate chip cookies are ah-mazing, but I don’t have a special recipe. I just follow the instructions on the bag of chocolate chips- whichever brand I happen to be using- and make a few special adjustments. The result is perfect chocolate chip cookies. Every time.

You don't have to be a professional baker to make fluffy, chewy, perfect chocolate chip cookies. Follow these tips and your cookies will come out flawless every time.

Tips for Making Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Use room temperature butter

It’s a rare thing for me to plan to make cookies in advance, which means I usually don’t have to set butter out to soften. Instead, I microwave sticks- straight from the fridge and still in the wrapper- for eight seconds at a time, turning them in between, until they’re soft. No more starting with melted butter.

Cream the butter and sugar

I know it’s in the instructions, bu I used to dump all the ingredients in the bowl and mix. My cookies tasted great, but the texture wasn’t as soft as it could be. One day, on a whim, I decided to cream the sugars with butter. The resulting cookies were fluffy and chewy without the slightest bit of graininess.

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Frosted Cranberry White Chocolate Cookie Bars

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A hearty oat cookie bar base, packed with cranberries and white chocolate chips, spread with a thick layer of white chocolate cream cheese frosting, and topped off with more cranberries and a white chocolate drizzle.

A hearty oat cookie bar base, packed with cranberries and white chocolate chips, spread with a thick layer of white chocolate cream cheese frosting, and topped off with more cranberries and a white chocolate drizzle.

Frosted cranberry white chocolate cookie bars taste like home. My mom, whose cookie prowess I’ve mentioned before, makes a cranberry white chocolate oatmeal cookie that’s to die for. Like, good enough to convert cranberry and white chocolate hating people like J. Seriously, her cookies have powers.

So I texted her a couple weeks ago and asked if I could blog that recipe. She didn’t hesitate to send it to me, but the wheels in my head were already turning. My mother-in-law, a darn good cook, too, had mentioned her affection for Starbucks’ cranberry bliss bars. I checked them out and the basic idea reminded me of my mom’s cookies.

So I decided to combine the two. To make my mom’s cookies a little more holiday-friendly, I added cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange zest. I baked them in bar form, as much to save time as to mimic the coffeehouse kind. And then I smothered the whole thing in a decadent white chocolate frosting.

I’ve got to confess that I’ve never had a cranberry bliss bar, but these bars are the definition of bliss (perfect happiness; great joy). Happiness is devouring a generous square of these frosted cranberry white chocolate cookie bars.

A hearty oat cookie bar base, packed with cranberries and white chocolate chips, spread with a thick layer of white chocolate cream cheese frosting, and topped off with more cranberries and a white chocolate drizzle.

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Monster Cookies

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Monster cookies are chewy cookies packed with chocolate chips, oats, peanut butter, and M&Ms candies.

Monster cookies are chewy cookies packed with chocolate chips, oats, peanut butter, and M&Ms candies.

I grew up with a mom who rarely bought sweets. She’s a phenomenal baker, so she didn’t need to; she made everything we wanted from scratch. That included our birthday cakes, Christmas treats for teachers, and the most incredible chocolate chip cookies.

Her cookies are pretty famous in little Sweet Home, Oregon, and for good reason. They’re perfect. When I was younger, she never made a single batch. She always double or tripled the recipe because my siblings and our friends could never get enough.

These days, I love to whip up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and I always use the tricks my mom taught me. Sometimes, though, I like to take the cookies to a new level. I’ve been known to do that with sea salt and peanut butter, but I’ve even been known to take it a step further.

Cue these monster cookies. I’m not sure what the official definition of monster cookies is, but I’ve always understood it to mean cookies that are loaded with all kinds of delightful extras. In this case, those extras are oats, M&Ms, and peanut butter. The result is a moist, chewy cookie that’s packed with flavor and decadence.

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salted peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

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It doesn’t get much better than these salted peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Swirled with creamy peanut butter and stuffed with mini chocolate chips, they’re the cookies you know and love, but kicked up a couple notches.

Salted peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are swirled with creamy PB and stuffed with plenty of mini chocolate chips. Like regular cookies, but way better

I first made these cookies years ago, long before I ever had a blog. They popped up in my Time Hop recently and I was reminded how much I loved them.

My regular chocolate chip cookies are somewhat legendary. I’ll save the mouthwatering descriptions for this recipe, but trust me when I say they’re among the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I’ll post the recipe sometime.

Salted peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are swirled with creamy PB and stuffed with plenty of mini chocolate chips. Like regular cookies, but way better

There are times when you need an amped up version of regular recipe. That’s when you pull this guy out of your back pocket. The creamy peanut butter adds a smooth depth of flavor, while the mini chocolate chips ensure you get at least a few in each bite. Sprinkle baked cookies with sea salt for a classic salty-sweet profile.

Salted peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are swirled with creamy PB and stuffed with plenty of mini chocolate chips. Like regular cookies, but way better

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mud hen bars

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This rich dessert begins with a layer of cookie dough, followed by a sprinkling of chocolate chips and marshmallows, topped with chewy brown sugar meringue.

This rich dessert begins with a layer of cookie dough, followed by a sprinkling of chocolate chips and marshmallows, topped with chewy brown sugar meringue.

I first made these bars several years ago. I’d stocked up on mini marshmallows while they were on sale because, at the time, my Pinterest feed seemed to be full of recipes that included them. To be honest, I don’t remember what other recipes I made with those marshmallows; I only remember this one.

As far as layered bars go, this recipe is deceptively easy. I’ve seen a lot of desserts that look incredible, but many of them seem to require you to prepare three separate recipes, like brownies and cookie dough and homemade caramel. I bet those treats taste amazing, but they look time-consuming and expensive.

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