Stay Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Thick, pillowy Chocolate Chip Cookies with pudding mix are stuffed full of chocolate chips and stay incredibly soft for days – if they last that long! Perfect for a quick treat, making ahead, or shipping off to a loved one. No dough chilling required!
Is any food item as universally-appreciated as a thick, chewy chocolate chip cookie? If so, I have yet to come across it. Just the smell of these wafting from the oven is enough to make you feel cozy and cared for. There’s a reason realtors often put plates of cookies out during an open house: it helps make the house feel like home.
Thousands of chocolate chip cookie recipes are percolating out there, most of them very similar to one another. This one just happens to be our family forever favorite.
Why? This recipe for super soft cookies is faster and easier to make than my runner-up favorite thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies. But even more importantly, the soft cookies have more staying power. They will remain as tender as the moment you pulled them out of the oven even after several days.
If you try not to eat all the cookies in one sitting, like me, this is a good thing, indeed.
Why You’ll Love Them
To recap, these cookies are:
- Incredibly soft and pillowy.
- Intensely flavored with the richness of butter and warmth of vanilla.
- Made in ONE bowl.
- Made with NO DOUGH CHILLING required.
The Secret Ingredient
So what makes this magic? A simple box of vanilla instant pudding mix.
If it seems odd, I promise that after you try it, you’ll be hooked!
Why does pudding mix make amazing cookies? Cornstarch! Cornstarch is a key ingredient in instant pudding mix, and not only does it help keep the cookies perfectly soft, its binding properties help prevent the cookies from spreading as they bake. The result? You do NOT need to chill this dough to get perfect results.
Just be sure to purchase instant pudding mix. You’ll need one small (3.4 ounce) box per batch of cookies.
How To Make Perfectly Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cream together butter and sugars. A blend of white and brown sugar produces the best result. An electric mixer is helpful but not necessary–you can cream butter and sugar with a spatula and some elbow grease, too.
- Add the packet of vanilla pudding powder and mix well to incorporate.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl at this point, to ensure even mixing.
- Sprinkle dry ingredients–flour, baking soda, and salt–over the mixture and blend just until it forms an even dough. Don’t over mix at this point.
- Pour in chocolate chips and stir by hand.
I like to use a lot of chocolate chips – a full 12 ounce bag in each batch. Too much chocolate is not a thing. You can also use a mix of chocolate chips and chunks.
Room Temperature Butter
For best results, you want to be sure you’re using room temperature butter. It’s impossible to cream butter together with sugar if the butter is cold or at all melted, and the unique texture of creamed sugar and butter is the base of this chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Room temperature butter will have some give but is not overly soft. You should be able to press a finger or thumb into it and leave an indent, as shown below, but it shouldn’t melt or be greasy at all.
Need to get butter to room temperature quickly? This bowl of water tip from Bigger Bolder Baking works perfectly!
More Tips & Tricks
- Use a cookie scoop for ease and perfectly portioned cookies.
- Press a few chocolate chips into the top of each dough ball either before baking or right after they cookies come out of the oven. It looks pretty and adds more chocolate!
- Don’t over bake! Take care to remove the cookies from the oven just when the base looks a bit golden. The dough on the top center will still look very soft — they’ll firm up to the perfect texture as the cookies cool down.
How To Freeze Cookie Dough
These soft chocolate chip cookies also freeze beautifully as dough balls prior to baking. This means it’s incredibly easy to pull out a few at a time from your freezer and produce fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies from the oven on demand!
Simply make the chocolate chip cookie dough as directed, scoop mounds onto a parchment-lined baking sheet or plate, and place in the freezer, uncovered, for about an hour. This first step flash freezes the dough balls so they don’t stick together and are easy to separate when you want to bake them later.
After an hour, you can combine the frozen cookie dough balls in an airtight container or zip-top plastic bag and transfer to the freezer. They will keep well for at least 3 months.
When ready to bake, place cookies directly from the freezer onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, and bake as directed, adding just 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
More Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, absolutely! While semi-sweet chocolate chips are most commonly used in chocolate chip cookies, other types work, as well. Milk chocolate chips have a relatively low cocoa content and will yield a very, very sweet cookie. Bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks, however, have a higher cocoa content (generally above 70%) and deliver a less sweet cookie with an elevated, intense chocolate profile.
Yes! Feel free to experiment. Standard vanilla pudding mix will impart a classic, unadulterated chocolate chip cookie flavor. Use French vanilla for a little extra sweetness, chocolate pudding for, well, more chocolate, etc.!
These cookies are so quick and easy to make, they’re a perfect go-to when you need a last-minute treat. At the same time, because they keep so well, they’re also ideal for making a little bit ahead of time, or for packaging up for a trip or sending in a sweet little care package.
More Chocolate Cookie Recipes
- Sea Salt Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Salted Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Chocolate-Dipped Almond Biscotti
- Toffee Butterscotch Brownie Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Mini M&M Cookies
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Stay Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 227 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (160 grams) brown sugar light or dark, tightly packed
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 and 1/4 cups (270 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon flaked sea salt
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Prepare baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats, if desired, and set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, or mixing by hand with a rubber spatula, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until well-blended. Beat in the instant pudding mix, followed by eggs and vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat until mixture is mostly even.
- Sprinkle the flour, baking soda, and salt over the dough, then mix just until they are incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.
- Drop spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes, until the tops are lightly golden. Allow cookies to cool for 5-10 minutes on the baking sheets, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies will keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for at least 3-4 days.
Notes
- These cookies freeze extremely well as dough balls for future baking. Just shape into balls, place on a baking sheet with a little space in between them, and pop into the freezer for about 30 minutes. That will flash freeze the dough balls, after which you can pile them together in a freezer-safe bag or container without them sticking together. Bake straight from the freezer as needed. Just add 1-2 minutes to the baking time!
- Adapted from this classic on allrecipes.com.
Nutrition Estimate
This post was originally published August 2, 2017, and has been updated with new photos and more helpful recipe tips and tricks.
I have been making these since I found your recipe a few years ago. Have deleted my other CC recipes Making these today because my grandson asked me to make some to take to his Young Marines graduation tomorrow night
Cavan I use regular sea salt ?
Yes!
I’ve made this recipe like 10 times already, and everyone loves them. My friends have actually started asking me to bake them more cookies. I had been searching for a chocolate chip cookie recipe where the cookies could stay soft and fresh for days, and this recipe is just too good!! But they’re so tasty that we never end up having leftover cookies anyway. When I have extra time on my hands, I like to brown the butter and then let it solidify at room temperature. This gives the cookies a rich color and nutty taste. I don’t think I’ll ever try out another chocolate chip cookie recipe after this one.
Can you use sugar free instant pudding?
I don’t see any reason that wouldn’t work!
These are delicious!! My hubby requested a chocolate chip cookie that stays soft. I found your recipe and decided to try it . Followed directions completely. They came out perfectly!! This will be my go to recipe! Thank you for sharing! My husband and our friends absolutely loved them!!
I followed each step and my cookies look like melted snowman.
Any chance your butter was melted instead of at room temperature? That would definitely change the texture. Otherwise I’m not sure what went wrong, but definitely as written these yield round, puffy cookies.