BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe (With or Without Oats!)

These are thick, dense, chewy chocolate chip cookies with a recipe I've perfected over the years to get juuuust right. They can be made with or without oats, and shredded coconut gives them the perfect chewy texture.  

I've been making these chocolate chip cookies at least twice a month for over two years now. I haven't done the math, but that adds up to a lottttt of cookies! These are always requested by friends and family, and I'm always happy to deliver. 

I know it's tempting to skip right to the recipe, but I hope you'll give this whole post a read because I share lots of secrets for making the best chocolate chip cookies and I don't want you to miss them.

Chocolate chip cookies off all kinds are great. But these are the best. In my opinion anyway. I think you'll agree! They've got that perfect combination of being soft and chewy, just sweet enough, and really easy to make. Ding ding ding!

But chocolate chip cookie recipes are near and dear to a lot of people's hearts, and I know there are strong opinions about what makes the best ones deserve their title. These just happen to be my favorite!

I've noticed in a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes there are really strict instructions for making them. Like having your butter totally melted but cooled, weighing your flour, etc. There's nothing quite like that in this cookie recipe.

That being said, I do hope you'll read this post before you make the recipe to read about what I've learned for making the BEST chocolate chip cookies! 

First, let's start with the ingredients.

Ingredients

• Chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk chocolate)
• All-purpose flour
• QUICK oats or old fashioned rolled oats — Not steel cut, etc. (I also include instructions and notes for making these without oats — be sure to read in the recipe card about that!)
• Shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened can work)
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Vanilla extract
• Unsalted butter
• Eggs
• Sugar
• Brown sugar

A note on the butter

I microwave my butter for about 20 seconds or until it looks like this. You want it soft and warm but not TOTALLY liquidy. 

If you add the butter to the sugars when it's like this, it'll all blend together nicely and get really creamy but not soupy. It'll look something like this when the butter and sugars are mixed just right:

Baking time

I like when my cookies are just a little bit under-baked. Then they're crisp on the outside and soft and ooey gooey in the middle.

The baking time is about 12-15 minutes, but you'll need to keep an eye on them as you make them so you can see when they're cooked to your liking. Every oven is so different that it's impossible to say exactly what will work for you. You want them to be just lightly golden on the outside and set. 

But since I like mine a little undercooked, I always take them out at 12 minutes. If you're baking the cookie dough from frozen, they'll take a bit longer. 

Why coconut?

If the shredded coconut seems strange to you, don't worry. It doesn't make the cookies taste coconut-y. It's just a little bit, but it adds such a good texture to the cookies!

With or without oats

If you make these cookies without oats, they'll spread out more and look like this:

A chocolate chip cookie without oats.

With oats, they're thicker and puffier, like this:

Equally delicious! Just a matter of preference and the ingredients you have on hand. 

Other tips for making the best chocolate chip cookies

• No need to flatten the cookie dough balls before you bake them. As I mentioned, they'll flatten out a bit if you make them with oats, and a lot if you don't use oats.
  

  Here they are about to go in the oven.

• If you're making them without oats, they'll spread out a lot, so you'll only cook six to a pan rather than all 12. 
• These freeze really well. Bring them out of the freezer while the oven heats up then bake for a few minutes longer than you would if you cooked them fresh. Be sure to form the cookie dough balls before freezing, rather than freezing all the dough in a lump. 
• The dough looks similar with and without oats, but the final result is obviously a bit different.
  

  Here's the cookie dough just before the balls get formed.

• Feel free to double, triple, or even quadruple the recipe! Trust me — you'll want to get your hands on as many as you can!

Onto the specifics...

📖 Recipe

There you have it! I hope you love these as much as me and mine do! Please let me know what you think.

XO - C

These are the best chocolate chip cookies ever, but if you want the best Christmas cookies ever? I've got you covered right here. 

Oh, and please don't forget to follow along on Instagram for more recipes and other fun stuff.