The Best White Chocolate Chip Cookies
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This is THE BEST recipe for White Chocolate Chip cookies! These cookies bake up super soft, and buttery with crisp edges and a perfectly chewy center. They’re loaded with white chocolate chips, and super easy to make (no softening butter and no chilling required) making them the perfect treat for any occasion (check out my Valentine Cookies)!
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What you need to make this recipe
- White Chocolate Chips: Because you have to have white chocolate chips to make a white chocolate chip cookie! Use your favorite white baking chips or get really fancy and chop up 5 oz of your favorite white chocolate bar.
- Unsalted butter: I like using unsalted butter so that I can control the amount of salt going into the recipe. You can use salted butter if that’s what you have on hand, just cut the salt in the recipe by 1/2. Make sure to use the stick butter and not the spreadable kind.
- Dark brown sugar: I love the extra molasses in dark brown sugar. This will make a nice and chewy cookie with a richer sweetness.
- White sugar: For extra sweetness.
- An egg: To bind everything together and add extra protein and chewiness.
- Vanilla: Adds a delicious warm flavor to the cookies.
- All purpose flour: For holding everything together. I also like to use a higher protein all purpose flour (like King Arthur brand) for these cookies, since it makes them thick and chewy.
- Baking soda: for leavening, browning, and making a tender cookie.
- Kosher salt: I like using a slightly coarse kosher salt (not table salt) for this recipe. The salt helps to balance out all the sweetness. If you only have table salt on hand, reduce the salt in the recipe to 1/4 teaspoon.
How to make white chocolate chip cookies
Line two sheet pans with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375º.
Next, heat the butter in the microwave or saucepan until melted. Once melted, set aside to cool slightly.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add both the brown sugar and the white sugar.
Feel the butter to make sure it isn’t too hot. The butter should be warm, still liquid, but not too hot to touch with a finger.
Pour the melted butter over the sugars and mix on low until the ingredients are combined and glossy, about 30-45 seconds.
Add in the egg and vanilla and mix on low until the egg is just incorporated.
To the mixing bowl, pour in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set the mixer to low speed and mix the ingredients until just combined, some streaks of flour are ok.
Pour in the white chocolate chips and stir on low, until everything is just mixed completely and the chips have been evenly distributed.
Scoop mounds of cookie dough (about two tablespoons in size) and place them on the prepared sheet pans, about 2 inches apart.
Allow the dough to sit at room temperature on the cookie sheets for about 20-30 minutes to let the flour hydrate and absorb the flavors.
After resting, the dough will no longer feel sticky, and the cookie dough balls will now be easy to pick up.
Bake the cookies at 375º for 7-9 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown and the centers have puffed. They will be slightly underbaked when you remove them from the oven, but that’s what you want. They’ll finish setting as they cool.
Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheets for about 15 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack or a serving platter. The centers will be warm and gooey and the edges will be delightfully crisp and brown.
Tips for making the best cookies
- Make sure to let the cookies sit for 20-30 minutes. If you like a thick cookie, this is important. Scooping and baking immediately after mixing will produce a thinner cookie. By letting the cookie dough sit before baking, the flour absorbs the melted butter and sugars. This will allow the flavors to develop and keep the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
- Allow the butter to cool slightly after melting. The butter shouldn’t be super hot when it hits the sugar, we don’t want to dissolve or caramelize the sugars completely.
- Use good quality all purpose flour if possible. I tested this recipe with a couple of different flours and found I got my best and most consistent results with King Arthur’s all purpose flour. It makes a little stiffer cookie dough, which is nice for thick and chewy cookies.
- Do not overmix. You want to mix the dough until it has just come together. You can even stir the white chips in by hand at the end to be safe. Overmixing can lead to a tough and hard cookie.
- Underbake the cookies. Make sure to pull the cookies out of the oven when they just START turning brown along the bottom edge. The centers of the cookies will be puffed, but will still feel gooey to the touch and that’s what you want. As the cookies cool on the pan, they’ll actually continue to cook for a few more minutes. So taking the cookies out of the oven when they look underdone will ensure that you have a soft and chewy center after they’ve cooled.
Frequently Asked Questions
I typically used my local grocery store’s brand and have found them quite tasty in this cookie recipe. I would say a Nestle or Hershey’s brand of white baking chips would be the equivalent. Ghirardelli makes fantastic chocolate and baking products, so you’ll be safe using their white baking chips for this recipe. You can also chop up a bar of white baking chocolate for these cookies! You’ll need about 5 oz for this recipe and I recommend the Ghirardelli white baking bars.
These cookies are best the day they’re baked but will keep for up to 3 days if stored in an airtight container.
Yes! I like to bake my cookies, let them cool completely, and store them in a freezer safe bag in the freezer for months! When I’m ready to serve, I take out the number I need and let them thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
The melted butter! I’ve read in a bunch of articles that melted butter is the key to a chewy cookie. In one particular article, I read that using the traditional creaming method for mixing cookie dough will incorporate air into the dough. This will in turn produce a lighter, fluffier cookie, rather than a dense, chewy cookie.
By melting the butter, you’re eliminating the incorporation of air, giving you a denser and chewier cookie, which also keeps your cookie moist longer. This is why other recipes like brownie bites and butterscotch chocolate chip cookies are dense and chewy–they use melted butter instead of creamed room temperature butter.
Another way to keep cookies moist and chewy is by underbaking them! Because of something called carryover cooking, your cookies will actually continue to cook on the sheet pan long after pulling them out of the oven, which can take them from “done” to overbaked.
By pulling the cookies out of the oven when they look underdone, you’re ensuring that your cookies will end up perfectly baked by the time they’re cooled and stay moist and chewy for days.
If you make this recipe, give it a 5 STAR Rating and Leave a Comment!
More Recipes You’ll Love
Soft and Chewy White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft and chewy cookies with crispy, buttery, edges, a thick and chewy center and loaded with white chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- 1 stick (4oz) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup (5 oz) of white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line two sheet pans with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 375º.
- Next, heat the butter in the microwave or saucepan until melted. Once melted, set aside to cool slightly.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add both the brown sugar and the white sugar. Feel the melted butter to make sure it isn't too hot. The butter should be warm, still liquid, but not too hot to touch with a finger.
- Pour the melted butter over the sugars and mix on low until the ingredients are combined and glossy, about 30-45 seconds.
- Add in the egg and vanilla and mix on low until the egg is just incorporated.
- To the mixing bowl, pour in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set the mixer to low speed and mix the ingredients until just barely combined. Some streaks of flour are ok.
- Pour in the white chocolate chips and stir on low. Stir until everything is just mixed fully and the chips have been evenly distributed.
- Scoop mounds of cookie dough (about two tablespoons in size) and place them on the prepared sheet pans. Space them about 2 inches apart.
- Allow the dough to sit at room temperature on the cookie sheets for about 20-30 minutes to let the flour hydrate and absorb the flavors.
- After resting, the dough will no longer feel sticky, and the cookie dough balls will now be easy to pick up.
- Bake the cookies at 375º for 7-9 minutes, until the edges are just starting to lightly brown and the centers have puffed. They will be a little underbaked when you remove them from the oven, but that's what you want. They'll finish setting as they cool.
- Allow the cookies to sit for about 15 minutes on the sheet pan before transferring them to a cooling rack or a serving platter. The centers will be warm and gooey and the edges will be delightfully crisp and brown.
Notes
*I use King Arthur's Unbleached All Purpose Flour for this recipe. It has a little more protein and produces a stiffer cookie dough.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 94Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 19mgSodium: 121mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 0gSugar: 6gProtein: 2g
