My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies (with 5 Secret Ingredients!)

Published February 28, 2012. Updated January 12, 2024

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I’ve tried countless recipes but this is it! My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, featuring 5 secret ingredients that make them special. Perfectly chewy cookies with that nice crisp on the edges, melty chocolate chips, and that brown sugar-vanilla flavor that ties it all together? They’re incredible!

Go now and take your favorite chocolate chip recipe that you “love” and destroy it like it’s a bad breakup letter you never want to see again.  I’m just kidding.  But you don’t know what chocolate chip cookie love is until you have tried this recipe.

I’m pretty confident these cookies are just so good that you will rid your life of whatever chocolate chip cookie recipe you consider to be the best without ever looking back.  I did.  Search my blog and you will notice I have deleted my old chocolate chip cookie recipe.  It is nowhere to be found, for good reason.

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies with secret incredients
I have spent what feels like decades trying every chocolate chip recipe out there and every trick, along with every fancy ingredient.  I have spent hours pondering what would create the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  How could it be done, and what hadn’t been done before?

So, you most likely noticed I mentioned a whopping FIVE secret ingredients, yes five!  Here they are:

  1. Chilled butter, nearly every cookie recipe out there calls for softened butter.  Not here.
  2. Molasses, I use this because why buy brown sugar when you can make your own brown sugar for nearly half the cost, and fresh?
  3. Vanilla bean paste gives the cookies that fresh, gourmet vanilla flavor with the fancy vanilla bean speckles.
  4. Cornstarch, yes this has been done before, this one is not so secret anymore.  These lend good texture.
  5. I saved the best for last: COFFEE CREAMER POWDER.  Yes, coffee cream powder.  These give the cookie an incredible almost creamy texture, keeping them moist and giving them just one more punch of flavor.

It hit me one day, finally, when I was on vacation, to try this ingredient.  It didn’t hit me until then because I don’t even drink coffee so I never buy coffee creamer powder.  I’ve tried so many ingredients before, browned butter, sour cream, shortening, melted butter, dry milk, cream cheese, pudding mix, and even those long refrigeration-required recipes (really who can wait that long for a cookie?).  Then I saw it, the coffee creamer powder and I knew this was going to be good.

To me, your favorite chocolate chip cookies you make says a lot about what kind of cook and baker you are.  Do you play it safe and stick with the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag and just accept it as the best?  Do you buy pre-made cookie dough at the grocery store?  Do you experiment and add unusual ingredients?  Are you willing to try alternate recipes and tips?  Well, that is one reason I created these.

I want these to show you what I am about as a cook and baker.  I love creating and experimenting!  I’m not afraid of failures because I know somewhere along the way I will find my successes.  I like to be different and bold.  I like to make cooking exciting for people and help people find confidence in the kitchen.

And mostly I love to see the smile of satisfaction the food I create puts on people’s faces, and how it brings family and friends together to enjoy great times and build memories.  I mean come on, at a party is the food ever not the center of attention =)?
I hope you thoroughly enjoy this recipe and share it with everyone you know because good food is made to be shared.

So thick and moist…

Favorite chocolate chip cookies

Stack of chocolate chip cookies

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5 from 4 votes

My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies (with 5 Secret Ingredients!)

Soft, chewy and deliciously flavorful chocolate chip cookies!
Servings: 15
Prep20 minutes
Cook20 minutes
Ready in: 40 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together chilled butter, sugar, molasses and coffee creamer powder until well blended and slightly fluffy, about 4 minutes. Stir in egg and vanilla bean paste. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated (mixture will be very thick). Mix in milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Form dough into about 2 1/2 tablespoon balls (a bit larger than a golf ball), then drop 8 per sheet onto buttered cookie sheets. Bake 10-11 minutes, until edges are very lightly golden. Cool on cookie sheet several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container. To enjoy warm cookies later on, pop cookie in the microwave for 10 seconds if desired.
  • Recipe Source: Cooking Classy

Notes

*This is NOT liquid coffee creamer, that would most certainly yield entirely different results. Also, don't use light.
I have tried both flavors, original and french vanilla and love both. The french vanilla adds one more layer of flavor, it's delish.

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88 Comments

  • Kevin

    I followed the directions word for word, but when it came time to cook them, after 11 minutes on 375, the dough was still in a ball shape. Suggestions?

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Hi Kevin – I would say next time to add in less of the dry ingredients or use softened butter and hopefully that will make the difference. Not sure why that may have happened with yours?

      • Kevin

        Sounds good :) One more question, if I wanted to make a double batch, should I just double everything? Or is there anything I should hold back on?

  • Jackie

    Hi Jaclyn

    Did you use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe.

  • janine

    Dying to try these, but 15 cookies wouldn’t last 15 seconds around here, can I double or triple this recipe with good results?
    Thanks!!!!

    • Jaclyn

      Jaclyn Bell

      Janine ~ I think you could easily double the recipe and still achieve the same results, triple would be fine as long as you can fit it in your stand mixer. I hope you enjoy!

  • Sarah

    I tried these today and I have to say I was very pleased. I have been looking for an “ultimate” chocolate chip cookie recipe that doesn’t melt all over like toll house does unless you add walnuts and chill them before you bake them. And sometimes they still would spread out! This one was different enough for me not to waste ingredients to try. I wanted to use what I had on hand but I want to try the bean paste too next time. Thanks! My search may be over!

  • Anonymous

    It’s not exactly “coffee related,” that’s just the most common thing people use it for. I use it in tea. It’s powdered creamer.

  • Anonymous

    These are awesome cookies! I am getting ready to make a couple of batches now. YUM!

  • Chrystle

    I made these (and the snickerdoodles) today for thanksgiving but I couldn’t find any vanilla bean paste around my area. I did use the Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract and these cookies ended up being really impressive!!! The texture and chewiness of this cookie was definitely what I was looking for. I was expecting more of a vanilla bean flavor but I may need the vanilla bean paste to get that.
    I had a really hard time deciding to either bake these or your nutella stuffed chocolate chip cookies. But I’m definitely going to bake the other ones on saturday for my nephews 1st birthday.
    Thanks for the recipe!!! :)

  • blakmetalik

    Hi, Jaclyn! Thanks for this recipe! We made these today. Unfortunately I did not have a chance to pick up any coffee creamer beforehand, and used full-fat powdered milk instead (the only thing in our cupboard closest to creamer). The cookies came out great! They definitely have a unique taste that make them stand apart from regular chocolate chip cookies. We love the soft texture, and we baked them to 12 minutes to achieve a slightly crispy bottom. Yum! Of course, we didn’t follow the recipe 100% this time around… that just means we’ll have to make them again with all the right ingredients soon! (^_^) Can’t wait to try the other creations on your site.

    Oh, I do have a question. May I ask what vanilla bean paste brand do you use? The one I use (Beanilla) is supposed to be 3x stronger than regular vanilla extract. I doubled the recipe and couldn’t decide how much paste to use. In the end I chickened out and added in 1/2 tsp paste plus 1 tsp extract. (^_^;) Thanks again!

    • Jaclyn

      I’m glad that you enjoyed the cookies and your very welcome! I used Nielsen Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste. I would love to try the Beanilla that’s 3x stronger it sounds delicious! I love vanilla beans!