When I’m craving a chocolate chip cookie (OFTEN), I mentally run through the recipes I’ve tried and documented on this here baking blog. So many of them require browning the butter, aging the dough, or sourcing a special ingredient. Most of the time, that leads to exceptional results that are worth the wait. But sometimes, you just need a CCC, and you need it FAST.

If that’s the case, I’ll make these Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies from Pinch of Yum. This is a low maintenance recipe that’s still delicious. Best of all, it uses one bowl (if that bowl is microwave safe), a spoon (don’t even need an electric mixer) and zero fancy ingredients.

I actually did a live demo of these for a virtual team meeting at work, and chose this recipe specifically because we could make it from beginning to end in under an hour. It’s also super accessible for all the reasons mentioned above.

If I don’t have time, or want to make a mess, or even wait for butter to soften, these are my go-to CCCs. They’re chewy, soft and bake up nice and thick, which I love.

More Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: Pinch of Yum

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 cups chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium sized microwave safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds, until mostly melted. Remove the bowl and stir until the rest of the butter melts.
  3. Add the sugar and brown sugar and stir until fully combined.
  4. Add the egg and vanilla and stir again briefly until incorporated.
  5. Add the flour, baking soda and salt, and stir until no floury bits remain.
  6. Stir in the chocolate chips.
  7. Divide the dough into 12 equal size pieces. Space them out well on the baking sheets because they will spread (maybe 6 cookies per sheet). Bake for 9-11 minutes, just until the edges start to turn golden brown.
  8. Purely for aesthetics only: use a drinking glass to place over the cookies one at a time, and swirl it around in a circular motion so the cookies become more round. Add a few more chocolate chips to the top of each cookie and sprinkle with flaky sea salt if you wish. Let cool for about 10-15 minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to a wire rack to cool all the way.