Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

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These Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft on the center, has slightly crispy brown edges, and are generously loaded with lots of warm gooey chocolate chips.

A classic and straightforward chocolate chip cookie recipe where brown sugar is the star of the show. This is dedicated to all brown sugar lovers out there!

Brown sugar chocolate chip cookies on a round plate

Want more cookies? Here are some of my other favorites: Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies, Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies, White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies

Table of Contents

Brown Sugar in Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love brown sugar. And these brown-sugar-only (no granulated sugar) chocolate chip cookies highlight everything I love about brown sugar in this classic chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Brown sugar has a distinct and unique taste because of the presence of molasses. It has a deep, caramel, toffee flavor profile.

Brown sugar typically yields a denser and more moist cookie, and also gives the cookies nice crispy brown edges.

Our brown sugar chocolate chip cookies embodies that slightly caramelized flavor and crispy edge. Other than that, it is truly your classic all-American chocolate chip cookie that everyone knows and loves.

These brown sugar chocolate chip cookies are super simple and straight-forward:

only one mixing bowl needed
calls for simple ingredients
ready under 30 minutes
no chilling ahead

It’s one of those easy yet delicious recipe that you have in your hip pocket that you’ll go back to over and over again.

A stack of thick brown sugar chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you will need to make brown sugar chocolate chip cookies:

Butter – unsalted butter always works best for baking so we know for sure the amount of salt content added to the dough (in this case, zero!)
All-purpose flour
Brown sugar – the star of our chocolate chip cookie recipe! Brown sugar is basically sugar with molasses, which is responsible for the darker coloring and caramelized flavors. Dark or light brown sugar both work great.
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Chocolate chips – I use semi sweet chocolate chips
Eggs
Milk – just a small drop of it to give it an extra drop of moisture
Vanilla extract – pure vanilla extract brings the best flavors.

How to make it

Here’s the step-by-step instructions and photographs to make these brown sugar chocolate chip cookies.

It is basically a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe with a slight twist (and a lot of brown sugar!). All you need is one bowl!

Wet mixture: First, cream softened unsalted butter and brown sugar. You can use a hand mixer, stand mixer or just a spatula for this. Cream until it is smooth and fluffy.

Add eggs, milk and mix until combined.

Add dry ingredients: Next, slowly add dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) into wet ingredients and mix to combine (on slow speed if using electric mixers).

Fold in chocolate chips.

Using a stand mixer to mix up the cookie dough

Portion and Roll: Roll dough into small individual balls (~1 1/2-inch diameter), and place them 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. For most consistent shape, use a cookie scooper. This recipe yields ~36 small cookie dough balls using a cookie scooper.

Bake: Bake at 375℉ for 9-11 minutes.

Cool: Remove cookies from cookie sheet after 1-2 minutes so that they would not continue cooking and harden.

Cool cookies on a cooling rack.

A round plate of chocolate chip cookies made with brown sugar

And then pour yourself a beverage of choice (warm milk, hot tea, coffee etc), and enjoy these delicious brown sugar chocolate chip cookies.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never just had one in one setting! 🙂

Tips and Tricks

A few tips to ensure a baking success:

Softened butter before using – set butter out in room temperature for an hour or so until softened. You can even melt the butter if needed. Cold butter will not combine successfully.
Do not over mix dough – cookies will come out flat if over mixed.
Check at the 9-minute mark when cookies are in the oven to be on the safe side. Cookies should still be soft and you removed from oven. They will continue cooking as it sits on the baking sheet.
When cookies are done, remove from baking sheet quickly (after 1-2 minutes, or as soon as you can transfer it) out of the oven. They may be soft, but you don’t want cookies to completely harden before taking them off the baking sheet and transferring them onto the cooling rack. Leaving chocolate chip cookies on baking sheet out of the oven for an extended period of time will produce overcooked/hard cookies.

Storage Instructions

Make sure cookies are completely cool before storing away. Store brown sugar chocolate chip cookies in an air tight container or bag in room temperature for up to 5 days.

Freezing the Dough

This brown sugar chocolate chip cookie recipe makes a whole lot of cookies! Feezing dough (prior to baking) is a great way to have yummy fresh cookies on hand for whenever you want without a whole lot of work!

To freeze the dough, roll the portion you want to freeze into a large ball and place in an air tight bag. Freeze for up to 2 months.

To freeze individual cookie dough, portion out into individual balls and place them next to each other in zip lock bag (do not overlap so they freeze individually).

When ready to bake, leave frozen dough in refrigerator overnight to thaw. Then follow the baking instructions to bake cookies. If baking from a cold dough, cookies will be thicker.

A bitten chocolate chip cookie and a whole one on a small plate

Frequently Asked Questions

What does brown sugar do to cookies?

Using brown sugar will make cookies more moist, soft and slightly denser. It will also bring a caramelized flavor and crispy edges (while the center is moist and gooey).

Do you use light or dark brown sugar?

Both works great and there’s little difference.

How do I make sure the cookies are gooey in the center?

Make sure to not over bake them and follow my post-baking/cooling instructions closely.

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