These cookies come packed with crispy edges and soft & chewy interiors! Bonus: these cookies are made without eggs AND without softened or melted butter!
* This post was last updated in 2021 🙂
Fun fact: You do NOT need eggs to make soft, chewy, and absolutely perfect chocolate chip cookies! These eggless chocolate chip cookies are seriously better than any store-bought cookies I've had, and they're ALWAYS a huge hit with anyone who tastes them!
With risk of sounding cliché, there's one secret ingredient that helps you get perfect cookies every time, without the fear of ending up with an overspread, greasy mess: *CORNSTARCH* (More on the magic of cornstarch below)
Aside from cornstarch, this recipe for chocolate chip cookies also uses a unique technique (inspired by muffins!) which allows you to use softened, cold, or in between butter! Just as long as it's not melted, you should be all good.
These are also great chocolate chip cookies to make, bake, and even send. It's super easy to make this recipe in large batches and wrap the cookies up for gifting!
Why make these chocolate chip cookies:
• Easy to make
• Low chance of over-spreading
• No need for eggs!
• No need to soften or melt butter!!!
• The dough is ready for scooping and baking in 5 minutes!!!!!!
• Crispy edges with soft and chewy centers
How are these chocolate chip cookies made without softening butter?
This recipe uses the muffin making technique of combining wet ingredients in one bowl, dry ingredients in another bowl, and then joining everything together!
Traditional chocolate chip cookies recipes usually cream the butter with the sugar. But THIS cookie recipe is different!
The butter is incorporated with the dry ingredients. It's cut into the flour mixture kind of how we do it when making pie crust, biscuits, or blueberry scones.
But the difference with those recipes is we actually want to leave the butter in larger pieces (for more flakiness!) For cookies, the butter needs to almost disappear into the dry ingredients.
Another important note to remember when making these cookies is that they are very, very spread resistant! So you will need to gently flatten each cookie slightly before baking so they spread evenly and bake more quickly. That is, unless you like super thick cookies (which are plenty deserving of love!) - then you can leave the dough rounded so they come out thicker.
Brown Sugar, Granulated Sugar, Powdered Sugar:
I like to make my chocolate chip cookies with brown sugar and powdered sugar. In the past, I used to make my chocolate chip cookies with granulated sugar. The granulated sugar used to work well, but since I like to skip the creaming butter and sugar step in this recipe, I find the powdered sugar incorporates much more easily than the plain white sugar.
The Secret To Soft And Chewy Cookies:
First and foremost: cornstarch! Cornstarch is awesome. Seriously. It helps make sure your cookies don't spread out too much, and it helps you get super soft and chewy cookies.
When baking chocolate chip cookies, take care not to over bake the cookies so they don't crisp up too much. Keep in mind that over baking can even happen after you take your cookies out of the oven. You shouldn't let cookies cool on your baking sheet because the heat from the pan continues to cook the cookies.
After you take your cookies out of the oven, they're going to be really soft. So let them sit for about 5 minutes in the pan so they harden enough for you to transfer them. The best place to cool cookies is on a wire rack (or anything that lets air circulate around the cookies) so they don't steam on the bottom.
To keep your cookies soft and fresh for longer, make sure you store them in an airtight container at room temperature.
Why Chocolate Chip Cookies Spread Too Much:
When chocolate chip cookies are flat, it usually happens because of 3 main reasons.
1. The butter was too soft, so it melts way too quickly when put in the oven.
2. Not enough dry ingredients were added to give the dough structure.
3. The baking sheet was warm when the cookies were put on it.
The addition of cornstarch in this recipe helps you avoid ending up with an overly flat cookie. Using cool butter here also helps prevent spreading. This is because the butter melts more evenly and slowly while the cookies bake (and there's no need to chill your dough).
Other things you can do to avoid having your cookies spread too much is to measure the flour carefully, and make sure you're using baking sheets that are at room temperature or cool.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Substitutions (Gluten Free And Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies):
If you wanted to make this chocolate chip cookie gluten-free, just swap the all purpose flour for gluten free flour.
Although this recipe does not include eggs, it still uses cow's milk, butter, and regular chocolate. If you wanted to make this chocolate chip cookie vegan, you could make the following substitutions:
• substitute the cow's milk with a non-dairy milk (coconut, almond, etc.)
• substitute the butter for vegan butter or coconut oil (not melted, but soft)
• substitute the chocolate chips/chunks for a vegan chocolate
Chocolate Chip Cookie Add-Ins:
You can make this recipe with dark, semi-sweet, milk, or white chocolate (or any combination of chocolates!). You can also add nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.) to this recipe. M&M's and caramel chips are also delicious here!
How To Store Chocolate Chip Cookies:
You can store these cookies for up to 2 weeks at room temperature in an airtight container. Keep in mind, a couple of factors may impact how long your cookies last. Humidity, the temperature of your home, and the container used to store them are a few factors that can change how long the cookies keep.
Can Chocolate Chip Cookies Be Frozen:
Yes! This dough will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Make sure you wrap the cookie dough up tightly and place it in a freezer bag before freezing.
When you want to bake frozen cookie dough, you can either defrost the dough in the fridge overnight or on your counter for a couple of hours. If you do defrost it on your counter, make sure not to leave it out for too long so the butter doesn't soften too much. Leave it out until it just softens enough for you to scoop.
If you liked these chocolate chip cookies, you may also like some of these other recipes:
• Chocolate chip cookie sheet cake
• No bake Cornflakes cookies
• Apricot jam filled sandwich cookies
• Classic snickerdoodles
Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 & ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature or cold * see notes
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
Instructions
- Position a rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine your powdered sugar, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Whisk well to combine the ingredients and dissolve the brown sugar in the milk. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to incorporate. Add unsalted butter to the dry mixture and cut the butter into the mix until you're left with small pieces of butter (no larger than a pea).
- Pour your sugar / milk mix into your dry ingredient / butter mix. Stir until it comes together into a thick cookie dough. Add chocolate chips or chunks. Mix to incorporate.* If the dough is too sticky to work with, pop it into the fridge for 30 to 60 minutes, or until firm enough to handle.
- Using an ice cream scoop, 2 spoons, or your hands, portion out the dough into approximately 12 balls. Drop the balls onto the parchment lined baking sheets leaving 1 to 2 inches of space between each cookie. Press each of the balls down into a disk shape. ** see notes
- Bake the cookies in the center of a 350°F oven until golden brown on the edges and bottom (about 10 to 12 minutes). Cool the cookies for about 5 minutes on your baking sheets before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Enjoy!
I would love to hear any tips you’d like to add to this post and how your chocolate chip cookies turned out in the comments below. Have any questions? Any ideas to improve this recipe? Feel free to comment for that as well. Happy making!
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Revathi says
This recipe is a blessing! I love how they turned out and the best part is its egg free!
I personally love salted butter and skipped on the salt.
This is my go to recipe for cookies now!
Mimi says
Hey Revathi! Thank you for your sweet review! I'm so happy to hear you liked the cookie recipe ❤️