Chocolate Chipless Cookies
Chocolate Chipless Cookies taste just like your favorite chocolate chip cookies, minus the chips. Soft, sweet, and perfectly chewy, this well-tested base recipe works beautifully on its own or as the starting point for chocolate chip cookies, M&M cookies, candy bar cookies, and more.
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Everyone needs a reliable base cookie dough, and this is mine. It holds its shape, bakes consistently, and works as a starting point for whatever you feel like making that day.
These Chocolate Chipless Cookies taste like your favorite chococolate chip cookie, without the title ingredient. They’re soft in the center, slightly crisp on the edges, and deeply buttery with just the right balance of sweetness.
I’ve been baking my entire life and developing recipes professionally since 2018. This dough has become one of the most-tested cookie recipes in my kitchen. The goal was a single, reliable base I could customize endlessly. I like these as written, or loaded with chocolate chips, M&Ms, or a mix of chopped candy bars, nuts, or whatever combination I have left as odds and ends in my pantry. This dough also works well as a starting point for my popular Caramel Apple Cookies for fall.
The secret to getting these right is pulling them from the oven when they still look slightly underdone. They finish baking on the warm sheet pan, which gives you that soft, chewy center that makes a great scratch-made cookie.
Ingredients You’ll Need
This is a straightforward shortbread-style drop cookie with a few small details that make a difference.
- All-purpose flour: Measured by weight (220 grams) for the most consistent results. If you’re measuring by volume, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off rather than scooping directly from the bag.
- Baking soda: Provides lift and helps the cookies spread evenly.
- Cornstarch: Half a teaspoon is all you need. It contributes to a softer, more tender crumb without changing the flavor. Don’t skip this.
- Kosher salt: Balances the sweetness throughout the dough.
- Unsalted butter, softened: Room temperature butter is essential here. It creams properly with the sugars and creates the right texture. Cold butter will not incorporate the same way.
- Light brown sugar and granulated sugar: The combination of both is what gives these cookies depth. Brown sugar adds moisture and a hint of molasses; granulated sugar helps the edges crisp slightly.
- Egg, room temperature: Brings the dough together and adds structure. Like the butter, room temperature makes a difference.
- Vanilla: One teaspoon. Use pure vanilla extract for the best flavor.
How to Make Chocolate Chipless Cookies
Prep your pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and kosher salt. Set aside.
Cream the butter and sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in the egg and vanilla and until just combined.
Add the flour mixture. Mix flour mixture in two additions, starting on low speed until just incorporated. Stop as soon as no flour streaks remain. Overmixing will toughen the cookies.
Scoop and bake. Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop (a standard #40 scoop) to portion the dough. Place 8 cookies per sheet pan, evenly spaced. Bake one tray at a time on the center rack for 8 to 10 minutes. The cookies should look slightly underdone when they come out, but they will finish baking on the warm pan.
Cool and store. Let the cookies rest on the sheet pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Mix-In Variations
This chocolate chipless cookie dough is the base for some of the best cookies you can make. Add approximately 1 cup of mix-ins per batch, folding them in after the flour is incorporated. Adding mix-ins will increase the yield to about 2 dozen cookies.
- Chocolate chip cookies: Add 1 cup of chocolate chips or chocolate chunks. This is the most classic use of the base dough. For a perfect bite, finish with a pinch of flaky sea salt immediately out of the oven while the chocolate is still melted.
- M&M cookies: Use 1 cup of M&Ms, or a combination of half M&Ms and half chocolate chips. Press a few extra M&Ms onto the tops of the dough balls before baking for a bakery-style look.
- Candy bar cookies: Chop one package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, one Snickers bar, and a half cup of bite-sized pretzel twists into small pieces. The combination of chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, and salt against the base cookie dough is hard to beat.
- Mix and match: Chopped nuts, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, dried fruit, this dough handles it all. Use about 1 cup of whatever combination sounds good, and the base will do the rest.
Tips for the Best Results
- Bake one tray at a time. I bake these one sheet pan at a time so every cookie sits on the center rack and bakes evenly. The batch of 20 breaks down to three rounds: 8 cookies, 8 cookies, and a final tray of 4. It takes a little longer, but it results in the most consistent bake.
- Pull them early. This is the single most important tip. Eight minutes is right for my oven. The cookies will look underdone and almost too soft when you pull them. They firm up as they cool on the pan and give you that soft, chewy center and a crisp, golden underside.
- Shape them into perfect circles. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, place a large drinking glass over each cookie and use a gentle circular motion to nudge the edges into a round shape. The cookie is still soft enough to move, and it sets into a perfect circle as it cools. This is one of those small steps that makes homemade cookies look bakery-finished.
- Use a kitchen scale. The flour measurement is where precision matters most. Weighing it at 220 grams removes the variability of how flour settles in a bag or measuring cup and gives you a consistent result every time.
- Room temperature ingredients. Softened butter and a room temperature egg are essential for a consistent bake. Ingredient temperature will affect how the dough comes together and the texture of the finished cookie. Set egg and butter out about 30 minutes before you start.
- Storage. Once fully cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. You also can freeze baked cookies in a single layer, then transfer to a zip-top bag for up to 2 months.
If you make these, leave a star rating and let me know in the comments whether you tried them as-is or what mix-ins you added.
Chocolate Chipless Cookies
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups (220g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup (110g) light brown sugar, lightly packed
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and kosher salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until light and creamy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until just combined.
- Add the flour mixture in two additions, mixing on low after each until just incorporated. Stop mixing as soon as no flour streaks remain.
- Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop (size #40) to portion the dough onto prepared sheet pans, 8 cookies per pan. Bake one tray at a time on the center rack for 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies should look slightly underdone when removed from the oven. They will finish baking on the warm pan.
- Let cookies rest on the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Once fully cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Baking in batches: Bake one tray at a time for the most even results. A batch of 20 cookies breaks into three rounds: 8, 8, and 4.
- Don’t overbake: Pull the cookies when they still look slightly underdone. They firm up as they cool and will have a soft, chewy center.
- Adding mix-ins: Fold in about 1 cup of mix-ins after the flour is incorporated. Mix-ins increase the yield to approximately 2 dozen cookies.
- Chocolate Chip Cookies: Add 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks. Finish with flaky sea salt out of the oven.
- M&M Cookies: Use 1 cup M&Ms, or half M&Ms and half chocolate chips.
- Candy Bar Cookies: Chop 1 package Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, 1 Snickers bar, and ½ cup pretzel twists into small pieces and fold in.
- Freezing: Freeze baked and cooled cookies in a single layer, then transfer to a zip-top freezer bag for up to 2 months.
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