My All-Time Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Subway was where my family stopped for sustenance during long drives. And with all the sports my brothers and I played in school, we were in the car a lot for soccer games, races, and swim meets. I’m not crazy about Subway sandwiches, but they’re easy to grab and tuck away on a busy day. Not to mention there are very few options when you’re in a sub-5,000 population town in the woods of Maine for a cross-country ski race.

But the cookies. The cookies are the best thing at Subway. The promise of one or two cookies was always enough to keep me from complaining. Subway chocolate chip cookies have crisp edges, but the middles are still soft and chewy. They’re chocolatey, buttery, and full of molasses flavor from the brown sugar. Most importantly, they always seem to be freshly baked and warm.

The Secret to Making Great Chocolate Chip Cookies at Home

Subway cookies aren’t thin and crispy, but they’re also not monstrous, Levain Bakery-style cookies. While they have the thickness of supermarket bakery cookies, they’re browned and crisp on the border instead of soft from edge to edge like the grocery store version.

My first trick is to use very soft, room-temperature butter. It shouldn’t be melty, and I know it’s ready when I can easily poke right through the butter to the surface it’s on. I slice the butter into 1/2-inch pieces and leave it on a plate in a single layer to warm up for 1 to 2 hours, depending on how warm it is in the kitchen. The extra soft butter limits how much air can be incorporated into the batter during mixing, making denser, chewier cookies.

To achieve the perfect texture and thickness, I use a higher ratio of flour compared to butter and sugar. I chill the dough before baking (overnight is best) and bake the cookies at a slightly higher temperature of 375°F. These tricks control how much the cookies spread while striking a balance between brown, crisp edges and a just-set chewy center.

For the best experience, let them cool for 5 to 10 minutes so they can set, then serve while the chocolate is still melty.

Famous Treats

• Copycat Levain Fall Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Copycat Shamrock Shake
• Copycat Choco Tacos
• Copycat Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake

Start the dough:

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and salt on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition.

Add the dry ingredients and chocolate:

Add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and mix on low speed, just until combined and no streaks of flour remain.

Stir in the chocolate with a rubber spatula until evenly distributed. I prefer to use a spatula at this point as a stand mixer can crush the chocolate and the dough can be too thick for a hand mixer.

Chill:

Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour, preferably overnight, and up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Scoop the cookies:

Use a medium cookie scoop or a spoon to scoop about 2-tablespoon portions. Evenly space 12 cookies on the lined baking sheet, about 3 inches apart.

Bake:

Bake the cookies until the edges are golden brown and the centers have just set, 10 to 12 minutes per batch.

Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.

The cookies will keep in an airtight container on the counter for up to 5 days.

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