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    Home » Recipes » Cookies

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Published: Nov 4, 2017 · Modified: May 19, 2019 by Modern Honey · This post may contain affiliate links · 136 Comments

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    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. How to make a perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. A perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. www.modernhoney.com

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies are made with brown butter, a combination of brown sugar and white sugar, and semi-sweet chunks and chips. A perfect chewy chocolate chip cookie!

    I have come to a realization in my search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie...everyone has different taste buds. Some may love the thin  crispy while someone else may prefer a thick and cakey.

    Let's take my family for example. My sister-in-law, Laura, despises cakey cookies (right there with you) and prefers a thin chewy cookie. My Mom loves a thick chewy cookie with nuts. My brother Ryan prefers one with very little chocolate so the cookie flavor comes through. I have created enough chocolate chip cookie recipes to please the masses! Scroll down to find all of my recipes on Modern Honey.

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. How to make a perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. A perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. www.modernhoney.com

    This is precisely the reason I test out SO many chocolate chip cookie recipes. I have been obsessed with figuring out the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, so for all of you that love a thin chewy chocolate chip cookie, this recipe is for you. But don't worry this isn't a recipe that produces super flat cookies with chocolate chip mountains. They aren't that flat!

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. How to make a perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. A perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. www.modernhoney.com

    So how do you make these Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies? It all starts in the saucepan. Brown butter adds a ridiculous amount of rich toffee flavor to these cookies and is definitely the secret to making killer chocolate chip cookies.  The key is to cook the butter until it is a nice warm amber color.

    The key is to not brown the butter for too long or precious liquids will evaporate and you will lose some of the moisture. I suggest watching it like a hawk and removing it from the heat earlier than you may think to make sure you don't end up with puffy cookies.

    It is imperative to remove the butter from the heat and let it slightly cool, just to room temperature, before adding the rest of the ingredients (specifically the eggs). After the butter is slightly cooled, it is added to the mixing bowl and creamed with the remaining ingredients.

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. How to make a perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. A perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. www.modernhoney.com

    I love to use a mixture of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks.  My favorite chocolate chips are Ghirardelli, Guittard, and Trader Joe's.  If I can find Callebaut chocolate chips at Restaurant Depot, then I love to mix those in too.

    If you have read my blog for more than two seconds, you know how I feel about Trader Joe's Pound Plus Bar. It is a GAME CHANGER.  It is so good in the chocolate chip cookie dough because it melts just enough to make the cookies rich and chocolatey.  A big bar lasts forever too!

    Of course, it is important to chill your dough. I know it is hard to be that patient when all you want is COOKIES.  But you need to give it that precious time to do its thing. Cookie dough just gets better with time (as long as it is tightly wrapped in the refrigerator). Give it at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator. If you can wait longer, do it! You will end up with an even better cookie. I promise you that.

    Since we are discussing chocolate chip cookies, let's chat about all of my recipes on Modern Honey. Let me know which one is your favorite! Find all of the popular recipes below. I am also sharing my favorite cookie baking tools....those that I couldn't live without.

    Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Crush Cookies, Levain Bakery Cookie Recipe, Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

    Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Copycat Cookies -- the most unique chocolate chip cookie, using different methods to create a thick  chewy cookie without being cakey. I am sharing all of the secrets, tips, and tricks to make this perfect cookie. I worked for months perfecting this chocolate chip cookie recipe and it was my very first post on Modern Honey. Before I even started this blog, I had a lawyer offer to patent this recipe after trying out the cookies. This is a Modern Honey favorite cookie! There is good reason why Levain Bakery is the number one bakery in New York City. I am saving you a trip because you can make them at home!

    Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies. The perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe every single time. www.modernhoney.com

    Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies -- a traditional, fool-proof chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is my go-to recipe is if I want to make a classic chocolate chip cookie.

    I Want to Marry You Cookies by Modern Honey. The original recipe for the famous saucepan cookie. Chocolate Chip Cookie with rich, toffee flavor studded with white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, and a touch of oatmeal. The most popular recipe on Cooking Channel in 2012. www.modernhoney.com

    I Want to Marry You Cookies -- this cookie recipe won the Cooking Channel's Perfect 3 Contest to find the nation's most perfect cookie. I filmed a segment for the show, "The Perfect 3" in Food Network Studios in NYC. It became the number 1 recipe on cookingchannel.com in 2012.  This recipe is made in a saucepan (no mixer required) and has a touch of oats, chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips.  It's a winner!

    MJ's Top Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies by Modern Honey l www.modernhoney.com

    MJ's Top Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies -- this is the recipe that started my brown butter love affair.  This chocolate chip cookie recipe is made in one saucepan (no mixer required) and creates a toffee flavored chewy chocolate chip cookie.

    Copycat Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies. The perfect chocolate chip cookie with two secret ingredients. Famous Doubletree Hotel copycat cookie recipe. www.modernhoney.com

    Doubletree Hotel Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies -- people visit Doubletree hotels just to get their hands on their ultra-popular chocolate chip nut cookies. This recipe has a few secrets to set it apart from the rest. The result is a chewy chocolate chip cookie.

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. Classic buttery chocolate chip cookies in a bar. A favorite cookie bar recipe! www.modernhoney.com

    Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars -- this is a super easy recipe since the cookie dough is baked in one pan. People go crazy for these ooey gooey chocolate chip cookie bars. It's no wonder they are a favorite!

    100K Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies. Two unique, secret ingredients that set these cookies apart from the rest. Milk chocolate malt cookies made with vanilla malt powder and a touch of sweetened condensed milk make them the perfect chewy chocolate chip cookie. www.modernhoney.com

    100K Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies -- the combination of malted milk powder and milk chocolate chips make this a sweet and chewy chocolate chip cookie.  If you love sweet malt, you will love these cookies!

    My Favorite Cookie Baking Tools:

    Baker's Half Cookie Sheets -- I prefer a light colored baking sheet as it ensures the cookies bake evenly on the top and the bottom.  Dark colored baking sheets turn the bottoms too brown very quickly.

    Silicone Baking Sheets -- these are such a genius invention. This makes cleanup a breeze and the cookies remove so easily.  Click HERE for an inexpensive version. Click HERE for the original Silpat version.

    Nylon Turner -- this ensures the cookies come off of the cookie sheets perfectly.

    Spatula Set -- these are imperative to use to remove the cookie dough from the sides of the bowl.

    Cookie Scoop -- this creates uniform, perfectly shaped cookies every single time.

    Cooling Racks -- this helps for the cookies to cool and stops the cookies to continue to cook on hot baking sheets.

    Kitchenaid Mixer -- my favorite mixer. This is a very well-used machine in my home! I can't imagine baking without it.

    Here is the recipe for Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies:

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. How to make a perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. A perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. www.modernhoney.com

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Melissa Stadler, Modern Honey
    How to make rich and buttery thin, crispy, and chewy chocolate chip cookies.
    4.92 from 57 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Saved!
    Prep Time 10 mins
    Cook Time 10 mins
    Total Time 20 mins
    Course Cookies
    Cuisine American
    Servings 24

    Ingredients
      

    Full Recipe:

    • 1 ½ cups Butter (3 cubes, melted in a saucepan)
    • 1 ½ cups Brown Sugar
    • 1 cup Sugar
    • 2 large Eggs
    • 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
    • 2 cups Flour
    • 1 cup Cake or Pastry Flour
    • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
    • 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
    • 1 ½ teaspoon Salt
    • 1 ½ cups Chocolate Chips
    • ½ cup Chocolate Chunks (chopped from bar)

    Small Half Recipe:

    • ¾ cup Butter (melted in saucepan)
    • ¾ cup Brown Sugar
    • ½ cup Sugar
    • 1 large Egg
    • 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
    • 1 cup Flour
    • ½ cup Cake or Pastry Flour
    • ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
    • ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
    • ¾ teaspoon Salt
    • ¾ cup Chocolate Chips
    • ¼ cup Chocolate Chunks (cut from chocolate bar)

    Instructions
     

    • Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer until butter starts to turn a warm amber color and gives off a nutty aroma. Watch it carefully and don't allow it to get too brown as the liquids will start to evaporate (see NOTES below). Pour the butter into a mixing bowl, cover, and let cool in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
    • Once it is cooled, add brown sugar and sugar and cream for 4 minutes. Scrape down the bowl. Add eggs one at a time (if making the full recipe), mixing after each addition. Add vanilla and mix.
    • Stir in cake or pastry flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix until just combined. The total flour amount added will equal 3 cups for the large batch.
    • Add chocolate chips and chocolate chunks and mix.
    • Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 - 30 minutes. 24 -48 hours is ideal. In order to the cookies to spread, let the cookie dough come to room temperature after it has been chilled. If it stays cold, it may hold its shape.
    • Heat oven to 375 degrees.
    • Scoop the cookie dough onto prepared baking pans. Bake until lightly golden on the edges, 9 -11 minutes for medium-sized cookies or 11-13 minutes for larger cookies.
    • *Recipe adapted from G Bakes Recipe

    Notes

    ** In order for it to be a thin and crispy cookie, it is imperative to not cook the butter too long. If the butter is browned too long, some of the liquid in the butter will evaporate. This will produce less overall butter in the cookies and the cookie dough will be slightly crumbly and dry. This will create a puffy cookie. If you aren't sure how long to let the butter brown, I would suggest letting it melt and simmering for about 2 minutes after it is melted. 
    Keyword crispy chocolate chip cookies
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. How to make a perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. A perfect thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie. www.modernhoney.com

    Happy Baking, my friends! Come say "hello" on my instagram @modern_honey. xo

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Lynsay

      June 12, 2020 at 9:53 pm

      5 stars
      Hands down THE BEST. I find other recipes produce cookies that are too fluffy and mediocre in taste. USE REAL VANILLA to kick it up a notch too...you can definitely taste the difference between real and artificial extract with this recipe. I know it's way more expensive but its totally worth it... I promise! I usually dont bother with comments on pages like these but I had to comment about how much this recipe has changed my cookie game. Its consistent every bake. Thank you so much!!!!

      Reply
    2. Leah

      June 17, 2020 at 4:16 pm

      Do you have to have pastry flour? I don’t have any.

      Reply
    3. Brian

      June 24, 2020 at 5:17 am

      Hi!

      I have made your best chocolate chip cookie recipe and it was awesome!
      Want to try this one, but i faced some difficulty in creaming melted butter and sugar
      It just wont mix together. the sugar stayed as one sinking big lump

      May i know what i might have done wrong?

      Thank you!

      Reply
      • Alli

        July 09, 2021 at 2:00 pm

        Leave the butter to chill a little longer before mixing

        Reply
    4. Sharon McIsaac

      June 27, 2020 at 9:35 am

      I am about to make these, I only have all purpose flour, will they still turn out, thin and crispy?

      Reply
      • Fiona Fars

        June 27, 2020 at 1:17 pm

        If you don't have cake flour, you can add cornstarch or arrowroot powder to your AP flour, as follows:
        Start with one level cup of AP flour, remove two tablespoons of the flour, and add two tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot powder back in.
        Enjoy these delicious cookies! 🙂

        Reply
        • Sam

          January 07, 2021 at 9:59 am

          Do you add the cornstarch only for the one cup of cake flour you are substituting or for each cup of all purpose flour that you add ?

          Reply
          • Russ

            January 07, 2021 at 11:42 pm

            Just for the one cup. Three cups total minus two tablespoons, plus two tablespoons of corn starch. Enjoy!

            Reply
      • Deanna

        June 27, 2020 at 5:42 pm

        5 stars
        I've had to use only self rising and only all purpose before and both times it did not affect the final product.

        Reply
    5. Patrice

      July 04, 2020 at 4:37 pm

      Oh my gosh, THANK YOU for posting this recipe! The "thin and crispy cookies" are my favorite kind of chocolate chip cookies. I made the small half version, followed it to a T; and they came out perfect! They were crispy, chewy & just delicious. I will definitely be making the full version of the recipe and storing the dough in my freezer. My chocolate chip cookie search, is now over. I will certainly be trying out more of your recipes, because I know they will be soooo good.

      Reply
    6. Christina

      August 06, 2020 at 3:30 pm

      5 stars
      These are the best cookies I’ve ever made. I leave the baking powder out though because I don’t like them to puff up. This makes them super thin, chewy and crispy. They make the cookies really big though so make sure you space them out.

      Reply
    7. J

      September 07, 2020 at 2:09 pm

      5 stars
      The best recipe! I used dark maple syrup instead of white sugar and instead of chocolate chunks did pecans.. OMG! So delicious!! I also just did all white flout as I didn't have pastry flour, but turned out crispy, tasty and delicious!

      Reply
    8. Sakura

      September 16, 2020 at 11:40 pm

      5 stars
      Extremely happy with this recipe - particularly the browned butter trick!

      Reply
    9. Sarah McGinnis

      September 28, 2020 at 11:19 am

      3 stars
      The prep time is definitely more than ten minutes... The butter took a long time to brown and since there was no estimate on how long it would take, I was constantly hovering over it afraid I would burn it by accident. The texture did not come out exactly right, but I think that is more due to my own fault. I had never tried the butter browning trick and I don't think I did it quite right. They taste delicious, but overall the amount of work and time required to make these was a lot more than I was expecting.

      Reply
    10. Mallory

      October 20, 2020 at 11:33 pm

      5 stars
      I recently ate a chocolate chip cookie from a local bakery and it was soo crispy and delicious I could not stop thinking about it. This recipe ended up being the perfect recreation to satisfy my craving. The details in this recipe made it easy to follow even though this is a more ‘complicated’ chocolate chip cookie recipe. SO delicious and will be saving this recipe to make in the future and share with friends & family.

      Reply
    11. Rose Shull

      December 02, 2020 at 10:06 pm

      5 stars
      Absolutely the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie I have ever made !! My first time using brown butter ,but not my last ! I loved the taste !! Cookies came out Perfect !! Thank You For Sharing Your Recipe!! We Loved Them !!

      Reply
    12. RH

      December 24, 2020 at 11:07 pm

      I’m a total amateur baker but these sounded amazing so I gave them a try and they are DELICIOUS. My husband used the word “gourmet.” Thank you!

      Reply
    13. Adrienne Hodges

      December 25, 2020 at 11:34 am

      5 stars
      So good, but not really crispy. It doesn't matter though because they are delicious.

      Reply
    14. JJ

      January 08, 2021 at 8:51 pm

      5 stars
      I made these exactly per your recipe and they were exactly what I was looking for - crispy edges, chewy center, not too sweet. I sent some with my parents and my mother texted me that they didn’t even get home before eating them all and that she wanted the recipe,

      Reply
    15. Jamie

      January 13, 2021 at 9:44 pm

      5 stars
      Yum! Crispy, soft, and chewy. I think my texture is just a little off though, smoother than the photos. No crinkles. I only had dark brown sugar, so they're definitely darker than pictured too. (I know it's usually light brown sugar)

      I'm not sure if I browned the butter for too long. First time doing it! 2 minutes seemed a little misleading, although it did take a short time after simmering the butter to separate the milk solids which is what was meant I guess, but as a first timer I didn't really know. The actual simmering before you can even start browning the butter took me like 15 minutes. Once the foam dissipated and I could see the solids sink down, it took very little time to get that toffee smell. Immediately stopped then, but I was still paranoid if it was too long! No idea.

      Had to flatten my cookies too, so that they'd melt down thinner. First batch went in as balls and didn't flatten really. Room temp dough after ~12 hours in the fridge. Added walnuts and used dark chocolate instead. Someone tell me if my edited ingredients did something to the cookies haha

      Thank you for the recipe! Definitely will be browning more butter. The smell and taste ????

      Reply
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    Melissa Stadler Modern Honey

    Hi, I'm Melissa Stadler! I am an Award-Winning Recipe Creator. Cover of Food Network Magazine. Two-Time Pillsbury Bake-Off Finalist. I am passionate about sharing the best recipes so you have success in the kitchen!

    More about me →

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