Soft and chewy chocolate chip sugar cookies! This is a quick one bowl recipe, with only eight simple ingredients and no brown sugar needed.
Tell Me About This Recipe
- This is a one bowl recipe - you can do everything in one large mixing bowl with a handheld electric beater. Alternatively, you could use a stand mixer here, fitted with a paddle attachment.
- There's no brown sugar in these chocolate chip cookies. This might seem anathema to choc chip aficionados, but it is more than possible to make a great tasting chocolate chip cookie with just white granulated sugar.
- These easy cookies are thin, soft and chewy with loads of chocolate morsels thrown in! They're not super thick or cake like.
- There's a lot of room with these cookies to experiment - want to add a different type of chocolate chip? Or other morsel? Go for it! Add some sprinkles, or chop up some nuts. Whatever floats your cookie boat! I'd recommend sticking with about 14oz of add-ins cumulatively. This will keep the cookie structure (size/shape/texture) similar.
Making Chocolate Chip Cookies No Brown Sugar
Ever find yourself craving a chocolate chip cookie but no brown sugar in the cupboard? Never fear! Chocolate chip cookies can be made without brown sugar and still give you your chocolate chip cookie fix!
Brown sugar is usually credited with adding flavour and texture to the mix, but the real keys to a good chocolate chip cookie are the vanilla extract and good quality chocolate. These will pack all the flavour you need into these sugar cookies!
Ingredient Notes
- Butter - unsalted butter softened at room temperature. You can use salted butter here, but as ever this will add salt to the overall recipe. Making this substitution, you may wish to reduce the added salt.
- Sugar - caster sugar or superfine granulated both work well in this recipe.
- Egg - a large egg, ideally at room temperature for baking.
- Vanilla extract
- Flour - either all purpose flour or plain flour will work in this recipe.
- Baking soda
- Salt.
- Chocolate chips - I used Guittard's semisweet Super Cookie Chips in these, but any good quality chocolate will work. Use your favourite chips or chop up a bar of solid chocolate into chunks.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
This is a simple one bowl cookie dough recipe.
First, cream together the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl. I'd recommend using a handheld electric beater, but you can also do this with a whisk. You want to make sure these are well beaten for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy. This is important to the soft chewy cookie texture.
Next, add the egg and vanilla, beating well.
Then, slowly add in the flour along with the baking soda and salt, beating until just combined.
Finally, stir through the chocolate chips. Use a spatula or wooden spoon for this rather than the beaters. This will help give you a more even distribution of the chocolate chips without getting them stuck in the whisk.
Once you have made your dough, scoop this out into rounds, placing them on a sheet of parchment paper. This will be to chill the dough prior to baking, so the cookie dough balls can be placed close together to save space. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan) and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
When ready, place chilled dough balls about 2" apart on the prepared sheets and bake in the oven for about 12 minutes. Watch for the edges to start browning lightly as a sign that these are done. As these cookies have no brown sugar, they will be a bit lighter in general than you may be used to for chocolate chip cookies.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack. Conventionally, I'd say allow to cool completely, but let's be honest, nothing beats a warm cookie with the chocolate chips still melty!
Expert Tips
- Chilling - it might seem a bit of a pain, but the chilling time for these cookies will help with the baking and spread. Unchilled, you may find that they spread thinner and become more misshapen as they bake. Chilling this dough will give you chewier cookies.
- Want to add a decorative finish? Reserve some of the chocolate chips when adding to the dough. After you're done chilling the dough balls, press a few chips on the top of each cookie - this guarantees a few pieces of chocolate on top of the cookies once baked. This is purely decorative though, it will have no impact on flavour!
- Need to make your cookies more round? You can use a small bowl or a round cookie cutter to 'scoot' the cookie on the baking sheet as soon as it comes out of the oven.
FAQs
Yes, my chocolate chip cookies without brown sugar can easily be frozen for several months. For best results, freeze the unbaked dough in balls. These can be stored in a ziploc bag to save space and are perfect to bake straight from the freezer - never be more than 20 minutes from a fresh cookie! Increase the baking time by about 5 minutes if making from frozen.
The baked cookies can also be frozen. Allow these to cool first and then place in a freezer bag or wrap and place in another freezer safe storage container.
Any kind you like! Try dark, milk, white or rose chocolate in these cookies. You can use chocolate chips or your favourite bars of chocolate roughly chopped.
This could happen for a number of reasons, but the most likely is that they've not been chilled enough before baking. The chilling process helps to firm up the butter in the dough and prevents the cookies from spreading too much in the oven. This helps ensure they retain more shape and a softer centre.
Well, yes, technically you can replace some or all of the sugar with brown sugar in this recipe. It should be noted, though, that this recipe is specifically intended for chocolate chip sugar cookies made without brown sugar.
Brown sugar will result in your cookies baking a little differently (a bit more thick) and will be a darker golden finish.
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
- Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cones
- Cookie Bottomed Brownies
- Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Rice Krispie Treats
Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 cup superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ cup all purpose flour or plain flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 7 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla, beating to incorporate.
- Slowly add the flour, baking soda and salt, beating until just combined.
- Stir the chocolate chips through the dough with a spatula.
- Scoop the dough into rounds and place on a piece of parchment or plate and place in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan) and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.
- After the dough has chilled, place rounds on your prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2" apart. Bake in the centre of your preheated oven for about 12 minutes, until the edges begin to brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Leave a Reply