The Best High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you’re looking for a great recipe for high altitude chocolate chip cookies that are soft and chewy, then look no further! This is a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe developed specifically for high altitude bakers. So no fear of a flat cookie that spreads all over your baking sheet. These cookies are thick and chewy, soft for days after baking, perfectly salty and sweet, and loaded with chocolate chips.

What’s special about this cookie recipe is that instead of creaming softened butter with the sugar and other ingredients, you’ll simply be mixing in melted butter and stirring the dough completely by hand. The chocolate chip cookie dough only needs a brief time to cool and chill before it’s ready to bake, so you’ll have a fresh batch of warm, gooey cookies in less than an hour!

You might also love these caramel stuffed chocolate chip cookies, white chocolate chip chocolate cookies, and brown butter chocolate chip cookies.

Note that this is a very soft-baked cookie with a pale, golden brown color. If you’re looking for a recipe for cookies with crisp, deep golden brown edges and chewier centers, then I’d recommend these brown butter chocolate chip cookies.

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A Perfect Cookie for High Altitude

Have you ever eaten a chocolate chip cookie that was so amazing that it stands out in your mind above all others?  A truly great chocolate chip cookie is the consummation of of butter, sugar, flour, eggs and chocolate, brought into perfect harmony.  And maybe I’m alone in this preference, but I’d far rather eat a chocolate chip cookie that’s cooled off and set up after several hours than one that’s warm and gooey just minutes out of the oven.

A person could spend a lifetime trying to perfect a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, since “perfection” is so subjective.  Browned butter, brown sugar or white sugar, milk chocolate or dark chocolate, a little or a lot salty, crispy, chewy, soft, or a little of everything…  Perfect means something different to everyone. So maybe there really is no definition of a perfect chocolate chip cookie, simply one that’s perfect to you.

High altitude bakers know that you can’t just take any cookie or cake recipe and expect it to turn out at high altitude. So my high altitude chocolate chip cookies recipe is developed specifically for bakers looking for a dependable, great-tasting and great-looking chocolate chip cookie. I’ve carefully tested the amounts of sugar and flour to perfect the ratio of ingredients for a cookie that bakes up just right, without spreading too much and ending up flat. Also, the times I’ve noted for cooling the dough (which is made with warm melted butter) and chilling the dough balls should be followed carefully for perfect results.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• Unsalted Butter. Adds richness, moisture and flavor to the cookies.
• Granulated Sugar + Dark Brown Sugar. Adds sweetness and moisture, as well as subtle hints of caramel and molasses from the brown sugar.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
• Egg. Gives the cookies structure and leavens the dough a little.
• All-Purpose Flour. Adds structure and stability so the cookie doesn’t spread too much.
• Corn Starch. A small amount of corn starch tenderizes cookie dough for soft, chewy cookies.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. A good amount of salt is essential in chocolate chip cookies to enhance the flavor of the chocolate and balance the sweetness.
• Baking Soda. Leavens the dough.
• Chocolate Chips. Choose your favorite chocolate chips for these cookies, whether they’re milk, semi-sweet or dark.

TIP: For extra crunch and flavor, add a handful of chopped nuts, especially pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts and macadamia nuts. I also really enjoy a little spice in my cookies, and I’ll often add a pinch of cinnamon and espresso powder.

Instructions

Beat the wet ingredients (by hand).

• In a bowl, combine the melted butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Use a wooden spoon to mix vigorously for 2 minutes.
• Stir in the egg and vanilla until smooth.

Stir in the dry ingredients.

• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, corn starch, salt and baking soda.
• Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring just until no more flour remains.

Cool the cookie dough, then add the chocolate chips.

• Let the dough sit at room temperature to cool for 10 minutes. I like to spread the dough out against the sides of the bowl to make sure it cools all the way through, and doesn’t stay warm in the middle. This step is important, or the warmth from the melted butter will melt the chocolate chips and make a mess.
• Stir the chocolate chips into the cooled dough. The dough will be thicker now than it was before cooling.

Shape and chill the dough balls.

• Divide the dough into 12 portions for medium-sized cookies and 24 portions for small cookies.
• Shape each portion into balls, and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. If you don’t flatten the cookies, they’ll bake unevenly with puffed centers, and may not spread out quite enough.
• Refrigerate the dough balls for 25 minutes – no more, no less. I’ve tested this recipe with various chill times, and 25 minutes is the perfect amount to firm the butter back up before baking the cookies.

Bake the cookies.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Place the chilled dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
• Bake the cookies on the center oven rack for 9 minutes (for medium cookies) or for 6 1/2 – 7 minutes (for small cookies). The cookies should still be very pale, with the edges set and the centers still underdone.
• Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Recipe Variations

Espresso

• A teaspoon or two of instant espresso powder adds a delicious coffee flavor that perfectly complements and enhances the chocolate.

Nuts

• My favorite nut to add to chocolate chip cookies is pecans (or walnuts). Add about 1/2 cup chopped nuts when you stir in the chocolate chips.

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

• For a Christmas cookie box, add a holiday flavor to this recipe by adding 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy or candy canes to the dough, along with the chocolate chips. Decorate the top of the baked cookies with more candy.

Malted Milk Powder

• Malted milk powder adds another layer of flavor to these cookies that’s incredibly good. Simply add 3 tablespoons malted milk powder to the dry ingredients, and make the cookies as instructed.
• When testing a batch of malted milk powder chocolate chip cookies, I only made 9 large cookies, baking them for 14 minutes total, but stopping to “scoot” the cookies to make them perfectly round after 10 minutes in the oven. The edges were crisp, and the centers perfectly chewy.
• Some recipes call for toasting the milk powder first, either in a hot, dry skillet, or in the oven. But I haven’t had much success with this method, as the milk powder becomes clumpy, very sticky and unmanageable when it’s heated, making it impossible to stir the milk powder as it toasts.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a mixer to make these cookies?

You sure don’t! You can easily make this recipe with just a bowl and spoon.

Why does this recipe use melted butter instead of softened butter?

By using melted butter, you won’t need to use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar, since you can easily mix the dough by hand. Also, though, I’ve tested the two methods multiple times, and as it turns out, creaming butter and sugar doesn’t do anything special for cookies. You will get identical results by starting with melted butter.

Why do my cookies always turn out flat at high altitude?

Flat cookies that spread out too much are the bane of a high altitude baker’s existence. The usual culprit is too much sugar and too little flour, both of which need to be adjusted for high altitude cookie recipes.

What does the corn starch in the cookie dough do?

Corn starch – just a little – tenderizes cookie dough for a soft, chewy cookie.

Are these cookies crunchy, or soft and chewy?

This is a very soft, chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Why didn’t my cookies spread out enough?

If you don’t flatten the dough balls a little with your hand, your cookies might not spread enough. Chilling them for too long, too, might prevent them from spreading. Also, if you scoop too much flour (by using the measuring cup to scoop the flour and pack it in, rather than lightly spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling it off), then the excess flour will make a more dense dough that doesn’t spread enough. That said, though, these cookies aren’t supposed to spread a lot, but just enough. If you prefer a slightly flatter cookie, you can try reducing the flour by 1-2 tablespoons, and/or skipping the chill time.

What kind of chocolate chips should I use?

I prefer using dark chocolate chips, or a mix of dark and semi-sweet. If you love milk chocolate, though, use those! When I really want to splurge, I might chop a few bars of good quality dark chocolate instead of using chips.

What’s a good finishing salt to sprinkle on top of the cookies?

I love to use Maldon, which is a flaky sea salt.

How do you make perfectly round cookies?

There’s a technique called “cookie scooting”, and it’s genius! Immediately after taking a pan of cookies out of the oven, take a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter (it needs to be slightly larger than the circumference of the baked cookies), and “scoot” it around the hot cookie. This pulls in any uneven edges to form a beautiful, perfectly round cookie. Watch the video by Cloudy Kitchen to see the technique in action.

Can I add nuts or spices?

Of course! My favorite nut to add is pecans, which add great crunch and flavor, but any nuts will do, especially hazelnuts, walnuts and macadamia nuts. I also really enjoy a little spice in my cookies, and I’ll often add a pinch of cinnamon and espresso powder.

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