High Altitude Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

A high altitude recipe for thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies, with crunchy, golden brown, caramelized edges and chewy centers. These cookies are super quick and easy to make, with no chilling of the dough, and no mixer needed.

You might also love these recipes for thin and crispy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, brown butter chocolate chip cookies, and double chocolate white chocolate chip cookies.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

So Quick and Easy. You don’t need any special equipment or planning ahead to enjoy warm, delicious cookies in under an hour.

Perfectly Crunchy and Chewy. These cookies are more crunchy than anything else, with the most beautiful, crisp, golden edges, and slightly chewy middles.

High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.

Evolution of a Chocolate Chip Cookie – From Soft to Crunchy

Original Soft and Chewy Recipe

For most of my life, I have loved super soft chocolate chip cookies, which led to my developing my best high altitude chocolate chip cookies, my most popular cookie recipe.  People who love soft, pale, under-baked cookies love this recipe, in part because it’s just so easy with no mixer needed, and only a brief chill time before you can bake the cookies.  This recipe was also the basis for my small batch big chocolate chip cookies for two.

Brown Butter Cookies

Then I developed my brown butter chocolate chip cookies, which became my new favorite cookie to eat, with their pretty rippled appearance, crispy/crumbly texture and chewy centers, the generous distribution of chopped chocolate throughout, the flavor of browned butter, and the sprinkling of salt on top.  This recipe takes more time, though, since the browned butter needs to cool and solidify completely at room temperature after making it, so I usually plan ahead and make the butter the day before I want to make the cookies.  You also need to use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar, as well as chill the dough for several hours before baking.

Crispy Cookies

But I still wanted a cookie recipe that was as easy as my soft chocolate chip cookies, but with a thinner, crispier texture. These are the key adjustments to note:

• Less Brown Sugar. Brown sugar contains molasses, which adds moisture, which leads to a softer, chewier cookie. By reducing the brown sugar, I reduced the moisture in the dough, for a more crisp texture.
• More Granulated Sugar. The dough needs a little more sugar overall, which not only sweetens a cookie, but helps it to spread more, as well as contributes to better browning and caramelization.
• Melted Butter. With melted butter, there’s no need for a mixer (which is necessary when creaming together softened butter and sugar), and the dough is so easy to whisk/mix by hand. I didn’t want to change this, and the recipe still worked perfectly, so I saw no reason to mess with this.
• Less Flour. Just a little less flour helps the cookies spread and flatten a bit more.
• No Chilling. Although I didn’t need to chill the dough balls, I did find that letting the dough rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes, before scooping the dough and baking the cookies, led to better browning and flavor, as it allowed the sugar more time to dissolve into the dough for better caramelization.
• Flattened Dough Balls. Slightly flattening the dough balls with the palm of my hand helps them spread out more as they bake.
• Chocolate. I experimented with regular chocolate chips, mini chocolate chips, and chopped chocolate, and my favorite was either the mini chocolate chips (better distribution of chocolate throughout the cookies) or the chopped chocolate, which adds pretty speckles of finely chopped chocolate chunks and shards throughout.
• Longer Baking Time. For soft cookies, I under-bake them, so that they don’t dry out. But for crispy, crunchy cookies, they need a much longer bake time, until those cookie edges are beautifully golden and caramelized.

We spent Sunday morning tasting each batch of cookies as they came out of the oven, and all agreed that these new crunchy chocolate chip cookies are some of the best cookies I’d ever made with their rich buttery flavor, golden brown, caramelized, crispy edges, slightly chewy centers, and a little flaky salt sprinkled on top.  This experiment has completely changed my opinion on what makes the best chocolate chip cookies (perhaps that’s why there are so many types of cookies, because who’s to say which one is the “best”, when the determining criteria is different for everyone?).  But when I tasted these, I thought, now this is a chocolate chip cookie.

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

Ingredients

• Unsalted Butter.
• Granulated Sugar + Light Brown Sugar.
• Vanilla Extract.
• Egg.
• All-Purpose Flour.
• Salt.
• Baking Soda.
• Chocolate Chips. Any type of chocolate chips will work in this recipe (milk, dark, or semi-sweet).  I personally prefer either finely chopping a bar of dark chocolate or using mini chocolate chips, for better distribution of chocolate throughout the cookies.

Instructions

• In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Pour the melted butter into a mixing bowl, and let cool for five minutes.
• Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg, and whisk vigorously for 2 minutes, until smooth and slightly lightened in color.
• Separately, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda.
• Add the flour mixture and the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate to the butter mixture, and stir with a spatula, just until all the flour is incorporated.

• Let the dough rest at room temperature for 20 minutes – this allows the sugar to dissolve into the dough for better browning and caramelization on the cookies.
• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Use a large cookie scoop with a release lever (with a 2 1/2 – 3 tbsp capacity) to scoop the dough into 12 equal portions.
• Place six of the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet (letting the other six rest at room temp until needed), giving them plenty of room to spread. Use the palm of your hand to slightly flatten each ball of dough on the baking sheet.
• Bake the cookies for about 14-17 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and crisp.
• Transfer the hot cookies to a cooling rack, and bake the remaining six cookies.

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

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