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This chocolate chipless cookies recipe yields cookies that are crisp outside and chewy in the center with a rich, buttery brown sugar vanilla flavor; think of them as chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips. In less than 1 hour – including dough chill time and cleanup time – you’ll have a gorgeous batch of bakery-quality cookies!
I know we aren’t supposed to eat raw eggs or non heat-treated flour. But where are my raw cookie dough lovers?! If you’ve ever swiped a spoonful of dough before adding the chips (I’m guilty as charged!), this cookie recipe will make complete sense to you.
Here we take classic chocolate chip cookie dough and dial up the brown sugar and vanilla just a notch to make these extra chewy and aromatic. If you want to add a toasted nutty flavor that also echoes the notes of caramel from the brown sugar, you can take a few extra minutes to make brown butter. Totally your call.
No worries if you forgot to pick up a bag of chocolate chips! Whip these up and they might just become a new favorite.
What is a Chocolate Chipless Cookie?
It’s essentially a chewy chocolate chip cookie without chocolate chips! You’ll also sometimes see these called boneless cookies or brown sugar cookies.
Similar to classic chocolate chip cookie dough, these cookies are crisp along the outside and ultra chewy in the middle. They have a rich, buttery brown sugar vanilla flavor that’s completely irresistible.
Also, just like regular chocolate chippers, this is an easy drop cookie recipe!
Why This Recipe is a Winner
- Minimal ingredients – These cookies have just a handful of ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry!
- Easy drop cookie recipe – This is a beginner-friendly baking recipe, and you don’t need any special equipment for it.
- They keep well – Because of how chewy these cookies are, I find that they last a bit longer than other cookies before getting stale.
Expert Tip: Brown the Butter
For extra chewy texture and unique flavor that’s reminiscent of toasted nuts and butterscotch, take a few extra minutes to brown the butter. Browned butter has aromatic notes of toasted hazelnut, and sweet caramel flavor notes.
To make brown butter, add the butter to a saucepan over medium heat. Let the butter melt, and continue cooking until it smells nutty and brown bits have formed on the bottom, stirring occasionally. Transfer it to bowl so it doesn’t scorch, and your brown butter is ready to use!
Note that if you brown the butter, you’ll have to increase the dough chill time to 2 hours.
Ingredients
Breaking It Down
Ingredients Explained
In this section I explain the ingredients and give substitution ideas where applicable. For the full recipe (including the ingredient amounts), see the recipe card below.
- Unsalted butter – With this recipe, the trick is to get the butter soft enough so that it combines well with the brown sugar, but not so soft that the cookies over-flatten in the oven while baking. I like to leave the butter out at room temperature for 1 hour before making the dough, and then when I want to make it, microwave the butter for 5 to 8 seconds.
- Light brown sugar – We only use brown sugar in this recipe. This makes our cookies super chewy and adds notes of caramel and molasses.
- Vanilla extract – Buttery brown sugar vanilla flavor is classic in chocolate chip cookie dough!
- Egg – Egg acts as a binder here, and helps us achieve the perfect cookie texture.
- All-purpose flour – This is the base of our cookie dough.
- Salt – Salt seasons our dough so the cookies aren’t bland, and also creates a balanced flavor profile.
- Baking soda – This is the leavening agent that helps give these cookies the perfect texture.
- Flaky sea salt – If you like the flavor of salted caramel, add a little pinch of flaky sea salt to the top of each cookie before baking. (If you’re worried that the cookies will be too salty, you can reduce the amount of salt in the cookie dough to 1/4 teaspoon.)
How to Make This Chocolate Chipless Cookies Recipe
- Use a handheld electric mixer to beat together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until well-combined, about 3 minutes.
- Beat in the vanilla and egg until smooth.
- Beat in the flour, salt, and baking soda just until mixed.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F and get out 2 large baking trays.
- Once it’s chilled, use a 2-tablespoon scoop to measure the dough and drop the dough balls onto the baking trays, spacing them apart so they have room to expand while baking. If you like the flavor of salted caramel, sprinkle a little bit of flaky sea salt on top of each cookie.
- Bake until the cookies are golden along the outside and puffed in the center, about 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through. As soon as they’re out of the oven, use potholders to pick up 1 tray at a time and firmly tap it against a flat surface. You’ll see the cookies deflate and crinkle, which is exactly what we want.
Storage
Once the cookies are cool, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, in the fridge for up to 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Variations
- I know someone will ask the question, so I’m going to answer it in advance: yes, you can add chocolate chips to these cookies! About 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate is fine. Compared to regular chocolate chip cookies, these cookies are extra chewy with a richer brown sugar flavor, so they’d be great with chocolate added!
- Another delicious addition here is 1 cup of chopped nuts. Pecans or hazelnuts are some of my favorites in this recipe, but walnuts, almonds, or pistachios would also be delicious.
- Yet another mix-in idea is dried fruit, such as cherries, cranberries, or raisins. Or even shredded coconut! If you’re going this route, I would add about 1/2 cup.
- Mix and match your add-ins! Go with 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, 1/2 cup chopped almonds, and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Or add 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, and 1/2 cup dried cherries.
- Once these cool to room temperature, dip the bottoms in melted semi-sweet chocolate. It’s essentially just another way to get your chocolate fix, but makes for really pretty, elegant looking cookies.
Tips For Success
- Make sure to chill the dough. If your butter is softened (not melted), just 30 minutes in the fridge is long enough for it to rest to make sure you get the perfect thick, chewy texture instead of cookies that are flat as pancakes!
- As soon as you pull these cookies out of the oven, firmly tap each tray on the countertop once or twice. This helps the cookies deflate (they will puff up while baking) and creates gorgeous crackled, crinkled tops.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a few different tricks we use to make these cookies deliciously chewy.
For starters, we use butter as the fat. And for the sugar, brown sugar all the way! Make sure to combine the butter and sugar really well. Chill the dough so the cookies don’t flatten and crisp too much while baking. Last but not least, the final tip to making chewy cookies is to not over-bake them.
The difference is brown sugar! Chocolate chip cookies usually have brown sugar, and so does the chipless version. On the other hand, sugar cookies usually use granulated white sugar.
As a result, regular sugar cookies are a bit more crisp and a little less chewy. Additionally, the butter flavor stands out in regular sugar cookies (because they don’t have brown sugar to mute it), so they often taste more buttery. Chocolate chip cookies (and chipless cookies) are chewier with flavor notes of molasses and buttered caramel.
More Easy Drop Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
- Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies – rich, chewy peanut butter cookies swirled with Nutella
- Fresh Strawberry Cookies – with a vanilla icing and fresh strawberries, they taste like a Danish
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies – these decadent cookies have a deliciously chewy texture and deep chocolate flavor
Let’s Connect
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Chocolate Chipless Cookies Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened but not melted (see Notes)
- 1 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- Flaky sea salt for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Use a handheld electric mixer to beat together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until well-combined, about 3 minutes. Then beat in the vanilla and egg until smooth. Lastly, beat in the flour, salt, and baking soda just until mixed.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F and get out 2 large baking trays.
- Once it’s chilled, use a 2-tablespoon scoop to measure the dough and drop the dough balls onto the baking trays, spacing them apart so they have room to expand while baking. If you like the flavor of salted caramel, sprinkle a little bit of flaky sea salt on top of each cookie.
- Bake until the cookies are golden along the outside and puffed in the center, about 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through.
- As soon as they’re out of the oven, use potholders to pick up 1 tray at a time and firmly tap it against a flat surface. You’ll see the cookies deflate and crinkle, which is exactly what we want.
Notes
- Recipe Yield and Serving Size: This recipe makes 14 cookies if you scoop the dough into 2-tablespoon-sized balls. Each serving is 1 cookie.
- Storage: Once the cookies are cool, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, in the fridge for up to 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Butter Temperature: With this recipe, the trick is to get the butter soft enough so that it combines well with the brown sugar, but not so soft that the cookies over-flatten in the oven while baking. I like to leave the butter out at room temperature for 1 hour before making the dough, and then when I want to make it, microwave the butter for 5 to 8 seconds.
- If You Want to Brown the Butter: For extra chewy texture and unique flavor that’s reminiscent of toasted nuts and butterscotch, take a few extra minutes to brown the butter. Browned butter has aromatic notes of toasted hazelnut, and sweet caramel flavor notes. To make brown butter, add the butter to a saucepan over medium heat. Let the butter melt, and continue cooking until it smells nutty and brown bits have formed on the bottom, stirring occasionally. Transfer it to bowl so it doesn’t scorch, and your brown butter is ready to use! Note that if you brown the butter, you’ll have to increase the dough chill time to 2 hours.
- Chilling the Dough: Make sure to chill the dough. If your butter is softened (not melted), just 30 minutes in the fridge is long enough for it to rest to make sure you get the perfect thick, chewy texture instead of cookies that are flat as pancakes!
- Crackled Tops: As soon as you pull these cookies out of the oven, firmly tap each tray on the countertop once or twice. This helps the cookies deflate (they will puff up while baking) and creates gorgeous crackled tops.
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Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximate.
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I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.
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