The Best McDonalds Chocolate Chip Cookie Copycat Recipe Ever

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As I sit here at my desk writing this, I have my cup of coffee and a chocolate chip cookie by my side. It’s going to be a great day!

Growing up I don’t remember my mom baking cookies, maybe she did, I just don’t remember. We seemed to always have store bought cookies and a lot of other unhealthy processed foods. Chips Ahoy was a staple in our kitchen pantry. I’m not saying this to bash my mom. She had other things on her mind, like raising three kids by herself, so yeah we had a lot of easy processed foods growing up.

It has taken me a long time to come around to learning how to cook from scratch, eliminating processed foods. It takes a lot of conscience effort and a change of mindset to go against your raising. I am still very much a work in progress, we still buy some processed foods and my kids do eat cookies from a bag every now and then. It really is all about moderation.

My love of fresh baked cookies actually started with McDonalds, of all places. I remember as a young adult, my sister talking about these fresh cookies from McDonalds and how they are three for a dollar and how I HAVE to try them. So I did, and she was right, they were delicious, especially right out of the oven.

About that time, our life got a little crazy and Andrew and I left our first farm and moved to town. You can read about that story here. Wouldn’t you know it, we moved just down the road from a McDonalds.

You could literally see it from our house. With two toddlers at the time and a stressful life situation, I visited McDonalds way too much. Warm McDonald cookies and a frappe became an escape from reality for me. It was how I practiced self care at the time. Obviously not a healthy choice, but hey, you do what you need to do when you feel like you are in survival mode.

After we added two more kids to the mix and moved to our current farm, I started rethinking a lot of things and prioritizing healthy habits. Taking four kids anywhere is expensive, so I started trying to find ways to cut back on eating out. When you do this, you usually end up improving two things; money, and health.

All of that lead me to this easy delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe that taste just like a McDonalds cookie. So, let’s get to it…..

What You’ll Need:

Two Mixing Bowls

A Mixing Spoon or Spatula

Measuring Cups

Parchment Paper

Baking Pan and Cooling Rack (The cooling rack is optional, you don’t have to have it)

Plastic Wrap (If you want to store your dough the way I do)

That’s it, not a lot of fancy tools here. I will warn you that once you get all your ingredients together, stirring the cookie dough will give your arm a little bit of a workout. I can see where a stand mixer would be helpful, but it’s not necessary. I make these cookies once a week and I never get overexerted.

I don’t know where I got this recipe from. Throughout the years I have tweaked it to make these cookies even better.

Ingredients List:

Chocolate chips (the star of the show), butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, 2 eggs. vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder.

Let’s Add the Ingredients:

In one bowl, add the wet ingredients.

2 1/2 sticks of salted butter. You can use unsalted if you prefer. Left the butter soften on the counter or put it in the microwave for about 10 seconds to quickly soften,

Add the sugars, 1 cup of packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar.

Next goes the eggs. 2 eggs. Add one at a time, mixing each one into the bowl.

Lastly, the vanilla. 2 tsp vanilla extract.

In the other bowl, add the dry ingredients.

Combine 2 cups of all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 3/4 tsp of salt.

Now, lets mix the two bowls together.

Ideally, you should add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time, stirring as you go until it’s all combine. I however, just through it all in in one swoop and carefully stir. It all works out in the end. Sometimes I do my laundry the same way (throwing it all in together), but don’t tell anyone, especially my mother in law.

When it’s all combined, it’s time to add the chocolate chips.

Fold in 2 cups of chocolate chips to the dough.

At this point, you get to decide what you want to do with your yummy cookie dough!

Option #1: You can work up all the cookie dough, rolling the dough into one inch balls and bake the cookies at one time. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Once they are all baked, you can freeze what you don’t eat. If you do this, all you need to do is take out as many as you want to eat from the freezer and let them come to room temperature before eating. You could also pop them in the microwave to warm up.

Option #2: If you want to freeze the raw cookie dough, you can either roll them into individual balls and freeze or roll into a log and freeze. If you do individual balls you will want to flash freeze them on a pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes before putting into a freezer bag. Once you are ready for fresh cookies, just pull out as many balls are you want, let them sit on a the counter for about 5 minutes to thaw a bit and then bake them for at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

If you roll the dough into a log (which is what I prefer), all you need to do is wrap the log in plastic wrap and put in a freezer bag or wrap in aluminum foil and place in the freezer. I have done it both ways and they both work just fine. When you are ready for cookies, set out the log of dough on the counter and let it soften a bit and then slice off a small section for each cookie.

I make these cookies every week and for my crew and the dough never makes it to the freezer unless I make a double batch. I will usually make about 6-8 cookies from a fresh batch and then roll the rest of the dough into a log or two logs. This time I did one log, but I probably should have make it two. Then I put the log or logs into the refrigerator and for the rest of the week I will pull it out and make about 6 cookies each night. There is nothing better than fresh cookies. I’d say this recipe makes about 24 cookies.

My kids (one in particular) will sneak into the refrigerator and eat the dough. I know they probably shouldn’t because of the raw eggs, but you only live once.

Tips and Tricks:

Tip #1: When you bake the cookies, fresh or from frozen, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 10 minutes. You will want them to be just barely golden brown. They will continue to cook a little after they come out of the oven. I pull them out of the oven once they are a little brown and still a little runny looking in the middle. Once cooled, they firm up and should look like this. Allow about 10 minutes for them to cool, if you can!

Tip #2: I saw this trick from a Youtube video. Tiffani with Beauty and the Beastons shared how you can use a glass to smash the cookie slightly and then use the mouth of the glass to swirl around the cookie to get a perfectly shaped cookie. I do this as soon as I pull them out of the oven and it works every time.

Tip #3: Like I said, I roll my dough into a log and store it in refrigerator. When I am ready for cookies, I place the log of dough on the counter to come to room temperature just a bit and then I will slice off a few sections for how ever many cookies I want to bake. I then roll the section into a ball and place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. The rest of the log goes back into the refrigerator for another day.

That’s it. I hope you enjoy this cookie recipe as much as I do!