Egg Yolk Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies got a makeover: all brown sugar, egg yolks and european butter make these the most flavorful and chewy cookies yet. Dark chocolate spreads throughout the cookie and it is flaked with sea salt for the perfect finishing touch.
The classic chocolate chip cookies of your dreams: these are hands down, the very best chocolate chip cookies ever. Made with egg yolks, brown sugar and good butter, this egg yolk chocolate chip recipe leads to the most flavorful and chewy cookies you can imagine.
The Egg Yolk Cookies & I Go Back
I developed this egg yolk cookie recipe based on a recipe I had made in 2015 when I was chasing chewy chopped chocolate cookies. I had leftover egg yolks and errr… I felt like my day needed cookies (doesn’t it always?). I didn’t brown or melt my butter (I snuck it in the microwave for 10 seconds to barely soften it). I used all brown sugar and dark chocolate. They were the best chocolate chip cookies I’d ever had (and I’ve had MANY).
Once, I even dared to make these without chocolate. Honestly, I have never done that before but I wanted to get an exact read on the dough. And even without chocolate, the cookie was DIVINE. I did not know this was possible. Please allow me to revolutionize the way you make chocolate chip cookies with this recipe!
Egg Yolk Cookies | Why use egg yolks only to make cookies?
I’ve used egg yolks in chocolate chip cookie dough because they are rich in good fats and contribute to making a chewy cookie which is the only way a chocolate chip cookie should be. Crispy chocolate chip cookies are my nemesis, no joke. I’m sorry Tate.
Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies
But it’s not just egg yolks that make a very chewy chocolate chip cookie. Using all brown sugar and butter with a higher butterfat percentage also contribute to that sought-after chewy texture.
That said, with the loss of granulated sugar and egg whites – our cookies are a lot less likely to spread in the way you’d expect & want from a chocolate chip cookie dough. To remedy this we need to do two things 1. Be careful with how we measure the flour (if you have a scale, even better!) and use a chopped chocolate bar rather than chocolate chips.
Chocolate Chip Cookies Versus Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Right let’s get this one out of the way: a chopped up chocolate bar is miles and miles better than chocolate chips. I know chips are what you grew up on (I did too) but most brands you buy today are not doing your cookies justice and not just because they don’t taste great.
Chocolate chips contain stabilizers to help them maintain their shape. Also they are often made with less cocoa solids and often contain oils rather than cocoa butter. They are designed, as I mentioned, to hold their ‘chip’ shape so they don’t melt well (nor do they actually taste that great – with one exception, I’ll get there).
Why do we care about how chocolate melts in cookie dough? Because as it melts it pushes the dough out, ie. causes it to spread evenly. In a regular cookie this is desirable, in these perfectly chewy chocolate chunk cookies, it’s necessary.
So, what kind of chocolate is best to make chocolate chunk cookies?
The kind that isn’t in the baking aisle. Go to the candy aisle, browse the big bars of eating chocolate. Choose one that has a cocoa solid of at least 55% (preferably 70%) and if you can, a thicker bar rather than thin (I’ll explain why below).
Also, you may be lured into purchasing a bag of ‘chocolate chunks’ in the baking aisle but those are just chocolate chips disguised to look as though they were chopped chocolate. For the lazy peeps who don’t want to chop. And dear god, if you see candy melts I want you to RUN in the opposite direction. Toward the good chocolate preferably.
Ingredients to make Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butter: This egg yolk cookie recipe tastes and works best with a european-style butter which has a butterfat percentage of at least 82% (I use one with 83%). The extra fat in the butter lends more flavor and contributes to that wonderful chew. If you cannot find it and will be using american style butter, add 1.5 tablespoons more.
- Egg Yolks: You cannot substitute the yolks in this recipe with a whole egg. Make sure your yolks come from large eggs, we want all that good fat. No egg substitute either, if you are interested in an eggless cookie recipe see these almond flour chocolate chip cookies.
- Flour: All-purpose flour, not bread and not cake. Aim for a flour that has a midpoint in protein level, so around 10%.
- Brown Sugar: Fresh, non-organic light brown sugar. If it has dried and has clumps you’ll have to find a different use for it (perhaps something that will be heated). Organic sugar tends to be drier and needs more moisture in a recipe (in theory you’d have to add another yolk). You may use dark brown sugar if you like.
- Baking Soda: Not baking powder; baking soda is more powerful than powder and helps with the spread of the cookies. Don’t substitute this.
- Chocolate: Dark chocolate of good quality. If you live in the US, use the Pound Plus bars from Trader Joes (the red ones) they are affordable, taste wonderful and melt beautifully.
- Salt: Fine sea salt is my preference, and if you are using table salt you’ll need to adjust accordingly.
- Vanilla: Pure vanilla extract and don’t skip it! Without it the dough is definitely missing some flavor.
- Flaky salt to top: I like the flaked salt on top, but many of my friends and family will ask me for cookies, “without salt on top, please”. Definitely, leave it off if you don’t like it. If you do want it, here’s my favorite brand.
Tips to make the best Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Room temperature butter: when you press your finger into the butter it should leave an indentation. If yours is really cold and you need to speed it up a bit, slip the butter into the microwave for 5-10 seconds.
- Beat the sugar & butter for a while: we want lots of air incorporated in this step which you know as ‘creaming’. The mix should turn several shades lighter, give it at least 5 minutes in a stand mixer.
- Then beat the eggs for a while: this process allows for the emulsification of the yolk into the butter mixture. Give it a solid 3-5 minutes in the stand mixer.
- Bake, but don’t wait for them to turn golden: cookies should be slightly underbaked when taken out of the oven. On the sheet they continue to cook through.
What to do with leftover egg whites after making this egg yolk cookie recipe
Make a triple batch of my small batch double chocolate chunk cookies. The dough for these needs to rest overnight so you can have classic chocolate chip cookies today and double chocolate cookies the next day (or days – see note on storing cookie dough for baking later).
How to get big pools of chocolate in your chocolate chip cookies
When you chop your chocolate bar, leave some big pieces so you get the giant pools in the middle. And scrape everything that was on the chopping board into the dough, this will speckle the dough and ensure there’s chocolate in every bite.
How to store cookie dough for baking later
Once you’ve portioned the dough into six, freeze the ones you don’t want to bake on an open plate for ten minutes then put the frozen balls in a ziplock freezer bag for longer storage (up to 9 months!). You can bake them straight out of the freezer, add an additional 2-3 minutes of bake time.
More egg yolk based cookie recipes
- Brown Butter Egg Yolk Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Small Batch Oatmeal Cookies
- Small batch Monster Cookies
- Small batch Birthday Cookies
Tools to make Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies (affiliate links):
- Food Scale
- 1.5 tablespoon ice cream scoop
- Parchment paper
- Aluminium cookie sheets
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
Egg Yolk Chocolate Chunk Cookie Recipe
Egg Yolk Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 129 g unsalted European-style butter (preferably Kerrygold Irish)
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed (200g)
- 3 large egg yolks
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 TB pure vanilla extract
- 220 grams of all-purpose flour
- 250 grams of chocolate feves or chopped chocolate
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional)
Method
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar together for 5-7 minutes on medium. It should be very light and fluffy.
- Add salt and vanilla, beat to combine.
- Add yolks, beat for one minute.
- Add soda and flour. Beat to just combine.
- Add the chocolate and turn mixer on low to just mix them in. If you beat them for too long or on too high the spatula might break them.
- Preheat oven to 360 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop them onto a prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
Did you make this recipe?
Share & tag me on instagram @buttermilkbysam
on of the best recipes I’ve ever made!!!!! thanks 🙂
I have so many baking cookbooks, at least 3 of them exclusively about cookies. Nevertheless, this is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and my go-to. I have made it with both styles of butter but always use chopped chocolate. These are so perfectly chewy and delicious. Never skip the salt on top.
How many cookies did this recipe make?
I made these yesterday and I think they may be my new go-to chocolate chip cookie! So delicious and no need to chill the dough. Win-win.
These are legitimately the best cookies I’ve ever had. I ran out of normal chocolate after making them for the umpteenth time and made them with salted caramel chocolate bars instead. Omg. Get someee.
These are amazing no matter what chocolate is used, but definitely the OG cookies are the best thing I’ve ever made.
I keep balls of frozen dough just for late night cravings.
These cookies are amazing. I mixed cookies as recipe called for by weight. I rolled the dough into a log and froze. I sliced some frozen and cooked an extra minute. They looked just like the pictures and the texture and taste is on point.
This is my go-to #1 cookie recipe. I follow the recipe (using either 55% feves or a dark chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s), and they are perfect every time. Everyone I have served them to has commented on how good they are, and most have asked for the recipe. I keep these scooped and ready to bake in my freezer— in a pinch, I’ve even used my ready-to-bake frozen egg yolk CCC dough as birthday gifts! The only downside is that after making you these, you may not find other CCCs to be as good as they were before!
Update:
I made these 2 more times. They came out perfect and again they look like the photo. In one recipe I ran out of European butter and used regular unsalted butter. The taste of the European butter cookies were better overall but the regular butter cookies tasted great too. I still used chocolate chips. This time I used 1/2 dark chocolate chips and 1/2 semi sweet mini chips and did not chop them.
Seriously this is a no fail recipe for me and is my new go to. Note: I do not use the salt flakes on top.
Turned out amazing and look like the photo. I followed the recipe and I weighed the ingredients. I only reduced the salt a little. I used chocolate chips and chopped them a little but not much. These taste amazing!! I will make them again.
I effed up this recipe and the cookies were still brilliant. Accidentally used bread flour instead of APF because the bags looked the same, had to use chocolate chips because my sweet husband ate all my bar chocolate, had to chuck the dough in the fridge for a couple hours before baking on account of a work derailment. And they still came out chewy and complex in flavor. Per my family, “these cookies are what grocery store cookies wish they could be”. Will definitely try with cooled browned butter next time! Thanks for this great recipe, Sam!
Oh my gosh Sameera, your husband eating the chocolate bar sounds like something mine would do. Made me LOL. So glad you all enjoyed them!!!
Replacements:
equal weight Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
Dark brown sugar
Absolutely delicious! Next time will probably brown the butter but overall they turned out amazing!
These have officially taken the #1 spot for my favorite CCC. The egg yolks and all brown sugar are a game changer!! These are the chewiest, most perfect cookies. Read the entire post and follow everything Sam says to do. I froze the scoops and baked straight from frozen and they were still perfect.
These are fantastic in their own right! But as a quick, delicious way to use extra egg yolks after making a Swiss meringue buttercream they are the recipe that keeps on giving!!! Absolutely phenomenal. Thank you so much Sam. I love the detail in the recipes and your Instagram is great too!
Another winner recipe!!! You are now, officially, my go to baking site! Again, I didn’t weigh my ingredients and the recipe was perfection!! The cookies have great texture and taste delicious!! “Wow! This is a good cookie!” , direct quote from my husband that rarely enjoys any sort of dessert!
These were wonderful cookies and a great pairing to your double chocolate cookies (which I tripled per your suggestion to use the three egg whites left over from this recipe).
The texture of these cookies is uniquely superb and the flavor is rich. I like dark chocolate, and used a 70% one for this recipe, but I think I might use a sweeter chocolate next time… maybe 50-60% per my own preference.
Amazing cookies!! I made a double batch and weighed everything, and they turned out absolutely perfect! I reserved a few chunks of chocolate to stick on top of each cookie right before I put them in the oven and this gave me beautiful pools of chocolate on top.
Forgot to give them 5 stars!
Made these today, even accidentally left them in for too long and it was still perfect texture. Also a great use for leftover egg whites from macarons!
The best use for leftover egg yolks! So easy and so so very good!
Hey Sam! I LOVE these cookies, but I haven’t made them in a while and can’t find a unanimous conversion to US cup measurements for the ingredients in grams. Do you know these or have a good reference for them? Plan to make them for my Bible study this evening. 🙂
Thank you!
Hi Arliss! I think the only one you’re missing is the flour; a cup is about 130g so I’d say by cup about 1 3/4 cups? But measure carefully; by sprinkling into the cup and leveling it
Hi
I made this recipe a couple of times when I have egg yolks I need to use . The taste is awesome but the appearance is not . They always spread flat never did they come out as pretty as your picture . What shall I do to get those pretty cookies like in your picture ? What is the trick ?
If they are spreading too much I’m thinking either there’s too much butter/not enough flour. Best to use a scale for both of these. Also, if your flour is very low protein it would not have enough structure for the cookies.
Is it okay to use a baking stone or is a sheet pan and parchment the better option?
10/10
I made these yesterday and took them into work with me today and got a lot of praise from coworkers (a surprising amount for that bunch, tbh). But I agree that they tasted great! And they did not spread horribly, which usually happens for me. They look pretty close to the pictures, actually, which I am very happy about.
I’m am also not in the us, so I could not adhere to the recipe completely: I went by weights because that is normal here, but typical brown sugar here is much ciraser than normal white sugar, and you did kind of feel the crunch of individual sugar crystals in the finished product. Next time I will try combining normal sugar with something close to molasses to make the proper sugar. As flour I also used just the normal flour here, I don’t know how that corresponds to American AP or cake flour. It worked fine anyways! And lastly my eggs had previously been frozen because I freeze leftover yolks from other baking.
And despite bringing everything up to room temp in about 20 min and with all these modifications this recipe still made excellent cookies! I am in awe and have been asked to make these again. Thank you for the recipe, you’ve made many a happy camper!
Everyone who had one loved these cookies, and they’re so chocolate-y! Very delicious and the recipe was easy to follow 🙂
these were absolutely unreal. spent the day before making caramelized white chocolate and then chopped that up to use instead of dark chocolate. out of this world.
I made these cookies again and they are so good! This is a great recipe for those immediate cookie cravings. No need to chill the dough and the cookies don’t spread too much. Great use for leftover egg yolks!
Delicious cookies, enjoyed by all! Chopping the chocolate makes such a difference, only doing that from now on!
Delicious cookies, enjoyed by all! Chopping the chocolate makes such a difference, only doing that from now on!!
Officially my go-to no fail chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’ve shared it with my sisters and sisters-in-law and they love it as well.
I’m not lying when I say it’s taken me over 10 years to find the perfect recipe. Thank you for coming up with this and sharing your blessings with us basic bakers!
I have to agree wholeheartedly. Speaking for myself, it was years and years of trying recipe after recipe resulting in a ridiculous collection of both mediocre and total failures jamming my files….which shall all be happily eliminated now that I have discovered this easy to make favorite and understand each component of ‘why’. People assume that CCC are the simplest to pull off but I’ve learned the hard way that’s not necessarily so. Thank you for sharing your brilliant understanding and expertise which I appreciate comes with intense study and practice!
made my day, thank you Anj!
Ever since I found this recipe, I have been making these cookies atleast once a week. The recipe has never failed me and the cookies are delish!
Loved this recipe so much! Super easy to make and freezes well for a stash of emergency cookies!
EMERGENCY COOKIES!!! 😀 😀
This recipe was really intriguing as I haven’t seen a CCC recipe similar to this one. I did add an extra two tablespoons of butter because I had planned on baking something else that called for that much (so it was already all softened together). These came out so crumbly in a good way, they were a little crisp on the outside and nice and gooey on the inside. I will definitely make them again!
Delicious, love that I can bake immediately without resting the cookie dough!
That is exactly what I was after – who can wait for cookies!
Love these cookies!!! Thank you so much! And I super appreciate your blog posts too! I love to know the “why” and particulars with the recipe so I can tweak later if I want to change it up a bit. I also used your links to get the feves and salt. 🙂 You are clearly brilliant and I hope to try all your recipes some day soon!
Thank you Amanda! Those are affiliate links and when you use them it helps me cover costs to run the site so I really appreciate it!
The flavor of these cookies is to die for! They’re just as good days later as they are straight from the oven. I have made these 4 times in the last 2.5 weeks and unfortunately my cookies have never spread the way they are in the photos. I’m quite an advanced baker and have followed the recipe to a T – not sure why they won’t spread but regardless they’re awesome!
Hi Alexa! So happy you love them! With regards to spreading two things could be working against that: measuring by cup instead of scale (the latter is more accurate) and the temperature of the butter when you incorporate it and the temperature of the dough when it goes into the oven.
Haiii.. i love ur recipes!! This one is great! Although my cookies also a bit different than yours. They dont spread. Can you please explain more about the dough temperature? This might help me.
Thanks 🙂
Hi! Thank you! You might find the discussion I posted on the one yolk chocolate chunk cookie recipe page useful, it addresses cookies not spreading!
This cookie gets rave reviews every time! The flake salt sprinkled on top is a must. It has become my go-to CCC. Simple and reliable to make for gifts, or quick to make in the afternoon for a last minute after dinner treat. I appreciate all the tips and notes within the blog post as they truly make a difference and have taught me a lot.
Laura, it’s so good to know those tips and notes helped! I always wonder if anyone reads them =p
Hey Sam! Wanted to bake these for my big family get-together however instead of cookies, can I just stuff the dough in 8×8 aluminium pan and bake them as cookie bars? Also what will be the baking timings then? Thank you
I think so! I haven’t tried it tbh
Hi!
I made these and they came out very fluffy, not chewy… what did I do wrong?
Thanks!
Hi Samantha, it’s very hard to say. How we measure ingredients, how we incorporate them, can all make a difference. If you DM me on IG we can try to figure it out!
Hi! I was wondering if I did half white sugar will I get a cookie that’s a bit crisper on the edges? I am ashamed to say that I cannot find a ccc recipe that gives me crispy edges and a chewy middle! I don’t really like a super soft cookie, I need the texture! Help!
Hi Samantha, my inclination is to say yes but I think the recipe would need even more tweaking to get that texture. I use egg yolks and only brown sugar to zero on on the ‘chewy’ here so crisp doesn’t come through. Two recipes I’d recommend you try out: Sarah Kieffer’s pan banging chocolate chip cookies and Ashley Rodriguez’ salted chocolate chip cookies. Either of those might be closer to the texture you seek.
Hi! I just found your IG page. The money you are raising with your brownies is phenomenal! Congratulations!
I, also, love that you include the brands that you use in your recipes.. Sometimes it makes all of the difference. Thank you for putting the weight of the flour and other ingredients as well. I have a question. What brand of vanilla extract do you use?
Hi Nina! You are so right, brands can make all the difference. For example, different all-purpose flours have various protein contents and I do find you can see that affecting some of my cookie recipes. And butter too with it’s varying butterfat content, like in this recipe! For pure vanilla extract I use either Rodelle or Nielson Massey.
Thanks so much!
Hi, i would like to know do you sprinkle the salt before or after baking? Thanks.
Thanks Sam. I baked your Thick Cocoa Brownie, it so delicious.
Either works – the trick is to get it to get some where there is exposed chocolate. I actually do both!
Baking the cookies, are they cooked if the under feels wet, damp like? I am baking it at 13 min.
More like soft. So baked at 20 mins, still soft in the middle and later at 25 mins then it was hard and dry in the middle. So its a darker shade. Maybe its my oven or the hot humid hot weather here in Malaysia.
Gosh 20 minutes would definitely be too long! With cookies you don’t want to wait for them to be solid in the oven, this will lead to an overbaked cookie that will be hard. They should be soft and just barely golden on the edges. As they cool they firm up. I can’t say what exactly went wrong – sounds like it could be a butter or flour issue!
I noticed that yours is flatter, mine is slight high so i guess thats why it took a long time to bake it.
Thanks Sam. I baked your Thick Cocoa Brownie, it so delicious.
By far the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! All yolks made all the difference. Thank you!
Melinda, that’s awesome! So wonderful to hear!
Finally got around to trying out these cookies and they definitely did not disappoint!! They were so soft and chocolately!
All brown sugar is the best way to go! I also threw in a bit of rye flour and some espresso powder. Great ideas here!
Yay Jeanie! That’s awesome about the rye. I love using oat flour in my cookies and, given the extra moisture from the fat of the butter and yolks, different flours could work great in this recipe. Thank you for stopping by and giving them a go!