These inside out chocolate chip cookies combine a rich and fudgy chocolate cookie base, the same we use for double chocolate chip cookies. Enjoy super soft and brownie-like centers, chewy edges, and sweet white chocolate chips in each bite. They’re as loved as my chewy chocolate chip cookies and as undeniably rich as my homemade brownies.
Hello and welcome back to 2013 when I initially published this recipe. Now with updated pictures, clearer instructions, and helpful success tips, there’s no excuse not to try the ONLY CHOCOLATE COOKIE RECIPE YOU NEED. Wow, that’s quite the statement.
In the past several years, these inside out chocolate chip cookies have climbed to the top of my most-loved cookie recipe list. Along with chewy chocolate chip cookies, drop sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies, this is the gold standard of cookie dough recipes to try.
What Are Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies?
I know you’re looking at me cross-eyed wondering what, why, and how these are inside out cookies. Think of a regular chocolate chip cookie—buttery brown sugar base with chocolate chips, right? Well, the term “inside out” means that the cookie base is now chocolate and the add-in is white chocolate. Obviously white chocolate chips don’t taste like the buttery brown sugar base of a regular cookie, but I don’t think anyone’s complaining here.
Simply put, these are Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies. (Think of them like the cookie version of chocolate white chocolate cupcakes!)
Video Tutorial
These Chocolate Cookies Are:
- Easy to make with a basic recipe
- A personal and reader favorite
- Soft-baked with brownie-like centers
- Chewy on the edges
- Massively chocolatey
The recipe is also easy to double in 1 mixing bowl without overwhelming/overcrowding your mixer and the baked cookies freeze wonderfully.
How to Make Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies
Even though it’s one of my favorite base cookie recipes, I’ve never walked you through the recipe process. We’ll do that real quick:
- Mix dry ingredients together. You need all-purpose flour, natural unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Do you remember the difference between dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder? Use natural here.
- Beat wet ingredients together. You need butter, white sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract. Room temperature butter and egg will mix more evenly into each other, creating a uniform texture among all the cookies. Additionally, both whip into a greater volume when at room temperature, producing a softer-crumbed cookie.
- Combine all ingredients, then add milk. 1 Tablespoon of milk smooths out the dough. And don’t forget to add the white chocolate chips.
- Chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator. The cookie dough is sticky and unmanageable, so chilling is necessary. I usually chill it overnight, but 3 hours is just enough. Chilled cookie dough is not only easier to handle and roll into balls, it also guarantees thicker cookies. See my tips on How to Prevent Cookies from Spreading.
- Roll cookie dough into balls. After chilling, scoop and roll the cookie dough into tall balls—a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie.
- Bake. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes. If the cookies aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven for a couple more minutes.
Let them cool for a few minutes and experience a fudgy brownie in cookie form. I usually don’t like milk with cookies, but this recipe basically demands it.
Sticky Dough
This cookie dough is sticky, even if you’ve chilled it, so a cookie scoop is helpful. The medium size is perfect because each dough ball should be around 1.5 Tablespoons of dough. If you use your hands, expect to make a little mess as you shape the cookie dough balls. Have a kitchen towel or paper towel nearby. I usually wipe my hands clean after every few cookie dough balls. Clean hands make rolling easier.
Same Dough, Different Cookie
Though ultra soft-baked with chewy edges and fudge-like centers, these chocolate cookies aren’t anything new or groundbreaking. In fact, you might actually recognize the base dough because it’s been my go-to chocolate cookie for years. This is the same exact cookie dough as:
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Peppermint Mocha Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Swirl Cookies
- Andes Mint Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Frosted Cookies
Note: The chocolate crinkle cookies and peppermint mocha cookies can over-spread as a result of the sugar coating and peppermint extract (respectively), so I leave out the milk in those versions.
Need cookies right NOW? If you don’t have time to chill the dough, try giant chocolate chip cookies, Nutella chocolate chip cookies, or even one giant double chocolate cookie.
And if you’re looking for cookie cutter chocolate cookies, here are my chocolate sugar cookies.
Interested in freezing the baked cookies or cookie dough?
- Here’s How to Freeze Cookie Dough
More of My Classic Cookie Recipes
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies & Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies & White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
- Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies (extra chewy!)
- Snickerdoodles
- Shortbread Cookies
Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 20-22 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These inside out chocolate chip cookies combine a rich and fudgy chocolate cookie base, super soft and brownie-like centers, chewy edges, and sweet white chocolate chips. Easy to throw together, this is my base chocolate cookie recipe. This cookie dough requires at least 3 hours of refrigeration.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2/3 cup (55g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk (any kind, dairy or non)
- 1 and 1/4 cups (225g) white chocolate chips, plus a few more for optional topping*
Instructions
- Preliminary note: This cookie dough requires at least 3 hours of chilling, but I prefer to chill the dough overnight. The colder the dough, the thicker the cookies.
- In a large bowl using a hand-held or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium high speed until fluffy and light in color, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg and vanilla extract, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour into the wet ingredients. Beat on low until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick. Switch to high speed and beat in the milk, then the white chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky and tacky. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Scoop and roll dough, a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each, into balls. (I like using this medium cookie scoop.) To ensure a thicker cookie, make the balls taller than they are wide (almost like a cylinder or column). Arrange 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheets. The cookie dough is certainly sticky, so wipe your hands clean after every few balls of dough you shape.
- Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more white chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days (step 3). Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Larger Batch: The recipe is easy to double in 1 mixing bowl without overwhelming your mixer. Simply double all of the cookie dough ingredients. Dough chill time remains the same.
- Other Add-Ins: Instead of white chocolate chips in the dough, you can use the same amount of peanut butter chips, regular chocolate chips, M&Ms, chopped nuts, or butterscotch chips.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Sally: can I make these recipe as a giant cookie cake?
And also do you think that I can add to the recipe some little white marshmallows?
Hi Paola, You can use this recipe and follow the baking directions for my Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake.
I find that marshmallows disappear into the batter when baked but right after the cookies/cookie cake comes out of the oven you can press them on top (like I do in my S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies).
Thank you very much for your answer Sally!!!
I love your recipes!!
I’ve just received your recipe books from amazon .
Thank you!!!!!
Made these cookies for a friend’s birthday & they were a huge hit!! Love the inside out idea 🙂
Amazing recipe! Made them twice over quarantine already for a family of 5 and they were gone in 2 days! Absolutely delicious.
I was looking for a different cookie recipe . This recipe is amazing. Shared cookies with my neighbors and friends they were a hit with everybody. Thank you 🙂
Hi Sally!
I love your recipes- thank you for including the weight measurements in all of your recipes!! They are always so delicious! Could I swap out the refined sugar for coconut sugar?
Hi Leanne! You could, yes, but I’m unsure of the exact results or if the cookies would over-spread. Let me know how they turn out!
They turned out awesome with coconut sugar!! I added a little maple syrup, and I used cacao powder instead of cocoa and einkorn flour instead of all purpose. They were delicious. Thanks Sally!
i never leave reviews but had to for this recipe – one of the better cookies i have ever made!! DELISH and perfect texture
The best cookies I have ever made!
I substituted the regular flour with gluten free flour and the cookies were still an 100/10! served them to my family and friends and they were a great hit!
I am happy to report back these turned out great! I used the same volume Dutch cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon baking powder… I expected I’d need to add more baking powder, but the first test cookies turned out great so I didn’t experiment further. So rich and chocolatey thank you!
Great flavor, but my cookies came out flat and crispy. Any idea on why this might be? The butter and egg were room temperature. Thank you!
Hi Caroline! Were you sure to use natural cocoa powder, and not dutched? This is a sticky cookie dough, so chilling it and making sure the dough balls are cold going into the oven is imperative. (That’s just the nature of cocoa powder in cookie dough.) You may also find a lot of helpful information in a post I wrote about cookies over-spreading: 10 Tips to Help Prevent Cookies from Spreading. I hope it helps!
Oh My!!! These were heavenly. We didn’t have any white chips or any chips actually so we cut up Lindt MINT balls…..BEST Chocolate Cookie recipe ever and adaptable so we will be experimenting. Thank you again:)
Your recipes are always amazing Sally! My boyfriend is obsessed with these cookies, he’s already asking for another batch!
I just made these this morning – DELICIOUS! I’m not normally a chocolate cookie fan, but these cookies have converted me. Thanks for sharing this great recipe with us Sally!
I LOVE this recipe! I like to use Andes mints instead of white chocolate to make a chocolate mint chip cookie!
I was wondering about making it into a cookie bar next time. Would it work to just spread it out on a cookie sheet? Or would the recipe have to be changed for them to bake properly?
These are SO good with Andes! You can make them as cookie bars, I recommend using a square baking pan instead of a cookie sheet. You can follow the baking directions for my Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. Enjoy 🙂
If I wanted to make a “Cookie Cake” with this recipe what size cake pan would I use?
Hi Amy, You should be able to use an 8 or 9 inch round pan. Follow the baking directions for my Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. Enjoy!
These were so perfect. I liked their flavor best when they were completely cooled off.
Hi Sally, these are amazing! You can never go wrong with your recipes.By the way, next time I make them, can I use an ice creams scooper for size consistency? Or you don’t recommend it?
Also If I plan to chill the dough longer than 12 hours next time, how long shall I take them out before scooping them? thanks again! You are such a blessing to us novice bakers! Keep them coming and hopefully all of them with video tutorials to walk
us through visually!
Hi Diana, An ice cream scoop might be a little large but I do use a cookie scoop with many of my recipes. This is the one I use and love: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Medium-Cookie-Scoop/dp/B0000CDVD2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=sallsbakiaddi-20&linkId=53781895211591d07a83dd95ad6de6e2&language=en_US
If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
Once again…Absolutely Delicious and I shared and got rave reviews for Valentines Day! Thank you Sally!
I made this today! Love it! Thank you very much!
Great cookies, Sally! I put valentine m&ms in and valentine sprinkles. So yummy! Thank you!!
The cookies are soooo amazing!!! I loved mine dipped in milk!
These cookies are incredible Sally! Best I’ve made!! 🙂
Love these, Sally!!! Definitely making them again – they were gone so fast…pretty much impossible to stop at one (or two)! Thank you, Sally!
Sally, your lately updated pictures are all very good – the lighting and colours, the frame composition. Love the red and white details in these pictures, it’s a wonderful combination with the dark cookies!
Also, this recipe seems to be as old as my daughter… wow, they grow up so fast. When I read this recipe for the first time she was a snuggly baby, now she’s a first grader. And I should bake cookies for her and her brother when they return from school this afternoon 🙂
These were not my favorite despite having used store brand unsalted butter, natural cocoa powder, pure Madagascar vanilla bourbon extract, and Ghirardelli brand real white chocolate chips with real cocoa butter. I thought the dark chocolate flavor was too pronounced and bitter, but the texture was desirable; chewy and soft to the bite.
I think I would’ve appreciated this cookie more if I had used some peanut butter chips to cut through and balance out the dark chocolate. I felt the white chocolate was overpowered.
I make these into a Mexican chocolate cookie. I add dark chocolate chips, cinnamon, and cayenne. So good.
Sabrina – would you mind sharing your measurements for the cinnamon and cayenne? I am definitely interested – what a great-sounding combination of flavors!
Hi Sally! You’ve taken my love of baking to a whole new level! Your recipes are simply the BEST!! I’m thinking of making these this weekend but using Andes baking chips or crushed mints instead of the white chocolate chips (kinda like a simplified mint fudge brownie). Do you think that would work well with this dough?
Thanks Leslie! Sounds wonderful! Yes, Andes baking chips would be excellent in this cookie dough! I love chocolate and mint together.
Do you think I could use vanilla chips? I recently bought unicorn vanilla chips. They are just unicorn colors swirled kinda like ty dye. Lol. My daughter loves everything unicorn and rainbows. And was trying to find a chocolate cookie that would work with chips. Also I never stray from your site for anything baking related. You do a fabulous job with all your recipes. And love that you take the time to test and tweak where needed.
Hi Anna! You can DEFINITELY use those fun chips instead of the white chocolate chips in this chocolate cookie recipe.
Hi Erin! Yes, that would definitely work. I would follow the exact instructions for the caramel apple thumbprint cookies, swapping this chocolate cookie dough for that cookie dough. Bake time and chill time are the same.
I made these cookies today! The consistency was amazing: fudgy, but light and with chewy edges that made me so happy!
I used gold chocolate chips from San Churro and they worked quite well. But I think I want to try with straight, white choc chips next time.
I love your blog! I’ve made so many biscuits and they have all turned out delicious!
Hi Victoria! Here’s a recent blog post I published about how to prevent cookies from spreading.