Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Crispy outside and chewy inside, these are wonderful chocolate chip cookies. You’ll never guess what’s in them.
In the food world, there are few things as elusive or sought after as perfect chocolate chip cookie. This recipe from my friend Carrie might just have my vote. When she first sent it to me, I thought, “Geez, she sure threw the whole kitchen sink in there.” But Carrie is a great baker so I tried them, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had a better chocolate chip cookie. The secret ingredient? Actually, there are two. The first is oatmeal, which is finely ground so that it lends the desired chewiness without drawing too much attention to itself. The second, believe it or not, is coconut. Weird, I know, but you can barely taste it and it makes these chocolate chip cookies out of this world.
What you’ll need to make Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
Step-by-Step Instructions
To begin, place the oatmeal in the bowl of a food processor or blender.
Process until finely ground.
In a medium bowl, combine the ground oats with the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Whisk to combine and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar.
Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla.
Beat to combine.
Add the dry ingredients.
Beat at low speed until just combined.
Add chocolate chips, coconut and nuts.
Mix well.
Working with 1-1/2 tablespoons of cookie dough at a time, form balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between them.
Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until edges of cookies begin to crisp but centers are still soft, 12 to 14 minutes.
Cool cookies on baking sheets for 1 minute, then transfer to racks to cool completely.
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Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
Crispy outside and chewy inside, these are wonderful chocolate chip cookies. You’ll never guess what’s in them.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup old-fashioned rolled oats, ground in a food processor or blender until very fine
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla
- ⅔ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup loosely packed sweetened flaked coconut
- ¾ cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
- Adjust racks to upper- and lower- middle positions and preheat the oven to 350° F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the ground oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the egg and vanilla; continue beating until combined. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined. Add the chocolate chips, coconut and nuts and mix until evenly combined.
- Working with 1½ tablespoons of cookie dough at a time, form balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between them. (Keep remaining batter cool in refrigerator while first batch cooks.) Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until edges of cookies begin to crisp but centers are still soft, 12 to 14 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets for 1 minute, then transfer to racks to cool completely. Repeat with remaining batter.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The Cookie Dough can be Frozen for up to 3 Months: Scoop the dough into balls, let set on a baking sheet in the freezer, then place in a sealable bag and press out as much air as possible. Bake as needed directly from the freezer. (Allow 1 to 2 minutes longer in the oven.) To Freeze After Baking: Let the cookies cool completely and store in an airtight container separating layers with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, remove the cookies from the container and let them come to room temperature.
Nutrition Information
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- Serving size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 146
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated fat: 4 g
- Carbohydrates: 17 g
- Sugar: 11 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Sodium: 92 mg
- Cholesterol: 18 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Recipe worked perfect. I seemed to have missed the oven temp? I baked on 350 for 13 minutes and cookies, though slightly more brown than photos, came out soft, chewy, and delicious. Each batch was chilled slightly but not frozen or chilled through. My butter was cold yet not hard or frozen and my chips were the larger chips vs. the small ones used most in cookies.
I tried these cookies and they were wonderful! I liked them so much that I shared a link to them on another site and several other posters have tried them. All were big fans.
I liked using the ground oatmeal – I assume it replaces some of the flour one would normally use.
Could I use ground oatmeal in place of flower in other baked goods? Brownies or cakes? (Apologizes if this is a dumb question – beginner baker here!).
Forgot to add my ratings! 5 STARS!
Hi Stephanie, Great question – I’d use them in cookies, blondies, brownies, muffins, or scones but not in cakes — and always go easy as oatmeal is much denser than flour and can make baked goods dry and heavy.
Delicious! I particularly loved the buttery taste these have; in the past I’ve only been able to get that flavor out of a very flat (in a bad way) C.C. cookie.
If one of Jenn’s recipes doesn’t come out a 5/5, I am confident the fault lies with myself, as yet again, this is a stellar recipe! I’m almost 30 years old and I’ve never bought a cookbook (they only ever have a handful of decent recipes), but I am very strongly thinking about buying Jenn’s.
Thank you very much, Jenn, for sharing your expertise and your natural talent for all things food!
Soooo good! We tend to just stick to the Tollhouse recipe in this house but these were fantastic (even the coconut haters loved them). Another winning recipe from my favorite cooking blog-thank you!
These cookies tasted wonderful. My only issue is it makes pretty small quantity and actually fewer than I was expecting. I only got 20 cookies from following the recipe.
I used my regular cookie scoop and left the dough rounded rather than leveling off as it drew the scoop out of the mixing bowl. Each cookie measures just a smidge less than 3 inches… which to me is the perfect size – especially if you at giving them as gifts or selling at a bake sale. I will probably double the recipe next time.
I notice that you do not refer to convection baking temperatures or mention the difference in using convection ovens . Is there a reason? I use convection all the time and reduce temp 25 degrees.. do you prefer conventional baking time and temp?
Hi Shirley, I test and publish all my recipes using the conventional setting on my oven because not everyone has convection. Hope that clarifies!
I am still in the process of cooking these. It took me three batches of overcooked crunchy cookies to figure out that with a convection oven (at least mine) 9 minutes total cooking time is best. Wish I had read the reviews first because I didn’t see the critical importance of the
“spooning”‘ method for the flour, until I ran into problems and went searching through the reviews/comments. I used too much flour apparently, and the cookies never flattened out and weren’t chewy. Best I could get, was leaving them slightly undercooked. Not ideal …but better than the little “biscuits” I got wth cooking until done. Still tasty and my family ate every one.
I usually bake cookies at 330 degrees in my convection over and shorten the baking time checking them for doneness in about 75% of the recipe time. I agree it would be nice if recipe developers would begin offering convection times because while “not everyone has a convection over” not everyone continues to use their regular oven either. Over half the attendees of a recent cooking class that I attended raised their hand when asked if they used convection on a regular basis.
I just finished baking your chocolate chip cookie recipe. I poured a glass of cold milk and enjoyed the best chocolate chip cookies that I have ever made. I love the fact that they have ground oatmeal in them. Next time I may add a little ground flax seed to the mix. I did not need the parchment paper, I just used my Pampered Chef stoneware cookie sheet. My family is really going to enjoy these. I would definitely give these a 5 star rating…
Crumbly. Turned out horrible. Had to throw entire batch out. Wasted my money on the ingredients.
You are clearly not making them right. Every single person we’ve baked these for goes crazy over them. The best cookie recipe ever!!!
Jenn, can I eliminate the pecans & leave everything else the same & still expect great result? TIA
Hi Fran, Yes, you can omit the nuts without adjusting anything else. They’ll still be delicious!
Hi! Love your page. I have an oat allergy. What can I use a substitute?
Hi Fern, You can use wheat germ or just replace with more flour. Enjoy!
Hi Jenn, I tried this recipe over the weekend and although the cookies tasted great, they didn’t flatten out like you show in the picture. They remained more dome shape and then they weren’t browning as much either so i kept them in longer, which made them more hard at the end and not chewie. Any suggestions as to what I should do differently next time? Thanks! Olga
Hi Olga, Did you, by any chance, chill the dough before baking? If it was cool, that definitely can make the cookies puffier. Also, be sure to use to “spoon and level” method for measuring flour (spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level-off); otherwise, you’ll have too much flour, and that could also make the cookies puffy.
A little too sweet for my taste, but otherwise a good cookie. I like the chewy texture. If I wanted to make it less sweet should I reduce the sugar or use unsweetened coconut instead? I imagine the the unsweetened coconut adds to the chewiness so will probably try to reduce the sugar. I’ve tried many of your recipes and all have been fantastic. This is the only one I didn’t love. I suppose I just like my cookies to be less sweet.
I’m with you on the sweetness. This by far though is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever found. I reduce both of the sugars by about a quarter, or go a hair over – half cup. I swear it’s still plenty sweet and doesnt mess with the chemistry of the baking. I also use GF flour for the white flour portion and no one can tell.
Jenn—Have been an avid fan of your website for over a year now and you are my go to every week. We recently took our daughter to college, several states away and I thought this might be a good cookie recipe to make on a Sunday night to ship out on Monday, next day air. Want to give her something homemade. I wanted to get your thoughts or any tips on sending these cookies to her or is there another one of your cookie recipes that might be better to make the night before and ship out the next day air?
Hi Celeste, Yes, I think these would be a good option to send your daughter. How happy she will be when she opens the package!
By reversing the the pan, do you mean switch the pan from the bottom rack to the top rack and vice versa or do you mean spin the pan front to back?
Hi Kevin, I mean the former (switching the racks that the baking sheets are on). Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Hi I’m trying to decide between the chocolate chip cookie or your chocolate marbled cheese cake brownies to bring to a friend’s birthday. I have to make the day before. Any thoughts which holds up the best and can I make both the day before. Thanks. I really enjoy your site. We are retired and I cook as a hobby. I find your site so great and helpful especially for younger cooks with children. Gives me ideas for when my grandchildren come to visit.
Hi Lynn, Thanks so much for your kind words about the site! You really can’t go wrong with either, as they will both be fine made a day ahead of time. The brownies definitely have more wow factor, but the cookies are one of my most popular recipes :).
Calories?? Thanks!
Hi Christy, Each cookie is 146 calories. (I just added the full nutritional rundown to the recipe.) Enjoy!
Good cookie, I love the chewy-crispness of it. I love the flavor of coconut, but the texture, not so much. I ground the coconut with the oats which helped. My daughter was telling me she had oats between her teeth. I laughed and told her it was probably coconut.
Love your recipes ! have made these secret ingredient cookies several times now and I have halved both sugars and you don’t miss it !
These secret ingredient choc chip cookies are the best I’ve ever made, and close to the best I’ve ever tasted. Kid and teenager approved, too. I love the “secret ingredient”. Thank you!!
Hi Jen. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes. I use your site very frequently and mostly everything turns out great. I am also looking forward to the book you plan to release.
My question for this recipe is I have some freshly shredded coconut in my fridge but your recipe asks for sweetened flaked coconut. Do I need to add more sugar in the recipe then?
Looking fwd to your reply… Thanks!!
Hi Vanita, Thanks for the nice words! I think the cookies may end up a bit dry with the unsweetened coconut.
The cookies were very good. The texture is crispy on outside and chewey on the inside as described, which I love. I think I’m not entirely crazy about the coconut in them (and I do love coconut) just not in my chocolate chip cookies, I guess. This is the 1st thing I’ve made on this site that hasn’t been 5 stars (for me). I feel a little bad! Ha
(From a Jenny to a Jen!) First, I have to say I love your site and your recipes. You always offer the STYLE and kind of things that I instinctively go for and like – and besides, most of what you ask for in ingredients is in my cupboard. Please keep going – I just love what you do.
Secondly, this chocolate chip recipe does look divine. Just wondering if it would be possible to substitute the pecans with pine nuts?
Again thank you so much.
Hi Jenny! So glad you’re enjoying the recipes. I think pine nuts would be delicious. Please lmk how they turn out. 🙂
Hi Jenn – in the end I did go with the pecans (they were hard to find here) and am very glad I did. The result was fabulous and I won’t make them again because we scoffed the lot in a matter of days which isn’t too good for people meant to be on a diet!! (Ok it was Valentine’s Day…) Just joking, but I wanted to thank you. They were wonderful.
Will these cookies still turn out good with butterscotch chips? I don’t have chocolate chips at the moment…
Definitely!
I find using the large size chips or chocolate chunks works best.
These are the BEST cookies ever! My family loves them and anyone I make them for say they are simply the best cookies. Thank you for sharing this incredible recipe!!!
Can you make a more chocolatey version of this by adding cocoa powder or melted bittersweet chocolate? What adjustments would need to be made? Thanks!
I wouldn’t suggest cocoa powder here. If you add bittersweet chocolate, I would use a chocolate bar and chop it into chunks to add (as opposed to melting it). If you’re a chocoholic, you may also like these Double Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans.
Just finished making these and they are perfect. The only thing we did differently was put in food coloring at my children’s request.We will make these again.
Hi Jenn – My chocolate chip cookies tasted great and were wonderfully chewy. My question is that they were flatter than the cookies in your photo and when I rolled them into balls, the dough was sticky. I wonder if it was because I softened the butter too much. Any ideas? Thank you for your insight, Karen
Hi Karen, Yes, that’s likely the reason. If it happens again, just chill the dough a bit before baking.
Perfection. Heaven on Earth. You name it. Hubby loved it! Thank you, chef.
Hi Jenn,
Thanks so much for this recipe. The cookies are really good! However my cookies hardened up the next day (I reheated it up in the microwave and it came out chewy and crispy again). I baked it for 15 mins total and used dark brown sugar (that’s what I had at that time). Should I bake it for less time? Thanks so much. I’m planning to give this as Christmas gifts to friends.
Hi Shirley, Yes, reduce the cooking time a few minutes.
I just finished making a double batch for a block party tomorrow. I just love how they are crispy and chewy! Outstanding!
Best chocolate chip cookie EVER! My new go to recipe!!!
I made these chocolate chip cookies just now.
I got 36 cookies out of the batch.
I did fiddle with the recipe.
I used the cake flour as it was closest at hand.
Then I did not have pecans.
So I used a cup of currents and walnuts; the cup was mostly currents as I wanted to save the walnuts for the final batch for giving away.
The cookies were very good.
Younger boy is the litmus test for all food in our house and he liked these cookies. Heck he ate two of them. Hubby scarfed down three. I ate three. Older boy has yet to eat the cookies. This test batch was baked for 15 minutes but the last batch took about 13 minutes as they were tiny balls.
Amazingly I had every ingredient for this recipe (except the pecans).
Omg these cookies are unreal. Seriously. You are the best chef! Love all your recipes, people always compliment! Thank you for publishing all these amazing recipes! Best-
Is “old fashion rolled oats” oatmeal cereal?
Hi Marcia, Yes that’s correct.
Made this recipe for the second time. I was suppose to take some to a friend’s house, BUT the cookies didn’t make it to the door! My family kept walking by the kitchen “sampling” until they were gone! My new favorite cookie. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
If I eliminate the nuts do I have to add another ingredient like extra flour to compensate for the nuts not being used in the recipe? Thank you.
Hi Beverly, It’s fine to just eliminate the nuts without adjusting anything else. Enjoy!
These are the best cookies I have ever made. Truly, delicious. I made a couple substitutions based on what I had- quick oats for old fashioned and walnuts for the pecans. The recipe doesn’t make as many cookies as many other of my recipes but I pretty sure that is a good thing. I ate entirely too many as it was. Not the cheapest chocolate chip cookie recipe out there to make but totally worth it.
Hi, do the oats need to be grinded first before measuring or do you measure 3/4 cup oats, as is, then grind them. Thanks. Can’t wait to make. Love your receipes!
Hi Elizabeth, Sorry for the confusion; measure first, then grind. Hope you enjoy them!
The ground oatmeal & coconut elevate this cookie to something really special. Made a batch, baked some fresh and scooped froze the rest; just as great baked out of the freezer when friends drop by or just a treat.
Great recipe! My favorite chocolate chip cookies!
instead of grinding the rolled oats, can I use instant oatmeal? (the ones that are thinner)
Thanks
Hi Jane, The recipe will work but the cookies will have a slightly different texture than they do with the ground oats.
Made these without the nuts, doubled-up on the chocolate chips and used unsweetened flaked coconut. The BEST!
I’m going to try these for tonight! Looks delish
Hi,
The cookies turned out delicious !
I baked them for only 9 minutes (I never bake cookies longer).
Thank you for the recipe.
Next time I’ll buy rolled oats in advance, and compare.
Thanks again.
I made a mistake right off the bat with these and added regular oats (in flakes, without processing them finely) to the flour mixture before I realized my “woops.” Instead of throwing the ingredients out and starting over, I continued, but added 1/4 C. finely ground pecans (like flour) to the dry ingredients. We also had no chocolate chips, so we took dark Ghirardelli chocolate squares (72% cacao) and chopped them into small chunks/chips to use in place of the chocolate chips. I baked these exactly as directed. These turned out fantastic, although probably denser in texture and not quite as sweet as the original recipe (which I will try in the future to compare). But my husband and I both loved the texture and flavor of these, mistakes and all!
Not sure if anyone has asked; will texture change if unsweetened coconut is substituted? Thx!
Hi Marivic, I think the cookies might end up a little dry with unsweetened coconut.
This recipe sounds amazing and I want to try it but I couldn’t find parchment paper at any of the stores that I went to. Can I use foil or grease the cookie sheet?
Hi William, Just grease the cookie sheet — the parchment is just for easy clean up. Enjoy!
I made these last week. The dough tasted great! The cooked cookies taste great! They are even great frozen (I froze some of the baked cookies in anticipation of my mom coming to visit)! These will now be my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Thank you Jennifer for sharing the recipe.
I had to omit the pecans as I planned to offer these cookies to a child with nut allergies, and I don’t think it was a great loss, though I love pecans and would try them next time. The cookies were plenty sweet, even though I used only slightly more than a half cup of chocolate chips and *un*sweetened coconut flakes. Unfortunately, the bottoms of the cookies were burnt black after 15 mins. at 350 degrees, even though I rotated the cookie sheets halfway through the baking process. I was surprised that they were overdone, given that my oven usually requires the upper end of the baking time range. Oh well, cookies burnt, lesson learnt (will watch them more closely next time!)
Hi Jenn, That’s strange that the cookies burnt on the bottom. Perhaps your oven is running hot? The only other thing I can think of is that maybe your oven was not fully preheated. Sometimes the initial surge of heat from the bottom of the oven during preheating will burn the bottoms of the cookies before the tops are done.