Use a good olive oil for these crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-in-the-middle olive oil chocolate chip cookies. Fruity, rich olive oil is the perfect complement to semi-sweet or dark chocolate. This recipe comes together quickly and doesn’t require a mixer of any kind.
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Summary:
- You don’t need to reach for the nicest olive oil for this recipe. Use a good quality, neutral extra virgin olive oil.
- Use chocolate chips, chocolate wafers or discs, or chop your own chocolate.
- Refrigerating the dough creates the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Don’t be tempted to skip this step. Refrigeration controls cookie spread, concentrates flavor, and creates the perfect texture.
Rich olive oil makes for a perfect crispy-chewy cookie. In this olive oil chocolate chip cookie recipe, use olive oil instead of butter at a 3:4 ratio.
I’m not a health nut all of a sudden. Olive oil just happens to be really good in baked goods. Especially in olive oil chocolate chip cookies.
Olive oil brings a fruity and savory richness to cakes, cookies, and breads. These olive oil chocolate chip cookies don’t taste like eating a spoonful of olive oil, but depending on what kind of olive oil you use, they’ll have a unique and rich flavor.
This recipe is an adaptation of the objectively perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe from America’s Test Kitchen from many years ago, appropriately called “Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies“. Crispy on the outside, gooey in the middle, and exceptionally flat and wonderfully large, these cookies are it.
You can use chocolate chips, chocolate discs, or chopped chocolate to make these olive oil chocolate chip cookies. Use whatever you kind of chocolate you prefer. Or, do what I do.
Waddle on over to the chocolate aisle instead of the baking section. Pick out some mid-range chocolate bars ranging from semi-sweet (60%) to dark (70%+). It typically turns out to be not much more expensive per ounce. I like using discs/wafers or chopped chocolate bars because they melt a little more readily, creating kind of a chocolate-layer texture. I also love the taste of dark chocolate with olive oil, so I’ll do a mix of a few chocolates.
Olive oil vs. butter in baking
Olive oil is a great replacement for butter in most baking recipes. Unless the recipe calls for creaming the butter (which changes the texture of the butter by adding air into it, creating light and fluffy baked goods) you’re in the clear to substitute olive oil in place of dairy butter.
Unlike butter, olive oil is liquid at room temperature. That means when used in baking, olive oil yields super soft and tender baked goods. But it’ll still create those crispy edges that yield, in my humble opinion, the platonic ideal of a chocolate chip cookie.
What kind of olive oil should I use?
If you wouldn’t dip bread into it, don’t use it. You don’t have to reach for the state-protected prize-winning olive oil straight from Puglia. Just keep your eyes above that bottom shelf. At the very, very least, use extra virgin olive oil. This means the olive oil in the bottle comes from the first press of the olives, and it isn’t blended with anything else.
Will I taste the olive oil?
Ideally, you will! Try a good neutral olive oil if you want to focus more on the chocolate. Go for a full-bodied punchy olive oil if you want that savory, intense flavor.
You’re not exactly eating a spoonful of olive oil. But depending what olive oil you reach for, your baked goods, and in this case your olive oil chocolate chip cookies, will have an earthy, herbacious (this is a word) flavor to them. Again, the general rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t dip bread into it, don’t bake with it.
Ingredients for olive oil chocolate chip cookies
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Extra virgin olive oil: not the nicest stuff you can get your hands on, but not the cheapest either.
- Granulated sugar
- Light or dark brown sugar: either works. The addition of brown sugar makes these cookies taste more complex.
- Salt: I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt.
- Vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, plus 1 large yolk: the extra yolk adds richness to these olive oil chocolate chip cookies. If you don’t have large eggs, use two regular eggs.
- Chocolate: semi-sweet chocolate chips, chocolate discs or wafers, or chocolate that you’ve chopped yourself. Whatever floats your boat.
- Flaky sea salt: for topping. Maldon is my favorite.
Using chocolate chips vs. chocolate disks vs. chopped chocolate
Using chocolate chips in baking creates little pockets of chocolate that stay in their places. And they should! They were engineered to be that way.
Chocolate wafers or discs and chopped chocolate, however, both melt a little more because they have a higher percentage of cocoa butter. They’re flatter, too, so you’ll have layers of chocolate on chocolate.
Now I’m not a chocolate snob, but there’s something nice about the wafer/disc/chopped chocolate situation. I like how they melt. And I like that with chopped chocolate, I can use a chocolate bar that I know I love. Using quality chocolate makes a huge difference.
How to make olive oil chocolate chip cookies
Start with the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour and baking soda. Whisk them together and set aside.
Combine the wet ingredients. Add the olive oil to a large bowl. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla. Whisk until the mixture is super smooth and glossy and no sugar lumps remain, about 2 minutes.
Stir the dry into the wet. In 3-4 parts, add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Use a spatula to stir and fold the ingredients into each other until just combined. Try not to overmix. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips, chocolate wafers or chopped chocolate.
Refrigerate the dough. Refrigerate. The. Dough. For at least 30 minutes, and up to 3 days. Chilling cookie dough controls how the dough spreads when you put it into a hot oven. The cold temperature solidifies the fat, concentrates flavor, and creates crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-in-the-middle cookies. Please don’t skip this step if you know what’s good for you!
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly spray with non-stick spray. Divide dough into 3-tablespoon measurements or use a #24 cookie scoop.
Bake the olive oil chocolate chip cookies. One tray at a time, for 11-12 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway. Let the cookies cool as much as possible before serving, but have at least one hot one. Tell nobody.
Helpful tools for making this recipe
Baking is a pain without the right tools. Olive oil chocolate chip cookies are a pretty simple recipe as baking goes, but having quality baking equipment makes it so much easier.
- Best sheet pans: ever. Nordic Ware sheet pans are the baker’s standard, and a 2-pack is pretty inexpensive.
- Mixing bowls: these stainless steel mixing bowls are perfect for all the prep work.
- Whisk: a good stainless steel whisk should last years, even if you bake a lot. I used to buy the cheap ones with the plastic handle, and they fell apart after a few months. Learn from my mistakes.
- #24 cookie scoop: a #24 cookie scoop holds nearly 3 tablespoons of dough. Perfect for big cookies. These make it easy to scoop the same amount of dough each time.
Tips and tricks for olive oil chocolate chip cookies
- Reserve chocolate for topping: save some chocolate chips/wafers or chopped chocolate to top off the olive oil chocolate chip cookies just before popping them into the oven. This makes them look prettier, and a little extra chocolate never hurts.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough: I’m not asking you to do this just to make your life harder. Refrigerating the cookie dough chills and solidifies the fat and controls the spreading. It also concentrates the flavor of the cookies and creates the perfect crispy-chewy texture.
- Bang your sheet pans: for really big, flat cookies, try this trick. This creates those signature rippled cookies that you see in bakeries. When rotating the sheet pan and when pulling out the cookies when they’re done, firmly tap or “bang” the sheet pans on the stovetop. Do this one, two, three times and it pushes the excess air out of the cookies.
Can I freeze these?
Yes, you can. Freeze the balls of cookie dough for easy fresh cookies whenever the hankering calls, or you can freeze the actual cookies!
To freeze the cookie dough: scoop the balls of cookie dough onto a plate and refrigerate for a few hours or up to 3 days until very solid. Wrap each in a small piece of plastic wrap and freeze in a gallon-size freezer bag like a Ziploc. Bake from frozen for the same about of time, about 20 degrees lower than the recipe calls for (for this recipe, bake at 355°F). Tip: label the bag with the baking temperature and time.
To freeze the baked cookies: place the cooled cookies in a single layer on a large plate or sheet pan and place in the freezer. After about an hour, wrap each in a piece of plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag or other airtight freezer-safe container. To thaw, let sit at room temperature until defrosted. You can warm them up for 5 minutes in a 275°F oven.
Bake and eat the cookies within 3 months. But they probably won’t last that long.
How to store olive oil chocolate chip cookies
Store these olive oil chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container between layers of paper towels. Or, lay them out on a serving platter and wrap the plate tightly with plastic wrap. Stored at room temperature, they’ll last 5-7 days.
