Thick and Fudgy Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake (9×13 Pan)

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As far as homemade cakes go, this chocolate chip cookie cake recipe is supreme in our house. It’s thicker and looks more like a cake than chocolate chip cookie bars while still maintaining all of the ooey gooeyness of a chocolate chip cookie. 

Instead of the classic chocolate chip cookie cake that is circular, we bake this cookie cake in a 9×13 pan so it can easily serve a crowd! You’ll definitely want to give this one a try for your next birthday party.

Better than Nestle Toll House

Growing up, Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie bars were the go-to dessert in our house. I had that recipe that was printed on the back of the yellow bag of semi-sweet nestle chocolate chips memorized. Instead of following the recipe as is and making chewy chocolate chip cookies, we always spread the cookie dough out on a 9×13 size pan and made them into cookie bars.

Recently, my son requested a giant cookie in lieu of a birthday cake for his special day. It immediately took me back to that toll house cookie recipe. However, those cookie bars are relatively thin. 

I wanted to create something thicker and resembling more of a cake while still having the taste and texture of a big cookie that would serve all 20 of our guests. This recipe hit the nail on the head and is a definite crowd pleaser for all special occasions.

Serve it alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a glass of cold milk and you have a match made in heaven!

What Do You Need?

The ingredients in this homemade cookie cake recipe are the standard ingredients in chocolate chip cookie dough. However, there is one added ingredient that helps with the texture to make this a super gooey and chewy cookie cake recipe.

Here’s what you need, plus all the possible substitutions.

All Purpose Flour or Soft White Wheat – We like to grind our wheat fresh to make sure it’s at peak freshness and maintains nutrients. So, when we are baking, we grind soft white wheat berries from Azure Standard. You could also use a standard all-purpose flour.

Baking Soda

Tapioca Starch or Corn Starch – This is the special ingredient I mentioned above. Adding a couple tablespoons of tapioca starch or cornstarch help with the structure of the cookie and help give it that perfect chewy texture. You could leave it out but I highly recommend adding it to take your cookie cake to the next level! Arrowroot powder could also be substituted.

Sea Salt

Melted Butter or Coconut Oil – You could do all of one or the other but I usually do a half of each.

Brown Sugar – Either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar is ok, or you could substitute coconut sugar.

White Sugar – We like to use organic cane sugar.

Eggs – Large, room temperature eggs are ideal.

Vanilla Extract

Chocolate Chips

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

Besides being an absolutely delicious cake, another thing that I love about making cookie cake instead of chocolate chip cookie recipes is that they are easier! No forming into perfect balls or worrying about cookies flattening like pancakes and being stuck together. Simply spoon batter into a prepared pan and press dough down.

In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, tapioca or corn starch, and salt).

Set the dry ingredients aside. In a large bowl, cream butter or coconut oil with brown sugar and cane sugar.

Once mixed, add eggs and vanilla extract and combine.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly until no flour is showing. You could use an electric mixer or hand mixer for this but I prefer doing it by hand.

Add in chocolate chips, reserving a handful or two for sprinkling on top.

Using a rubber spatula, scrape dough into a prepared 9×13 pan. I like to use glass or ceramic. I grease the pan using melted butter or coconut oil and have never had issues with sticking but you could also use parchment paper if you prefer.

Once cookie dough is spread out filling the entire pan evenly, sprinkle reserved chocolate chips over the top.

Bake in a 350°F oven for a bake time of 50-60 minutes, until fully set in the middle and the toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool before serving. If you’d like a frosted cookie cake, you can certainly add a homemade buttercream or canned frosting. But we find that it’s plenty sweet on its own.

A sharp knife is helpful for serving. The edges are a perfect golden brown and get a bit crispy and caramelized, which is the perfect compliment to the chewy center.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for longer storage. These thaw perfectly from frozen.

Can I make a smaller cake?

Absolutely! This cookie cake recipe can easily be halved and cooked in a smaller pan (I use an 8×8 baking pan). This would serve roughly 12 instead of 24. Note, the cook time might be less if the recipe is halved.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake Recipe

Serves: 24

Ingredients:

4.5 cups all purpose or soft white wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp tapioca starch or cornstarch
2 tsp sea salt
1.5 cup butter or coconut oil (or a combination of both)
2 cup brown sugar
1 1/3 cup cane sugar (white sugar)
4 eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups chocolate chips + ¼ cup for sprinkling on top

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176.67°C) and grease 9×13 baking pan.

2. In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, tapioca or corn starch, & salt).

3. In a large bowl, cream butter with brown and white sugars.

4. Add eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture and combine.

5. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir until the flour is fully incorporated.

6. Stir in chocolate chips.

7. Using a spatula, scrape dough into baking pan and spread evenly. Add reserved chocolate chips to the top.

8. Bake for 50-60 minutes until fully set in the middle and tooth pick comes out clean.

9. Let cool before serving.

Enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or cold glass of milk! This is definitely one to be enjoyed!

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For more Dessert Inspiration:

Gooey Peanut Butter Banana Oat Bars (No Sugar Added!)
Healthy Peanut Butter Cups – 5 Simple Ingredients
Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
Peach Crumble with Oats

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