Last weekend my husband went to Costco for a dog bed. He came home with a dog bed and something else -- a giant Costco chocolate chunk cookie! He ordered it from the Costco food court on his way out. They "baked it up fresh" so it was served warm, but he brought it home for sampling so we sampled at room temperature. Here's a photo of an actual Costco food court chocolate chip cookie. It weighed exactly 165 grams or just a little over 5 ½ oz.
Jump to RecipeCostco Chocolate Chip Cookie Story
The backstory is that the giant chocolate chip cookies, or to be more accurate "chocolate chunk", were Costco's replacement for their churros. There have been rumors that the churros are coming back and that the cookies are being removed, but it seems this was temporary and only at select stores. I think some stores were having trouble with the dough and that they needed to re-work it a bit to adjust for altitude. In any case, our store had the right dough because the cookies were terrific.
Texture and Flavor
Our carry-home cookie was room temperature, so the edges were very crunchy and the center was soft but not mushy. For flavor, we thought we detected a little malt, and a fruity hit of something akin to a Tootsie Roll. And the cookie had loads of chocolate. Some people think it's too much chocolate. My thought is that if you are eating the cookies warm and the chocolate is melted throughout, it might seem like too much. If the cookie is room temp and the chocolate has set, it's just right. If you make the copycat cookies at home you can use however much chocolate you like.
Viral Costco Food Court Cookie Copycat Recipe
So after trying an actual Costco cookie, I tried the viral copycat recipe. This one's from Jordan, a Costco shopper who had a beef with the staff about his membership card. Actually, several little issues with the store which he talks about on his TikTok, and as the story goes, an employee gave him the cookie recipe as a gesture of goodwill. Jordan lists the ingredients as flour, baking soda, salt, butter, sugars, corn syrup, molasses, eggs and vanilla. I'm not so sure how true any of this is, but it's a cute story.
Copycat Cookie Results
So I made the chocolate chip cookie copycat using the ingredients from Jordan and the cookies were good! They are delicious cookies, but definitely not the same as the real Costco cookies. First, the homemade cookies were golden and a little too domed and cakey. It will be different from kitchen to kitchen, but when cookies are domed cakey it usually means there's a little too much egg. So I altered the recipe a bit and got much better cookies! They're still not quite the same as Costco's, but they are really good. The outsides are crunchy, insides are soft and they are not cakey once cooled. I think they're even better if you freeze and thaw, which makes them perfect for bake sales.
Here's my spin on the recipe. The small batch is below and the large batch is in the card. Compared to the original, I used less flour, less egg, more vanilla and more salt. I also used Land o' Lakes butter because it's whiter than some other brands and as mentioned, I was going for brown and not gold.
Quick note about the flour. It's best to weigh it. Depending on which brand you use and how it's stored, the volume could be anywhere from 3 to 3 ½ cups. I used 210 grams for the small batch and 420 grams for the large batch.
Small Batch Costco Copycat -- Makes 4
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (205 grams), unbleached or bleached
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (scant)
- 8 tablespoons softened Land o' Lakes salted butter (114 grams)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50 grams)
- ½ cup light brown sugar (100 grams)
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons corn syrup or Golden syrup (45 grams)
- ½ tablespoon molasses (10 grams)
- ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons beaten egg or 25 to 30 grams (best to weigh)
- Somewhere around a cup chocolate chunks, bittersweet and semisweet from Aldi
Weigh your flour and mix with the baking soda and salt. Set aside.
With an electric mixer, preferably the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, beat the butter and both sugars just until creamy. Add the corn syrup, molasses and vanilla and beat just until mixed, then add the egg. Beat just until mixed.
Add the flour mixture and stir until fully blended. The dough will be on the dry side, but it should come together and not fall apart. If it seems too dry and is falling apart, drizzle in little more egg. Work in the chocolate chunks.
Divide into 4 balls, then shape those balls into thick pucks that are about 3 ½ inches in diameter. Put on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 24 hours. You may want to make one right away, so to do that bake in a preheated oven at 350 for about 24 minutes or until done. You can also try baking at 400F.
Viral Recipe With Changes
Here's the recipe card version if you want to make 8 giant cookies instead of 4. Also, if you don't have one already a cake lifter is a super tool to have around for lifting these cookies and about a million other things.
Calorie Count
These are giant cookies that weigh 5 ½ oz each. That's the equivalent of about 7 regular size cookies, so these are best sliced and shared. The point of making them big is that it changes the texture. If you want smaller cookies or are concerned about calories, Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies might be a better choice.
Recipe
Costco Chocolate Chip Cookie Copycat
Ingredients
- 2 sticks salted butter, room temperature (Land o' Lakes) (230 grams)
- 1 cup light brown sugar (200 grams)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- ⅓ cup corn syrup (golden syrup works too) (90 grams)
- 1 tablespoon molasses (20 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (need at least 1 teaspoon)
- 1 extra-large egg (66-60 grams)
- 3 cups all-purpose flour or as much needed to make 410 grams, this could be up to 3 ½ cups (410 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chocolate chunks (Belgian chunks from Aldi)
Instructions
- In a stand mixing bowl, using the paddle attachment, beat together the softened butter and both sugars. Beat until just creamy, scraping the sides of the bowl. Beat in the corn syrup, molasses and vanilla.
- Add the egg, beating just until mixed.
- Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Add the flour mixture and stir until blended. The dough should be dry enough to shape with your hands, but not so dry that it's falling apart. If you used a scale it should be just right, but if for some reason the dough is too loose or very dry, you can try cracking a second egg and whisking in just enough to moisten. If your dough too loose and sticky, you can add a little more flour.
- Add the chocolate chunks or chips. Divide dough into 8 balls. Press the balls down slightly so that they are about 3 inches in diameter and a little over 1 inch thick. Put the balls on a plastic wrap lined dinner plate, then cover with more plastic wrap and forget about them for at least 24 hours.
- Bring the cookie dough to cool room temperature before baking or you can bake it cold. What you choose will affect the length of baking time and the consistency of the centers.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and make sure it's at full temp. I recommend baking one cookie first to get the time right. My cookies were consistently done at 24 minutes. I've also baked these at 400 and at 400 they're usually done in 18 with browner edges and lighter centers.
- The cookies may have kind of a cakey consistency straight from the oven, but as the corn syrup cools the consistency changes to a more crunchy, chewy, cookie. So let the cookies cool, and if you want to set the chocolate you can freeze them. To serve, let thaw or warm in the oven.
Monica says
these were really good! crisp on the edges and gooey in the middle. I will definitely be making these again!
Anna says
MARIA! Thanks for trying them. Yay! I am glad to get a review from another baker (besides myself, ha) because I was obsessed with them for a while. They are definitely big. If you make them again, try keeping one of the dough sections in the refrigerator for 2 days and see what you think of the cookies made with long-chilled dough. About the spatula, if you don't have one already I highly recommend a cake lifter. I bought one years ago now realizing it would become one of my most used kitchen tools. They're called cake lifters, but they can be used for so much more.
Maria says
These cookies are even better than the Costco deli cookies! I made the dough and let it stay in the refrigerator for six hours before making just one of the cookies. I baked it at 350 degrees for 24 minutes and it was perfect. The instructions called for 8 cookies but they resulted in HUGE cookies. I didn’t have a spatula large enough to remove the cookie from the parchment. So next time I will adjust to 10 or 12 cookies. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Anna says
Ginny, thanks for trying them! I've been making them a lot lately. They are good with Golden Syrup, too!
Ginny says
The best chocolate chip I’ve ever tasted! Warning, don’t wear white while eating it.
Anna says
It's kind of loud for me, but they have some staples I go in for from time to time. Hope you try the cookies!
Sue says
Your small batch recipe made cookies that look more appealing to me. No doubt I would like the large batch version too as well as the one from Costco. I’ve never purchased a Costco bakery item. I don’t think I’ve even looked in that section. The whole place kind of overwhelms me. I tend to go and pick up the items I went for, pay and leave. I don’t think I’m their target customer.