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Our bakery style Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies are incredibly soft and chewy thanks to the not-so-secret ingredient: instant pudding mix! The pudding adds a deep buttery vanilla flavor and gives these cookies that thick bakery style texture we love!
No flat cookies, please!
Pudding Cookies? I’ll Take A Dozen.
Gosh, I love my husband, but you know what? The man eats too many cookies.
I can not keep up with his cookie demands. Seems like I’m constantly baking a new batch for him! 😉
And okay, I might help him eat them. I mean, our perfect chocolate chip cookies really are perfect and I make them at least once a week.
But sometimes we change things up and make these chocolate chip pudding cookies.
Pudding cookies are a super popular cookie thanks to their thick, bakery-style look. Never flat or crispy, just soft and chewy with a deep, buttery vanilla flavoring throughout.
3 Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
No chilling required. Most thick cookie recipes make you chill the dough for hours. These go straight from mixing bowl to oven and still bake up perfectly thick and chewy.
Foolproof bakery-style texture. The instant pudding mix adds cornstarch and extra flavor that creates that signature soft, thick texture you get from expensive bakery cookies.
Ready in 30 minutes. From start to finish, you’ll have warm cookies on the counter in half an hour. Perfect for when you need a quick dessert or treat for unexpected guests.
What Readers are Saying!
“I made them and they are yummy! But the dough might be better than the baked cookies, just saying. My daughter does not like icing, so she always has cookies for her birthday, and this year we are doing these. YUM!”
– Michele
Ingredient, Swaps, & Tips:
Pudding flavors: Vanilla is our go-to, but try butterscotch pudding for a richer flavor. Use instant pudding mix here.
Chocolate chip options: Semi-sweet is traditional, but milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or even white chocolate chips work great. Mini chips distribute more evenly if you prefer that.
Don’t overbake: These are perfect when they still look sightly underdone in the oven. The centers should still look a little soft when you pull them out – they’ll finish setting as they cool.
Room temperature butter: Make sure your butter is actually soft. If you forgot to take it out early, cut it into small pieces and it’ll soften faster.
Freezer-friendly: Scoop the dough into balls, freeze on a baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag. Bake straight from frozen, adding 1-2 extra minutes.
How to Make Pudding Cookies:
Cream together the butter and sugars using an electric mixer. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Mix in the dry ingredients to form a thick, delicious cookie dough.
We use a large cookie scoop to scoop out the perfect sized cookies! Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.
The cookies will look a bit underdone when you remove them, but they’ll finish setting up as they cool.
My Favorite Cookie Scoop!
We use cookie scoops for everything from baking cookies to scooping meatballs to easily filling muffin tins.
More Cookie Favorites:
Serving Ideas
These chocolate chip pudding cookies are perfect:
- Warm from the oven with a cold glass of milk
- Packed in lunch boxes (they stay soft all day)
- For cookie exchanges or potluck desserts
- As ice cream sandwiches (they’re sturdy enough to hold up)
- With coffee or tea for an afternoon treat
Store them in an airtight container and they’ll stay soft for up to a week – no joke.
More Cookie Recipes:
- Cake Batter Cookies
- Air Fryer Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Keto Snickerdoodles
- Sugar Cookie Balls
- Fruity Pebbles Cookies
Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3.4 ounces dry instant vanilla pudding mix
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chocolate chips any variety
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add the butter and sugars to a large mixing bowl and cream together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter and beat until just combined.
- Add the pudding mix, flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Use a large cookie scoop to scoop out balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheet 1 to 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until edges are golden and tops are still moist, but set. Do not overbake.
- Let cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This recipe was originally published in February 2010 as one of the first recipes on this website. It’s been updated with new photos as of April 2022. Original photo below.
Cindy says
This is a new favorite that we’ll make again and again!
Karly Campbell says
Thanks, Cindy!
Cooki says
Your contradictory in regards to cookie scoops. Under a picture you state Medium Scoop & in the recipe instructions it’s a Large Scoop. There is a difference. Is it a 2 Tbs, 1.5 Tbs etc scoop as in #40, #30 ? Need to be precise considering you are suppose to be actually making them & not just printing a recipe.
Karly Campbell says
It’s meant to be a large cookie scoop, as stated in the actual recipe. There was a mistake in the blog post, but it’s fixed now.
Jen says
Yum! Just to be sure…I have made these with vanilla, butterscotch, and today cheesecake pudding . All flavors have been awesome! I top with additional chips for presentation. I suggest using white chocolate chips when using butterscotch. The colors go beautifully together. Such soft cookies…for days. Thanks!!
Karly Campbell says
So glad that you’ve thoroughly tested them!! 😉 I’m sure white chocolate and butterscotch are delicious!
Joyce Sanders says
Lemon with butter brickle bits is so good
food Processor says
You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but
I find this topic to be actually something which I think I would never understand.
It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me.
I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get
the hang of it!
Melissa says
I second what Jenn said – vanilla is good, but butterscotch pudding is awesome.
Kat says
The dough is great!
Polly says
These are the best cookies! I’ve made them on two different occasions, and everybody loved them. Thank you for posting this.