These famous pan banging chocolate chip cookies are GIANT, buttery, thin, have crispy edges and a chewy center with melted chocolate throughout. They’re fantastic!
If you’re new to the pan banging cookie world, then you’re in for a treat today. I’ve posted a couple of other pan banging cookies on my site, but don’t have a plain chocolate chip cookie version. Well now I finally do and I am so in love with them!
Banging the pan while the cookies are baking causes the cookies to fall which creates the rippled, crinkly edges of these cookies. The centers stay soft and chewy while the edges get slightly crispy.

This recipe comes from Sara Keiffer’s cookbook 100 Cookies. I absolutely love this cookbook and highly recommend it.
These are flat cookies, with a soft chewy center that is surround by pretty wrinkly crinkles and make for crispy edges.

A few helpful tips for making these pan banging cookies:
- Make sure you line your sheet trays with aluminum foil, with the dull side up. This prevents the cookies from sticking and helps them spread easier, which will result in more wrinkly, crinkly edges. It also helps create a slightly crisper bottom. You also could use parchment paper, but I like the results the best using aluminum foil.
- Don’t just gently bang your pans. The whole point of the banging is to deflate the cookies be sure to lift it and drop it, don’t gently set it down.
- In her cookbook Sara Kieffer makes note that she used to make the dough balls larger (3 1/2 oz) and then freeze them for 15 minutes, this would prevent them from spreading too much. However she changed things up and started using 3 oz of dough and skipped the freezing part. I have done it both ways and either way works perfectly.
- Making the cookies as big as suggested in the recipe is what helps to create the wavy/ripply texture of the cookies, so I suggest using the 3 oz of dough per cookie don’t try making them smaller.
- The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate, I use Trader Joes pounds plus Belgium chocolate bars and I use both the dark chocolate and milk chocolate bars. I use about 2/3 dark chocolate and 1/3 milk chocolate. Feel free to use what you love. Also, if you’re wondering if you can use chocolate chips, the answer is yes, but keep in mind that chopped chocolate spreads much better than chocolate chips and makes for some amazing pools of melted chocolate😋.

You are going to love these cookies! Even if your heart belongs to thick, soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies, I hope you give these a try because I can almost guarantee you’ll find a place in your heart for these cookies♡.
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Pan Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 10–12 cookies 1x
Description
These famous pan banging chocolate chip cookies are GIANT, buttery, thin, have crispy edges and a chewy center with melted chocolate throughout. They’re fantastic ♡
Ingredients
- 2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (227 g) butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups (297 g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 g) packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons water
- 6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-size pieces averaging 1/2 inch with some smaller and some larger
- Sea salt for sprinkling, optional.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 3 baking sheets with aluminum foil, dull side up.
- In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt, set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add both sugars and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and water and mix on low just until combined.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until combined. With the mixer on low add the chocolate.
- Form the dough into 3 oz (1/4 cup) balls. Place 3 cookie dough balls an equal distance apart on a prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake the cookies (one pan at a time) for 9 minutes. Lift one side of the baking sheet up about 4 inches and let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the inside falls back down. Bake for another 2 minutes (the cookies will puff up again) and repeat the lifting and dropping. Repeat a couple more times to create ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake for a total of 15 to 16 minutes, until the cookies have spread and the edges are golden brown (the centers will look slightly under baked and will be lighter in color). Sprinkle with sea salt if desired.
- Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let cookies cool for about 10 minutes before removing the cookies from the cookie sheet.
Notes
- Note from her cookbook: The recipe that started it all. I’ve taken out the freezing step here and made the cookies slightly smaller. If you are partial to the old method, you can make your cookies into 3 1/2 oz balls and freeze the dough for 15 minutes before baking.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
Recipe Source: 100 Cookies: The Baking Book For Every Kitchen by Sara Kieffer
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