These Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies are everyone’s favorite classic cookie, but with added vanilla pudding, making them even softer and tastier!
More tried snd true chocolate chip cookies we love include our chocolate chunk cookies and Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies.
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pudding
These Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies are one of my new favorites – super soft and sort of creamy, just the way I prefer. But what might appear as your basic chocolate chip cookies, actually have a secret ingredient that sets them apart – vanilla pudding mix.
Not only can you taste the vanilla pudding, but apparently the other added benefit is that it helps the cookies stay fresh longer. (I wouldn’t know. If anyone can make these last more than three days, I’d like to hear about it. HA!)
Ingredients Needed
Here’s what you need to make this chocolate chip cookie recipe.
(Scroll below to the printable recipe card for details and measurements.)
- Sugars – Both granulated sugar and brown sugar are added to this recipe.
- Unsalted butter – The butter should be softened to room temperature so it blends perfectly with the sugars.
- Eggs – Provides structure to the dough.
- Vanilla extract – For added flavor.
- All-purpose flour – Spooned and leveled for accurate measuring.
- Vanilla pudding – Be sure to grab instant pudding, not stovetop. You’ll need just the powder for this recipe.
- Baking soda – Helps the cookies rise just a bit.
- Kosher salt – Heightens the other flavors.
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips – Gotta have chocolate chips in chocolate chip cookies!
Recipe Variations
These cookies are pretty customizable. Here are a few easy swaps:
- Switch up the chocolate. Swap out the semi-sweet chips with dark chocolate or white chocolate, if preferred.
- Add some nuts. Chopped up walnuts are a great addition to chocolate chip cookies.
- Try a different pudding. Replace the vanilla pudding with banana or coconut pudding for a different flavor.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
These soft, chewy cookies with vanilla pudding come together in just 15 minutes, with another 10 minutes in the oven. Easy peasy!
(Scroll below to the printable recipe card for details and measurements.)
- Combine the wet ingredients. Cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until well combined and fluffy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Stir into the wet ingredients until combined.
- Add the chocolate chips. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Transfer to the cookie sheet. Drop balls of dough onto a baking sheet with a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes, until light and golden just around the edges.
- Cool. Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer them to the cooling rack.
Tips for Success
Here are a few helpful tips to make sure you end up with the best batch of chocolate chip pudding cookies.
- Make sure the butter is soft but not TOO soft. Soft butter creams easier but butter that’s too soft will cause the cookies to spread like pancakes in the oven.
- Rotate cookie sheets. You can easily bake both cookie sheets at the same time with this recipe but, depending on your oven, you may want to rotate them halfway through cooking so they bake evenly.
- Do not overbake the cookies. These pudding cookies should be lightly brown just around the edges. They’ll still appear soft when you take them out of the oven and will continue to firm up as they cool, though you want a soft center in the finished cookie. If you wait until they no longer appear soft in the oven, the cookies will be overbaked.
Proper Storage
- Storing leftovers. One great thing about pudding cookies is that they’ll stay soft and fresh for up 5 days. Perfect for making ahead. Just keep them stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
- To freeze. You can also freeze extra cookies. Just make sure they cool completely, then transfer them to a freezer-safe ziploc bag or other freezer container. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter.
More Easy Cookie Recipes:
- Easy Sugar Cookies
- Easy Peanut Butter Cookies
- DoubleTree Cookies
- Kitchen Sink Cookies
- Potato Chip Cookies
- Ranger Cookies
I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!
Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour , spooned and leveled
- 3.4 ounce box vanilla instant pudding (just the powder)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in the center. Prepare two regular sized baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until well combined and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl combine the flour, pudding powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the wet mixture and mix until combined.
- Add the chocolate chips and combine again.
- Scoop out tablespoon sized scoops and roll into balls (do not flatten), leaving at least a 2 inch space between each cookie.
- Bake 10 minutes and remove from the oven.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Eat and enjoy!
These were a hit! I love seeing your weekly recipes. I make a new food from your list every week
These were yummy! The pudding powder really makes them soft.
YUMMY!!!!
The cookies look delicious–pudding mix is a great idea.
Had a baking day with my kids and this was a winner!
Yum! These look like the perfect chocolate chip cookie, just like I love them. I’d play Santa for these. And I’d eat all 11 of them.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Amazing job with your cookies! With them, the holidays are 365 days a year.
Happy New Year!
My kids made these for Santa and Santa approved. Lol. These cookies are perfectly fluffy and chewy and delicious!
And here I thought there were no more chocolate chip cookie recipes that I haven’t tried! This sounds like a great cookie to make with my grandkids. Thanks, Amy! Have a great week and a very happy New Year!
I had chocolate pudding and white chocolate chips on hand, so I just switched everything. They were so good!
Ok, I changed these up just a bit with white chocolate chips and added dried cranberries – they were such a pretty and delicious holiday cookie!
I made these with chocolate pudding.
Ten months out of the year, it’s “You can have two,” “I’m not making dessert,” “Don’t eat that, it’ll spoil your dinner.” Then, wham, “You’ve got to try these cookies, bark, cake, and that Amy made and posted on her Web site.” Now, you need a dolly to get me from the front door to the doctor who says something like, “Hmmmmm, put on a little weight I see. I can’t weigh you on the scale. I’ll have to measure displacement!”
So to cap off the year, YOU improve on the chocolate chip cookie! Sharon! Want it. Want it now! I’ll cut back when the century is in its teens.
I was in a bakery buying cookies for my family to bring to Christmas Eve dinner when a mom walked in with probably her four year old son, who insisted on buying chocolate chip cookies. Because those are Santa’s favorite.
After seeing these, I understand why. I absolutely need to make these. They sound amazing. I love that you used white chocolate AND milk chocolate chips. I bet peanut butter chips would be good also.
Nice and soft as promised!
good god these make complete sense! I might have eaten 5.
hehe!! great!! m soo loving the cookies :)
These look so good. I’ve seen these cookies and even bookmarked them, but I’ve yet to make them because I rarely buy pudding mix and forget to get it. I will have to remind myself to get some mix the next time I go to the store. The photo is fantastic and tempting!
I have a cake recipe that I add chocolate pudding mix to and it makes it so much more moist, so I knew these would be great too – and they were!
Awesome recipe and idea adding the pudding! I added some coconut flakes – they were so yummy!
Let me guarantee that Santa loved these cookies. He came back for more the next day. They were in the fridge.
I have to admit, that two days after Christmas and I’m still scarfing down the cookies, brownies, zucchini bread, muffins and cheesecake. I cannot let a plate of cookies go unloved. And these cookies look so soft and chewy and in need of attention– they wouldn’t last a day around my house, either.
Amy, I hope you and your family had the most wonderful Christmas! I have really enjoyed getting to know you this year. I’m looking forward to reading more stories about your fun household next year.