Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
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A few tweaks to the classic Nestlé® Toll House® recipe make this the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.
The simplest recipes are typically the hardest to get right, and classic chocolate chip cookies are a perfect example. The most widely-used chocolate chip cookie recipe is found on the back of the Nestlé® Toll House® bag, but if you follow it to the letter, the cookies often come out flat as pancakes. Over the years, I’ve experimented with various techniques in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie, from resting the dough for days to browning the butter to using different types of flour. However, I found that these methods didn’t produce a noticeable improvement in taste and texture—and, honestly, who wants to go to all that trouble for cookies?!
Instead, I tweaked the classic and easy Toll House® recipe to make it more reliable and tastier. These chocolate chip cookies are thick with a chewy, moist center and slightly crisp exterior, and they strike the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavor. Before you start baking, be sure to read my best baking tips to ensure success.
“I was a bit skeptical that these would be ‘the best’ as I have many recipes that make really good chocolate chip cookies. I was wrong! OMG, these cookies are outstanding.”
What You’ll Need To Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butter: Provides richness and flavor to the cookies while contributing to their tender texture.
- Granulated Sugar and Dark Brown Sugar: Sweeten the dough, adding moisture and contributing to the cookies’ chewiness and caramelization. Feel free to substitute light brown sugar here.
- Vanilla Extract: Enhances the overall flavor profile with its warm and aromatic notes.
- Eggs: Bind the ingredients together and add structure to the dough.
- Baking Soda: Help the cookies rise and spread, resulting in a soft and chewy texture.
- All-Purpose Flour: Forms the base of the dough, providing structure and stability to the cookies.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: These add sweet pockets of chocolate flavor. You can easily swap them out milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or chocolate chunks for larger, meltier bites. To add crunch, mix in toffee bits or chopped nuts like walnuts, pecans, or almonds. You can even add candy pieces like M&M’s.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-By-Step Instructions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or beaters, combine the butter and both sugars.
Beat on medium speed (or high speed if using a hand mixer) for 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
Add the vanilla and eggs.
Beat for 2 minutes more, then scrape down the bowl.
Add the salt and baking soda and beat briefly until evenly combined, then add the flour.
Mix on low speed until the dough is uniform.
Add the chocolate chips.
Mix until evenly combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or scrape the dough mixture into an airtight container and let rest in the refrigerator until firm, a few hours or overnight. (Alternatively, if you don’t want to wait, form the dough into balls as instructed below, arrange on the baking sheets, and chill in the fridge until firm, about 30 minutes.)
Drop the dough in firmly packed 1.5-tablespoon balls onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. (I use a 1.5-tablespoon cookie scoop.) For thick cookies, it’s important to really pack the dough in the scooper or with your hands.
Pro Tip: If you’d like to see the chocolate chips on the surface of the cookies, hold back about 1/3 cup chocolate chips and dot them on the dough balls, pressing them in slightly, before baking.
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, until golden brown around the edges but still soft and pale in the center.
Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, this recipe will work using a 1:1 gluten-free flour blend. However, you will have even better results making my gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, which are the best I’ve tried.
King Arthur All-Purpose Flour has a higher protein content compared to other brands, around 11.7%, which gives the cookies more structure. The flour’s ability to absorb more moisture means your dough is less likely to spread too much, giving you plump, delicious cookies.
This recipe is specifically designed to prevent excessive spreading, incorporating the correct flour-to-fat-to sugar ratio, especially if you use the recommended King Arthur Flour. Additionally, it’s important to make sure your butter is soft but not melted, and chill the dough before baking. Chilling solidifies the fat, which helps the cookies maintain their shape better as they start to bake.
Yes, you can freeze chocolate chip cookie dough, and it’s a great way to have fresh cookies on demand. Portion the dough into individual cookie balls, freeze them on a baking sheet, and then transfer them to a freezer-safe bag or container for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to bake, you can bake the frozen dough balls directly from the freezer, adding a few extra minutes to the baking time.
Video Tutorial
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Chocolate Chip Cookies
A few tweaks to the classic Nestlé® Toll House® recipe make this the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (packed) dark brown sugar (fine to substitute light)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2½ cups all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled off (see note)
- 2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips, best quality such as Ghirardelli
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or beaters, beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed (or high speed if using a hand mixer) for 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat for 2 minutes more. Scrape down the bowl. Add the salt and baking soda and beat briefly until evenly combined. Add the flour and mix on low speed until the dough is uniform. Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or scrape the dough into an airtight container and let rest in the refrigerator until firm, a few hours or overnight. (Alternatively, if you don't want to wait, form the dough into balls on the baking sheets as instructed below, and chill in the fridge until firm, about 30 minutes.)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and set a rack in the middle position. Line a 13 x 18-inch baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Drop the dough in firmly packed 1.5-tablespoon balls onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. (I use a #40/1.5-T cookie scoop with a wire trigger.) For thick cookies, it's important to really pack the dough in the scooper or with your hands. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, until golden around the edges but still soft and pale in the center. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough, refrigerating the dough between batches. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- Note: I highly recommend King Arthur All-Purpose Flour for this recipe – it's higher in protein than other brands and helps the cookies plump up and hold their shape.
- Freezer-Friendly Instructions: The cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. To freeze, roll the dough into balls, let set on a baking sheet in the freezer for about 1 hour, then place in a sealable bag and press out as much air as possible. Bake as needed directly from the freezer. (Allow 1 to 2 minutes longer in the oven.) The baked cookies can also be frozen for up to 3 months. Let the cookies cool completely and store in an airtight container separating layers with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Before serving, remove the cookies from the container and let them come to room temperature.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (40 servings)
- Serving size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 69
- Fat: 4 g
- Saturated fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 9 g
- Sugar: 5 grams
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Sodium: 36 mg
- Cholesterol: 11 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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These were very good and turned out nicely plump. I did add some chopped walnuts because my family likes nuts in their chocolate chip cookies! To my taste the recipe could benefit from a wee bit more salt, and then I figured out why: the ingredient list was the same as the Toll House one, except they did not specify salted or unsalted butter, and growing up with that as our go-to recipe, we always used salted butter and then added the 1t of salt on top of that (UNsalted butter specified here). So, just in case you want a bit of extra richness, consider adding a bit more salt. Of course, it’s a very personal preference!
My chocolate chip cookies always spread too much, but these were great. My husband took a bite, and said “perfect”.
I love every recipe of yours I have tried Jen. I’ve done the pumpkin bread, corn muffins, blueberry bread, a.k.a. boy bait, along with a few others. These were amazing cookies. They came out perfectly. It’s officially replaced my standby cookie recipe. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with great flavor. I used AP flour, and it came out fine. May try it with the one you recommend and see how it changes. Thank you!
Fantastic!! This is the best CCC recipe I have ever used! I added 1/4 tsp cream of tartar for more firm outside. They were perfect! Like soft batch cookies, only much better! They are sweet and a touch salty. I also used salted butter and coarse salt and they were a HIT!!! This will forever be my go to recipe for CCC. It made enough for 3 batches and the dough froze perfectly! As a matter of fact, the frozen dough baked better than the chilled dough.
I’ve been using the recipe for Martha Stewart’s “Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies” and they always come out great. The only difference with yours is the refrigeration of the dough beforehand. I’m going to try this next time I make a batch and see what the effect is.
I had never refrigerated my dough either, but….it was worth it! All the other recipes I have tried came out flat.
I made these chocolate chip cookies today. They are delicious, plump and tender. I was hesitant about not mixing the dry ingredients together before putting it into the wet mixture, but I stayed true to your directions and so glad I did. These was my new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe.
I have made many many of your recipes and love them all.
I followed this recipe exactly and still feel like my cookies were somewhat flat-infact, the bigger scoop made the flattest of the cookies. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Joanne
Hi Joanne, Happy to help troubleshoot. Did you chill the dough? What brand of flour did you use?
I grew up with my great grandma’s chocolate chip cookie recipe with oatmeal which I love! My husband grew up with this style and I have never found a recipe that worked. I agree I think the chilling time in the fridge is one of the reasons this recipes is a success. I live in Canada and used Robin Hood all purpose flour and followed the recipe exactly and they are delicious!
Another amazing Once Upon A Chef recipe to add to the binder! Thanks!
Disappointing for me…too much flour. Did not get the chewy goodness I expected.
Delicious! Always on the lookout for the “best” chocolate chip cookies-these are my new favorite!
Thank you for a great recipe!
Can’t wait to try these. I only keep Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat pastry flour on hand. What do you think about that? Love every one of your scrumptious recipes Jen!
So glad you like the recipes! Unfortunately, I don’t think whole wheat pastry flour will work here – sorry!
Another winner! I already knew about the fridge trick for puffy cookies and have always done that for CC regardless of recipe. But these are twice the height I’ve gotten with other recipes. Also tender and delicious.
I’m really wondering what the difference is as the ingredients don’t seem that different from other recipes I’ve tried. Nonetheless this one is a standout. Never going back to the recipe on the chocolate chip package. Thank you Jenn!