Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Get ready for the ultimate chocolate chip cookie! This recipe delivers thick, chewy cookies with a golden crisp edge and the perfect balance of sweet and salty—no complicated steps required.
The simplest recipes are often the hardest to perfect, and chocolate chip cookies are no exception. The classic Nestlé® Toll House® chocolate chip cookie recipe is a go-to for many, but if you follow it exactly, the cookies often come out flat as pancakes! Over the years, I’ve tried everything in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie—resting the dough for days, browning the butter, experimenting with different flours—but none of these methods produced a noticeable improvement in taste and texture. And, honestly, who wants to go to all that trouble for cookies?!
Instead, I tweaked the classic Toll House® recipe to make it more reliable and even tastier. The result? Thick cookies with a chewy, moist center, a slightly crisp edge, and the perfect balance of sweet and salty.
Video Tutorial
What You’ll Need To Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butter: Provides richness and flavor to the cookies.
- 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: Adds warm, aromatic flavor.
- Eggs: Bind the ingredients together and add structure to the dough.
- Baking Soda: Helps the cookies rise.
- All-Purpose Flour: Forms the base of the dough. I highly recommend using King Arthur All-Purpose Flour—it has a higher protein content compared to other brands, around 11.7%, which gives the cookies more structure.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: Add sweet pockets of chocolate flavor. Feel free to swap them out for milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or chocolate chunks. 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 with the paddle attachment or beaters, mix the butter and both sugars. Beat on medium speed (or high if using a hand mixer) for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
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 evenly combined.
Add the chocolate chips and mix briefly to combine.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or transfer the dough to an airtight container and refrigerate until firm, for a few hours or overnight.
Scoop the dough into firmly packed 1.5-tablespoon balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart (I use a 1.5-tablespoon cookie scoop). For thick cookies, make sure to pack the dough tightly in the scooper or with your hands.
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, until golden brown around the edges but still soft and pale in the center.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, 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; freeze for longer storage.
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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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Can you bake this chocolate chip cookie dough in a 9 x 13“ pan, in order to make chocolate chip pan cookies?
If not, do you have a recipe that can be baked and an 9 x 13“ pan for pan cookies.
Thank you
Hi Jennifer, I’ve never tried this in a pan. While it may work, if you want something more proven, you can make these blondies (you’d need to double the recipe for a 9 x 13″ dish).
This is a great recipe – I’ve made these several times and they always hit the spot and are the perfect combination of crisp on the edges and soft in the middle. I personally like my chocolate chip cookies to be less sweet so I used 1 tbsp less sugar and reduced the dark brown sugar to 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp. Then I reduced the salt to 1/2 tsp. I’ve been making these in small batches and with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt flakes over top – perfection! I wouldn’t reduce the sugar any more but adding some walnuts would likely take these to the next level – if you like that sort of thing.
My new favourite recipe, make sure to measure your choc chips (my bag wasn’t 2 cups) – I chilled the dough a few hours, dough is tough on the cookie scoop – next time I’ll scoop the dough immediately then chill the balls in the fridge a few hours.
I love this recipe Jenn! Really amazing. I would like to try your suggestion and add toffee bits. Would I use 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup toffee bits? Would that be a yummy combination? Thanks so much for you help!
So glad you like them! Yes, I’d go with one cup chocolate chips and one cup toffee bits. Enjoy!
I like my chocolate chip cookies a little crispy. If these are soft what can I change to make them crispier.
Hi Linda, If you want crispy choc chip cookies, I’d go with this recipe. They’re delicious!
I grew up making the Tollhouse recipe, then for years made the one from Cook’s magazine that calls for 15 Tbls of butter and an extra egg yolk, but tried this recipe a few years ago and have never gone back. I like to add chopped walnuts. Thanks, Jenn for another great recipe. Yours is my go to recipe site, and I love your first cookbook.
I come to your site for literally everything, it’s my go-to whenever I want to impress a crowd. This is my second Christmas trying this recipe (thinking I must have done something wrong the first time), but both were absolute disasters! It is the stickiest, hardest to scoop dough I’ve ever dealt with and spread into 1 flat cookie/pancake with sad chocolate chip bumps. Such a bummer
How long can the dough stay in the fridge for?
You can store it for 3 to 4 days.