For my new readers, you may not know this, I’m married to a real cookie monster. I bake him chocolate chip cookies for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays…any excuse for cookies, I’m baking them.
I shared my tips for perfect chocolate chip cookies over a year ago and thought it was time to share them again. I’ve been baking these cookies for almost 30 years…that’s a lot of cookies!
Never flat, always soft and chewy…oh so good.
Read rave reviews from people who tried this cookie recipe on Pinterest!
The recipe I have used for almost 30 years is the Original Nestle Toll House recipe on the back of their Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips bag. When I make these chocolate chip cookies, I do a few things different – I add extra flour (1/4 cup more), and bake them at 350 degrees F. I mix everything by hand (you can use a mixer). I use ONE large bowl. I only use real butter softened at room temperature and always use fresh baking soda. Once you add the dry ingredients, it’s important NOT TO OVER MIX!
Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 1 cup Salted Butter/Softened at room temperature
- 3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar – press brown sugar down when measuring
- 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/2 cups of All-Purpose Flour (Do Not Sift)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda (Make sure it’s fresh- old baking soda can cause flat cookies)
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 12 oz package of Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until they are smooth/creamy. Next, add eggs and vanilla. Blend well, until smooth/creamy. Now add flour, then salt and baking soda on top – mix until all the dry ingredients are just blended-Do Not Over Mix! Last, add chocolate chips. Fold the chocolate chips into the dough, until just blended. Do not over mix the chocolate chips with the dough. Place heaping round tablespoons of dough on a ungreased cookie sheet, approximately one inch apart. I use The Pampered Chef’s Medium size scooper for the dough, it’s the perfect size and I never have to touch the dough ~ love that! Place cookies in the oven on middle rack and bake for 9-11 minutes, depending on your oven. Bake until cookies turn a light golden brown. Remove, place cookies on rack to cool. Recipe makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies. ENJOY! Store cooled cookies in an airtight container.
M&Ms are a great replacement for the chocolate chips or added with them!
Pecans & walnuts are a great addition too!
Thanks so much for Stopping by!
I totally agree that it is by far the best recipe. I always under bake them a little so that they finish cooking on the pan. I have never tried them without a mixer or by increasing the flour. Sounds like a great idea!
Wow, this is the same adaptation I made years ago, adding 1/4 cup flour to help absorb some of the fat. I usually then double the entire recipe (which means a total of 5 cups of flour) except that I use one bag of semisweet and one bag of butterscotch chips. They’re horribly addictive. :}
I hadn’t considered changing the baking temperature before, so next time I’m going to try it with your adjustments because I just love a soft chewy chocolate chip cookie.
Thank you! I have the first batch in the oven now to send to work with my husband for a sweet treat for the graveyard crew. We live be cookies and trying new recipes, thank you for your take on a classic ❤️
I use the same recipe, but 1 cup light brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar and cook them 9-10 min, I melt the butter and add a cup extra flour and still use a mixer
you say to use baking soda, can we use baking powder?
Yummy I always make a mess of cookies but this looks lush 🙂 will give it a try 🙂
These are, hands down, the best cookies I have ever eaten. I make them all the time now. DELICIOUS!!! Thank you, thank you.
I found that the flour you use is important, too. I only bake with Gold Medal or King Arthur Flour. My mom used Robin Hood flour. Some of the other flours seem to not stand up to cooking with butter, and cookies come out greasy and flat. The flours I mentioned seem to have more structure when used in baking, and I think it might be worth trying.
The three biggest no-nos are microwaving your butter to soften it. Microwaving butter changes it's chemical composition and will make your cookies flat. Another important thing never to do is over-mix your dough. Always run your mixer on a slow to medium speed. I use a stand mixer and throw everything in the bowl at once except for the chocolate chips. I scrape the bowl once or twice to make sure nothing is left on the bowl's edge. Once the dough is mixed, I put the chocolate chips on top and run the mixer until the chips are mixed throughout. And the biggest thing is do not touch your dough with your hands. The cookies come out greasier the more you touch them. If at all possible use a portioning scoop (like the professionals use). The walnuts should be added with the chocolate chips. Another hint is to pull your cookies out of the oven right about 10 minutes into baking. This is totally an eye-ball thing. If they come out dark brown, cool them immediately. I let my cookies finish cooking on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes and then I cool them immediately on a cooling rack.
Anonymous, I often use Land O Lakes….but use store brand too.
These are literally the only cookies my two sons will eat. I tried all different kinds of recipes for chocolate chip cookies and they hated them. What a waste. Then I found your recipe. Thank you so much you have no idea how much you saved me! My son's thank you also!
I think I will try to half shortening idea. I'll try anything at this point. I just tried the above instructions, followed them explicitly. Flat cookies once again. Is there some miracle oven you own?
My mom altered the Toll House recipe years ago also! We always get compliments on them. She increased the flour by 1/2 cup and uses half butter and half shortening. There…I've just given away our secret family chocolate chip cookie recipe 🙂 Loved your tutorial!!
My long search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe is over! These are DELICIOUS! Thank you!!
Thanks for the recipe! I searched for a recipe that did not require chilling the dough and found this one on Pinterest. Made half the recipe the first time, made the full recipe four days later. Needless to say the cookies were a hit. This will now be my "go to" recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Thanks again!
My cookies were nice and plump the first 2 times. The past 3 times they were flat. I used new baking soda, mixed all by hand, baked one tray at a time,( I noticed the air-bake pan made them flatter, so I used my old cookie sheets). The sheets were cooled in between. I had to refrigerated the dough a bit after the first batch came out flat.
MY ONLY CHANGE–I made half of the recipe which should be no problem. The ingredients were easy to halve.
I won't be using this again until I find out the cause.
They taste great.
This recipe is very similar to mine, VERY similar, probably because we both started with the Tollhouse" recipe. 😀 While I am not huge fan of Chocolate Chip cookies, I have been baking them for over 30 yrs and it also took me awhile, to get them to come up out perfectly soft, thick, fluffy, and chewy. Seriously, should they be any other way?? CHEERS to all cookie makers!!!
I have used almost the same changes as you have for about 30 years, too. I get many requests for my recipe. I will occasionally reach out to improve even these cookies, but my cookie monster always says mine are the best. The MIX BY HAND for these cookies is a big deal. Always add more flour, or they're too flat. Only one bowl is needed, I never sift the flour. Cookies come out of the oven when just beginning to brown around the edges. I let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for 5 minutes as they continue to cook a bit.
One tip: to give the flavor a little something extra, add one small box of Jello Instant Vanilla pudding (NOT sugar free). Just dump it in with the flour.
I will bake an entire batch and after completely cool put them in an airtight container and keep them in the freezer. Each cookie you take out tastes fresh! My Grandma always froze them. We called the Cold Cookies. Still one of my favorites!
These cookies were amazing!! Thank you so much! I have tried other recipes and can never make chocolate chip cookies well. My husband was so excited since he too is a cookie monster! The cookies came out very soft on the inside with a little crunch on the outside! As my hubby put it, perfect chocolate chip to cookie ratio!
I always use dark brown sugar for all the sugar in the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe–or half light brown and half dark brown. My favourite brown sugar is the soft more sticky kind that usually comes in a clear plastic container. I don't like the kind that just looks like dark granulated sugar. The brown sugar makes them crispy and chewy. I add a bit more flour when I want my cookies more cake-like. When I want extra crispy cookies, I melt my butter.
Alton Brown has some great suggestions for different textures for chocolate chip cookies. Good Eats is now on Netflix, so check him out.
I got the idea for using all dark brown sugar from Alexis' Chocolate Chip Cookies–Martha Stewart's daughter's recipe that I found in a magazine years ago. My friends and family thought that Alexis' cookies were a bit too thin and crispy, so I adapted the Toll House recipe with the sugar.
Hi, I'm from Europe, we don't measure in cups :-). I would really appreciate if you could give me the measurements in grams or tell me what kind of cup I should use. Thank you so much already, I'd love to try those!
Thank you for a great website and all the recipes.
Questions
1. Can I use all brown sugar instead?
2. If eggs are small can I use 3 small eggs?
Perfect is misspelled in the title, FYI. Thanks for the recipe!
Perfect is misspelled.
Hi: I live in Nova Scotia Canada, I like the Depression cake rec. the old rec are the best
aybe some of your followers have some for the depression era.Thank you for this one.
Dorothy
I made these today and they were delicious! I am in Brazil and it is very hard to find a good cookie! Thanks!
Hi!
Absolutely love this recipe, but I am so frustrated lately! I made these about a week ago – they were by far the most delicious cookies I have ever made. (they were so pretty, too!). Anyways, I have attempted this recipe twice after the first batch and haven't been able to get the same results! I can't tell what I am missing:( I know for sure I am not over mixing, and I also bought brand-new baking soda. My cookies are flat and chewy :/ any advice?
I have used the Toll House recipe in the past as well but the last few years my cookies always turn out flat, yummy but flat. Have tried fresh Soda, freezing the cookie sheets between batches (help a little), freezing the dough first. We live in OKC, Ok so I assume that we do not need to adjusted the recipe for altitude? I will try hand mixing as to not over mix the dries in and see if that helps.
We're a mile high. Will this recipe need tweeking?
This summer I moved to over 6000 feet. First attempt of baking, FLAT COOKIES. So I increased my baking temp to 375 degrees F and used this tip – 2 tsp water and only 2/3 cup of each sugar – they turned out perfect. Be sure to use 2 1/2 cups of flour!
These are SO delicious!!! Thank you for sharing!
Just made these…they're amazing! Thanks for sharing!
I use the original Toll House recipe also. But ever since we moved to FL ten years ago, nothing I did would make them turn out like they use to back home in the Midwest. They would always be very flat. Finally, I found out I had to add an extra cup of flour to the original recipe in order for them not to be flat. Hubby is very happy!! lol
Love this recipe! I added 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa to the creamed butter and sugars for chocolate-chocolate chip cookies. Yum! Also, I'm a huge fan of your Chocolate Crazy Cake. Thank you for sharing, Mary!
Just made these OMG AMAZING!!
What about dark brown sugar?
Mary, I always prided myself on making a chewy cookie but it's just not happening lately. They come out flat. So you don't use a mixer at all? You must have muscles on muscles! Could over mixing with mixer make them come out flat? I have never had this problem until the last couple of batches I made last week. Sally
Hmmm…maybe your baking soda is old . Next time you bake them, use a new box of baking soda. As long as you are not over mixing when you add the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda), you are fine.
I only use Parkay margarine sticks to bake with. Sounds weird, I know, but the flavor is the best.
Do you have to use salted butter? Or would it be fine without it?
Unsalted butter would work fine 🙂 Hope you love the cookies, Kayleigh!
Just wondering if I can add cream cheese to this..thank u
Just curious but do you have to use salted butter?
can you add chopped walnuts to this recipe
You sure can, Edna! Thanks so much for visiting, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Your recipe is the best! My husband and I made a double batch today and they are yummy! Too bad we can't eat them all, but 4 dozen are for a church function on Sunday! Thanks for sharing!
Your recipe is wonderful! My husband and I made a double batch of these cookies and they are yummy!
can you add chopped walnuts to this
Oh now I want a cookie! I'm going to make some for our trip next week! Thanks for the tips and what a cute pic with the candle!!
yum yum yum love it!
How does this recipe fare frozen? thinking of making a double batch to have on standby
It totally works, roll up in plastic wrap, then foil or bag , then you just slice and bake !
it works perfect roll in saran wrap then in foil, slice N bake after they reach room temp, bake 7 to 8 mins.
Hi there. What brand if butter do u use and the name of the butter. Hope u don't mind me asking
Yum, these cookies look delicious!