Bake

My Classic Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

by:
October 20, 2016
4
19 Ratings
My Classic Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Photo by James Ransom
  • Makes about 45 cookies
Author Notes

In the category of "Great Chocolate Chip Cookies," these get my vote for the greatest. They are Toll House cookies' kin, but I think my nips, tucks, tweaks, and variations on the classic recipe make them their own kind of wonderful. They're thin and crisp and a bit chewy in the center from just the right mix of sugar—granulated sugar for crispiness and brown sugar for deep caramel flavor.

I've made these cookies with just about every kind of chocolate known to humankind with universally satisfying results, but my all-time favorite way is to chop up premium chocolate, not worrying about cutting it into uniform sizes or shapes. Having chunks, chips, and slivers makes the eating more fun, and I love the way the mishmash of shapes looks when the cookies are baked—streaked, marbled, tweedy, and totally tempting.

From Baking: From My Home to Yours (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2006). —Dorie Greenspan

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt (1 1/4 teaspoons if you really like salt)
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 cups store-bought chocolate chips or chunks
  • 1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
Directions
  1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
  2. Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and nuts. (The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen. If you'd like, you can freeze rounded tablespoonfuls of dough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when they're solid. There's no need to defrost before baking—just add a minute or two to the baking time.)
  3. Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.
  4. Bake the cookies—one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point—for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle, and that's just fine.
  5. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to the racks to cool to room temperature.
  6. Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.
Tags:

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Ann Del Tredici
    Ann Del Tredici
  • lisahorwitz
    lisahorwitz
  • Pearl
    Pearl
  • Maley Maley
    Maley Maley
  • rosemary | a hint of rosemary
    rosemary | a hint of rosemary
Dorie Greenspan
With the publication her 14th book, Baking with Dorie, New York Times bestselling author Dorie Greenspan marks her thirtieth anniversary as a cookbook author. She has won five James Beard Awards for her cookbooks and journalism and was inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. A columnist for the New York Times Magazine and the author of the xoxoDorie newsletter on Bulletin, Dorie was recently awarded an Order of Agricultural Merit from the French government for her outstanding writing on the foods of that country. She lives in New York City, Westbrook, Connecticut, and Paris. You can find Dorie on Instagram, Facebook, Bulletin and her website,

Popular on Food52

21 Reviews

Tracey T.
Tracey T. August 25, 2024
Darn good recipe!
I always refrigerate my cookie or bar dough before baking and this recipe is no exception. I also used browned butter which I usually do as well.
4/5 only because it’s not a show stopper recipe but definitely in my arsenal for when I need a chocolate chip cookie!
 
Ann D.
Ann D. August 22, 2022
I watched Dorie's video on making these and I made them exactly as written. I thought the final cookie was too greasy and too thin. It was so thin that the chocolate chunks burned slightly. To remedy it, I added 3/4 cup of additional flour to the remaining batter and baked a trial cookie. It was much more like what I like--an acceptable amount of spreading--which also protected the precious chocolate inside the cookie so that it didn't burn.
 
Peter
Peter February 7, 2022
What a versatile easy recipe to make. Love the way the small cookie scoops freeze for drop in guest. What a treat
 
Danika
Danika December 23, 2021
Pretty standard chocolate chip cookie. Tasty, but I also had problems with spreading. I prefer a thicker, chewier cookie. If you like thinner, crispier cookies then this might be for you.
 
lisahorwitz
lisahorwitz December 1, 2021
I’m convinced there’s a major TYPO! as 2 cups of flour is disastrous. Talk about spread! But up that to 1/2 flour, at least, and you’ve got yourself a delicious and perfectly balanced cookie.
 
Mom24
Mom24 December 9, 2020
I'm so sad to say this, but not a fan. Very thin, spread a lot. So disappointed. I had high hopes that being a Dorie Greenspan recipe it would be wonderful, it was not. My cookies did not resemble the picture at all, I'm assuming that my flour measurement was not the same as Dorie's, I wish a weight had been included. I most likely will not make them again, I find Cheryl Day's, Flour Bakery's and Williams-Sonoma's to be much more dependable and delicious.
 
Christine
Christine November 14, 2021
I'm with you Mom24 - I just made these, and they turned out awful :( I'm an experienced baker, and have run a successful cafe for the last 10 years, so I like to think I know what I'm doing. I followed this to a T - even weighed my ingredients. They spread into almost one large cookie and are flatter than flat. Oh well - still love Dorie :)
 
Pearl
Pearl June 18, 2020
It's hard to rate any cookie recipe after making Dorie's World Peace cookies. However, the queen of cookies comes through again. These cookies are buttery, crisp on the edges, and so satisfying. Make them today!

Make the World Peace cookies tomorrow! You'll thank me.
 
Maley M.
Maley M. March 14, 2020
FWIW, this is almost exactly the same recipe as is on the back of the Nestlé Toll House bag. The only differences: Toll House calls for 1/4 c more flour (which helps with spread), 1/4 t more baking soda, 1/4 c less sugar, 1 t less vanilla, and 3/4 c brown sugar instead of 2/3 c.
 
Smaug
Smaug April 29, 2020
Those changes struck me as pretty odd, too- so many people have trouble with spreading cookies even with the original recipe, though I never have, and I can't see upping the sugar at all. I usually cut the sugar and as often as not skip the baking soda- I like a fairly crisp cookie. Too much salt, but that's a losing battle. It seems like everyone has one or several variations on this recipe that make theirs "the best"- I've gone through a number of them myself, and usually wander away from them after a few batches.
 
Suzy Q.
Suzy Q. December 9, 2020
Thanks Maley! I've always liked the toll house recipe...yet I seem to want a more upscale recipe if you will. Maybe the Nestles one is the best after all! I do prefer darker chocolate so I'll give that a go. Be well everyone👩🏼‍🍳
 
rosemary |.
rosemary |. May 14, 2019
Soooo delicious! Perfect texture! I love Dorie's idea in her Baking Cookbook to add 1 1/2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder to turn these into Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies! Next on my list of must-tries!
 
salena
salena May 1, 2019
As good as chocolate chip cookies get! I refrigerated dough for about 15 minutes and then rolled my first batch into little balls, 12 to a baking sheet (48 all together). Perfect cookies.
 
Linda
Linda April 29, 2019
Made these today. Refrigerated the dough for a few hours before baking. They came out thin and chewy (like the ones you can buy in the Fresh Market). They spread more than I expected but it might also be the case that I made them a little bit too big. I thought they tasted lovely.

I would also have liked this recipe to be in metric. I did look in Dorie's Cookies and I discovered that she takes 1 cup of AP flour to be 136g, 1 cup of sugar to be 100g and 1/3 of light brown sugar to be 67g. I went with these. Seemed to work!
 
Suzy Q.
Suzy Q. February 3, 2019
I agree this recipe in weight would be most helpful...

I'm surprised that it's been two years and no replies?

Thank you for your time and reply
 
Elaine W.
Elaine W. May 9, 2018
I did not put nuts due to allergies. I used 10 oz. of bittersweet chocolate chips. I used dark brown sugar since that is what I had on hand. I refrigerated dough and used it the next day. This cookies came out very, very flat. Also, it doesn’t taste very good. I still have half the dough left and am debating if there is anything I can do to save this.
 
Christine
Christine January 29, 2018
They spread out quite a bit, even after chilling the dough, but if you don't mind the look they are super yummy.
 
amanda R.
amanda R. August 20, 2017
Made these with both chocolate and white chips yesterday and chilled for about 1 hr. Delicious caramel flavor from the mix of sugars, a little flatter than I normally like, but overall great. I have another batch in the fridge that will chill for 12+ hours as a fun experiment.
 
Stephanieji
Stephanieji April 9, 2017
Oh my god, these are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies. Super crispy and yet also chewy and tender. Dorie is a genius.
 
Karli
Karli April 8, 2017
I make a batch of these about every two weeks. My husband refuses to eat any chocolate chip cookies except for these.
 
Pat B.
Pat B. December 9, 2016
Can these ingredients please be converted into weight. Thank you