Since I started blogging I’ve always wanted to do a post on my chocolate chip cookies. You see.. my chocolate chips are all that and a bag of pretzels. But the problem is, EVERYONE and their grandma think their chocolate chip cookies are the best. So I decided I wouldn’t do a post because it seemed overplayed (putting it mildly). I just didn’t have it in me to enter the “I have the best chocolate chip cookie recipe” rat race.
But months ago I had asked the question on Twitter on why people believed their recipe was really the best. And from that moment on, Ashley Rodriguezand I would engage in the “Chocolate chip cookie Tweet wars”. I asked her to post her recipe and she kindly pointed me to her beautiful site. I made her recipe that same evening and I must say they were incredibly good. I reported back my results to her and said this.. “They were really good, almost as good as mine.” Her next tweet went something like this, “Almost?” – a.k.a “Say what?!?” Because we’re good friends and lovingly joke around a lot with each other, I can tell you that she really does have a fabulous recipe. But I can also tell you with bold confidence, my recipe is pretty fierce – if I do say so myself. The reason why I love this recipe is because it is not overly sweet and primarily uses brown sugar. The brown sugar gives it a more caramel type chewiness and more depth than the traditional Toll House type of recipe. As a result, you get a nice crisp bottom, but the rest of the cookie is soft and chewy.
These are the cookies my sister who lives in Germany asks me to send her because they are all she can think about when she thinks of home. They are the same cookies she shared with her platoon in Iraq and the same cookies I will be sending to her in Afghanistan. I once sent her a batch of a new recipe and trust me, she noticed. I was told not to deceive her again and send my version only.
But last night it happened again. It all started out so innocently. A typical night of tweeting and before I knew it, somehow I had trash tweeted my way into a chocolate chip cookie bake off with my good friends Lorna Yee and Ashley Rodriguez. If I recall correctly, the conversation went something like this.
Me to Ashley: Bring It!
Ashley to Me: Oh I’ll Bring It!
And before I knew it, other people were arranging a bake off. Moral of the story.. do not tweet and trash if you can’t back it up. And for the record, I can back it up. Enough said.
I present to you my favorite and original Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. Enjoy!
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 1½ cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2¾ cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
- ¾ tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1½ tsp. baking powder
- 2¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
*Troubleshooting*
-If you’re cookies are coming out flat and not like the pictures there are probably 3 reasons for this.
#1) Baking powder and Baking soda is old. If your baking powder and soda is older than 1 year and has not been in a sealed (preferably air tight) container, it has lost some of it rising qualities.
#2) Creaming. It is not enough to just cream the butter and sugars until it has come together. This recipe requires you to beat it with a mixer for 3 minutes until the texture of the butter and sugar turns to light and fluffy-just like the picture.
#3) Flour. Flour should be weighed. This can make or break the recipe because just scooping flour into a measuring cup will never yield ideal or consistent results.
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Alice,
That is quite a fabulous recipe you have there. They are amazing! I’m making them for the 2nd time in a month. I was searching high and low for a perfect recipe and I no longer have to look! Thanks for sharing!
I don’t care for this recipe. I would prefer more white sugar. They just did not taste sweet at all.
if you don’t care then why did you open this website and be polite learn your manners alright and keep your complement to your self that’s your opinion and no one asked you for your opinion i’am not trying to be mean but sorry if i ‘am mean ores
Ok that woman has a right to post her opinion. Nobody asked you for your opinion either but you feel entitled to give it unsolicited. Manners? You don’t have any either! Lol! If she did not like the cookies it’s good that she shared because you get an honest opinion I would hate if I looked for a recipe that had all positive comments and fall short. Either way I will still give these a try because they spun tasty. Ps ok she could have been more polite about it but these weren’t sweet enough for her. Oh well .. Get off you high horse!!!
I agree with Abdula. These cookies are freakin awesome.
they are entitled to their opinion. Reviews are just that — someones opinion….so technically they were asked for their opinion. Plus reviews help someone decide whether they should make the recipe. If someone goes through and reads the reviews they might see that someone has a similar taste to them and therefore they should either use a different recipe or change this one. Either way, no one ever said a review or comment had to be positive in nature. This one happens to be from someone that did not like the recipe and stated why. They were not mean or rude; however, the responses to their comments were.
You are right on! That’s what I wanted to say! Except you said it better!
I had a couple questions about this recipe. First, do you prefer to use light or dark brown sugar, or a combination of both? Second, I accidentally purchased unsalted butter. Will this make a big difference in the outcome? Thanks!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your recipe. Haven’t had such a tasty cookie since visiting USA 13 years ago. I’ve tried many recipes but yours was spot on!!!
These really are the best chocolate chip cookies. The sea salt could not have added a better touch. Seriously, the last chocolate chip cookie I will ever make.
I loved this cookie recipe. These are just so yummy. They even came just a pretty as if bought from a bakery. I placed my dough in the
refrigator for a few hours. This recipe is a keeper!
These cookies are so unbelievably good. I usually like to tweak recipes but this one is perfect as is. I just need to figure out how to not eat so many!
Just made a batch of these- didn’t have a scale to weigh flour so I used the measurements- they turned out perfect. Seriously good.
Never was a big fan of chocolate chip cookies…..until now! The best I’ve ever tried!!! Did it with both chocolate chip/walnut, and chocolate chip/peanut butter chip/walnut. Both very good! I did add a little more sea salt than it called for after the first batch because I really… really like the sweet salty effect it gave. I never thought about it before but I will think about incorporating sea salt into more recipes now….Thanks so much Savory Sweet Life!
These are indeed the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I’ve always wondered why we don’t use more brown sugar. It has now been confirmed that we use less of it for no good reason! Unfortunately I did not have the thick grained sea salt required for the recipe. But, my mom had some pink flakey salt (that’s probably really expensive) and it turned out wonderful. Next time I’ll use Ghiradeli chocolate since the bulk of the cookie is chocolate chips.
I usd your recipe to make Pisookies for some friends at a Bar-B-Q I hosted and they were qiute the hit. This is one I will use often. Thanks for the posting.
I followed all of the directions (even weighed the flour) and the cookies were extremely flat. They are good, but I wouldn’t share these with anyone because they look awful. I wish I would have stuck to my normal cookie recipe, I’ve never had this happen before.
So did mine. I’m not sure if my baking soda is old but my baking powder definitely isn’t. These cookies still tasted amazing but yes they were so flat.
maybe you made them while it was raining?
Cookies made with butter usually always flatten, substitute butter with crisco and they do not
Yes, but don’t substitute all the butter for shortening, try half and half, or 1/3 shortening and 2/3 butter. I think a cookie made entirely out of shortening doesn’t taste as good! My coworker made these, and they were excellent! She followed the recipe to the T.
These Cookies are the Bomb Diggity!!!!
These are pretty darn good — not overly sweet. I cooked them a bit longer than the recipe called for (because we like them crispy) and added extra sea salt on top before baking. Thank you for suggesting that users weigh out the flour — otherwise I would not have done that. Recipe worked great, will definitely make these again.
You said 2 3/4 cups of flour (16 ounces). If I’m doing my math right, 2 3/4 cups is 22 ounces. 16 ounces are only 2 cups.
You are referring to liquid ounces, where indeed 16 oz is two cups. However, every ingredient has a different weight in ounces per cup of ingredient – using a kitchen scale, not measuring cups. You can google and find charts, there are a some different opinions on this. I always use a conversion of 4 oz flour per cup, and 8 oz sugar per cup (both white and brown), and 4 oz powdered sugar per cup. 6 oz of chocolate chips is a cup, 5 oz pecans is a cup etc. Most liquid ingredients are the same weight as liquid ounces – a pint (2 cups) is a pound the world around (16 ounces = 1 lb.)
This is actually pretty close to my best-ever chocolate chip cookie recipe, which I’ve been really trying to get that perfect balance of puffy and chewy. I’ve never used both baking soda and powder, will try that next. Love your site!
I must say, this receipe is absolutely, positivitly, the best ever. It far surpasses; Nestle’s, Mrs. Fields and don’t forget Grandma!!! I was very skeptical how I was going to finish creaming everything since my beater broke creaming in the eggs. But, I had know problem. The dough and texture came together as long as you have muscle. Enjoy this, because I haven’t had anything better.
These cookies were wonderful! Even my picky 7 year old siblings loved them. The first batch I made, I overbaked because they weren’t turning golden, but the second batch I took out at 13 minutes and they were spectacular! They were so chewy and nice. I will definitely bake these again.
Alice,
I absolutely had to take the time to let you know that this recipe yielded the most delicious chocolate chip cookie I have ever tasted in my entire life! It is most, delicious, and flavorful. I added chopped pecans to mine and they are absolutely devine. Thank you SO much!
I made your cookies last night…the only change I made was using half semi-sweet and half milk chocolate chips…I didn’t have sea salt, so I used Kosher salt. My search for THE chocolate chip cookie recipe is now over. I had thought about trying your friends recipe to compare…but there is no need trying to improve on perfection!
OMG! I am blown away by these. Warm out the oven there is nothing quite like them. I added a bit more sea salt as love that sweet/salt combo and used really good chocolate (‘Montezumas’ a mix of milk and dark) which I break up rather than the overly sweet and if I may say crappy american chocolate chips you get over there. Thank you!
I just thought I would drop a line to let you know that I tried this recipe with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and they were equally as delicious!
Awesome recipe and now a family favorite. This time I used walnuts, half milk chocolate and half semi sweet with 1/2 cup of raisins. We even added some white chocolate chips and they came out awesome once again. It is hard to go wrong with this recipe. Thanks! It’s a homerun here!
I love this recipe so far! It is such a nice consistency. I made a half-recipe for my kids (that way I don’t have cookies for 3 weeks!) Instead of white sugar I tried an equal amount of Agave nectar. I am trying to get rid of the processed sugar in my kids diets.They are in the oven right now. The texture looked great! The agave nectar worked well in the batter. Lets see how they bake up!
Ever since I was a lil girl I have a always used the Tollhouse recipe, but those cookies are generic compared to this recipe!! First time using a new recipe and it is GREAT! !! Thanks!!!
Mouthgasmic Sinfully Good!!! My husband hadfour cookies in a span of 5 minutes! Definitely a keeper! The sea salt goes very well with it. A masterpiece Alice. Thank you
nice cookies -_- +_- =_=
Thank you so much Abdula!
How would I go about adding coconut flakes to this recipe?
Great recipe. Unfortunately mine came out thin and flat, but I am sure it’s because of my baking soda (not sealed). Love that you put the weight of the flour in there! Thanks!
One word…..WOW!!!
No words are good enough to explain how fabulous these taste. WOW! I, myself, am not a big chocolate chip cookie fan, but my 2 sons and husband are. These have transformed my idea of chocolate chip cookies forever! Thank you so much, Alice, for your wonderful recipes and your amazing blog. I look forward to reading it every week. You truly are an inspiration, my dear.
Carrie
Hands down the best cookie I have ever made at home! They’re not quite the best cookie I have ever had, but that may be due to the fact that I made these in 90 degree weather, with 90% humidity (creaming butter and sugar is nearly impossible). But with that said, these are amazing! Pretty, yummy, devine cookies. Thank you so much for sharing
Wow! I am a big cooking/food/baking enthusiast and I very very rarely comment on posts of any cooking blogs… even when the recipe blows it out of the water… that said; These are quite literally THE BEST chocolate chip cookies EVER. I am done looking. PERIOD. I did add one element and I sprinkled some sea salt flakes on top of the finished baked cookies right out of the oven for another element of texture. My recipe yielded about 48 cookies. My test subjects were my 20 or so coworkers in the designer shoe department on a busy Saturday. Put them in the stockroom and they were gone within the hour. You win!
I am writing this, cookie in hand, to tell you that this recipe is phenomenal. The hubby made a batch of cookies this evening, and they are sooooo good. I will only be using this recipe from now on.
Hi! I just wanted to thank you for posting your chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have been using Ghirardelli’s cookie recipe from the bag, and I have not been able to make fluffy yet chewy and crunchy cookies, in fact I just threw out an entire batter of it because they came out like pancakes. The flavor was good, but I wanted a recipe to replace it, and I came across your website and your chocolate chip cookie. I knew from the moment the creamed sugars and butter came together that this was going to be a fantastic cookie, and boy did it deliver. It had just the right amount of crunch, and sweetness as well as the right amount of salt! So thank you, thank you for sharing such a great cookie recipe…I have a happy husband, but I now want to share it with my co-workers, so I’m taking a batch with me to work to share the love!
I would like to know what brand of chips do you and use Alice Currah ?
Thank you,
Suzan
Hi Suzan,
I use whatever chips I have on hand. Sometimes Toll-House, M & M’s, Scharfenbeger chunks, Ghiradelli Bittersweet, and a couple others. If you have a favorite chocolate, use it!
This is one best recipe i ever tryed. i would recommend this recipe to all cookies lovers
Choco Chips Cookies
I rarely post comments anywhere but I just had to this time. These cookies are FABulous! They definitely earned the “best ever” title. Thank you!!
This mos-def “THE BEST EVER” chocolate chip cookie recipe!!!…I was searching for answers about my flat cookies and this recipe came up..that was about 6 months ago, I’ve been swearing by this recipe every since!!…I did however make a couple modifications..(cheflife)….I use Tahitian vanilla beans instead of extract…(because I love vanilla beans)…and I use Torbinado sugar instead of white…( because I’m a sugar in the raw kind of guy!!)…Other than that this recipe has put my once slacking cookie skills back in the game baby!!!….thanks Alice!!…PEACE!!!
It took me all of my adult life to find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe…
… I found it last year – made a few tweaks. And here’s the recipe for your enjoyment:
http://www.fetch123.com/amazing/introducing-my-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe-in-the-world
I used to use Google to search for “Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe” and I’ve tried about 20 or more recipes that never seemed that great. The Ingredients are very similar, but I found this recipe to be the best. The measurements, preparation, cooking temperature and time produced a far superior cookie.
Thanks Alice
I made these and shared with co-workers. Their response was “these are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever had”! I made these before and didn’t get the same response. I believe it is a couple of things, I am moving so I am trying to use up ingredients. This time I used:
1) Honey Country Crock butter (4 TBS) because I didn’t have enough stick butter.
2) I believe the key is to do as the recipe calls and beat until it is fluffy.
3) Kosher sea salt makes a world of difference.
4) So does the brown sugar.
5) Mine burned on 360 so I turned it to 350. Knowing your oven helps too.
I really like how the author took time to explain the ways to improve if they didn’t come out right and the hints along the way to making it a fantastic cookie. This will be my Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Fantastic cookies! My kids are allergic to eggs, so I substituted applesauce (1/2 cup=2 eggs) for the eggs, and they turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!
I read something online that recommended not using butter and brown sugar in cookies that are sent to troops. What do you think? If I ship them priority mail, do you think there would be a problem? Without the butter, my cookies aren’t holding together well and are not flattening out. My recipe uses vegetable shortening and butter, so I just increased the shortening and left the butter out completely.
How do you cream the sugar and butter without a mixer. I don’t have a whisk. I usually use a fork and mine never looked fluffy. (whenever I’ve made cookies in the past) I want to be successful at making these cookies I will be using this recipe tonight! Any tips will be appreciated!
I know I need to invest in a whisk or mixer but I don’t have the money and I don’t want to wait and I want to bake these tonight!
these cookies are the best ive had these will be my new favorite recipe
Holy moly…my daughter, husband, and I all agree that these are far and away the MOST AMAZING chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever tried. Thank you!!
Made these cookies on a whim and they are insane!!! Best cookies I’ve ever made!
Holy Francis! These tasty treats are the bee’s knees. It tastes like heaven in my mouth. A handy piece of advice to a fellow baker is to place the cookies in the cooker for only 13.25 minutes. That way they can form quite nicely. Also make sure to have the cooling rack out promptly so they can arrive, sizzle, and steam right on time! Also I noticed that the wax paper made the oven a tad bit smokey. Why is this do you suppose?
Great Barrier Reef! No other cookies could compare. Cookie Monster himself would fall right out of his chair. Well done my friend. Well done.
These are truly the best CCC I have made (and ate)!!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Lina Gioioso
Oh. My. God…
Probably all I can say..
No, really, thank you alice for this recipe, these are the exact cookies I was looking for..
I spent all day today looking around for a good recipe and couldn’t find one that met my likes.. Plus I had a bad experience making a batch off of another recipe a couple of weeks ago, so I was picky today.. If it wasn’t for your blog and your story about you sendin these across the globe I probably would have skipped it lol
But MAN.. Speechless
I did use vegetable shortening instead of butter, and used table salt instead of the sea salt – sweet n salty just isn’t my thing
For those of you wondering what kind of brown sugar to use, imo light brown goes way better with these cookies
Thank you thank you for the recipe – I, too, can now say I have THE BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe :’)
Deliciousnessssss, 5stars is just not enough
The search is over for me. Love these cookies. Ive made them quite bit and like the sweet salty combo. Thanks this is winner
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