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 Rodriguez and 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!
Alice’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes approx. 45-48 cookies using a sm-med 2tbl. cookie scoop
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
1 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt *please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups/16 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips *I use Nestle Toll-House
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 5 minutes on medium 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 at least 5 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.
Print This Post
{ 10 trackbacks }
{ 205 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Hi Alice,
The cookies taste amazing but they seem to harden very quickly. Should I add more butter?
Thank you
Hi Aida,
I’ve never had that happen to me except when I have accidently let them bake too long. Because all ovens are different, may I suggest you reduce baking time by 2-3 min. to see if that helps. Bottoms should be slightly crunchy but the rest of the cookies should be soft and chewy. Hope this helps.
Alice
Wow! This recipe was simply amazing! I made over 3 dozen and everybody could not stop talking about it! Thank you!
I made these for my work’s holiday party and they were a HIT. Confirmation from several people they are in fact the best chocolate chip cookies EVER. Thanks!
I am about to embark upon a trial session with your recipe, you are very adorable in your blog and I cannot resist. I am the ultimate choc chip cookie monster, and will travel far and wide for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Tired of dissappointment I am going to do it myself. So I am excited to give your recipe a shot, sadly I don’t have a mixure, so will have to mix like crazy by hand, but I am sure it will be fine as I am a massage therapist with strong arms. Thanks for your cute post touting the greatness of your cookie!
Okay I am really nervous about picking just any old cookie recipe off the internet and always scour reviews… But being a blogger (and having a pretty blog at that) gave you some cookie points (lol) .. and after reading the reviews, I decided to give them a whirl with my 3yo.
These are DELICIOUS. Crunchy on the bottom, chewy in the center. I’m going to print this recipe off and save. After I mixed in the chocolate chips.. the batter was looking liquidy and I paniced.. thinking they are going to be liquidy messes.. but as I put the scoop into it, I realized just how thick it was & all was fine!
Thanks for posting!
Just had these, made by someone else. They were heavenly. So happy to have the recipe.
Thank You for posting this recipe. I have always been the toll house chocolate chip cookie person, and sometimes they would be great while other times completely flat. I have no idea what I was doing differently from one time to the next. So instead of beating a dead horse, I went looking online for a new recipe and found your page. The cookies are fabulous! I mean of course they taste great, but they look great too!
Thank You for Sharing.
Melissa
I just tried your recipe and loved it! Even my husband, who doesn’t normally like sweets or cookies, liked my chocolate chip cookies and asked for more. I did reduce the amount of brown sugar to 1 cup though, because your original recipe would have been too sweet for his like. My cookies are a little crunchy at th edge and soft inside, but I think they are not chewy enough. How can I improve it next time? Thank you!
Hi Eva,
If I were you, I would substitute more of the white sugar with brown. It is the caramelization of the brown sugar which helps the cookie become more chewy. Let me know when you find the perfect balance.
Thank you VERY much! That helps! I will try to do another batch tomorrow morning (we are supposed to bring cookies to share with Santa tomorrow) and let you know.
I am in my kitchen right now measuring out the flour and I am now confused. I purchased a scale for my flour, but I am not sure if you meant 24 oz or 12. 3C is 24oz. 12 would only be half that. I don’t want to screw up.
Please help.
Amy
I don’t have a scale… so I just used 3 cups and I think it turned out well…
This was the best ever cookie recipe! They were a hit! Thank you for the detailed recipe. I have yet to look at other recipes from you but I hope they are all just as detailed. I have been making cookies for years and this was by far my best batch. It was however, just a smidge too much salt for my taste, but I will just use about 3/4 of a tsp. Also, don’t let them cook too long, I found that they browned very fast. Instead of using a time, I really just watched them until the edges turned brown and then really watched until that perfect moment of taking them out. I am living in France also, so using the scale with grams was a bit of a challenge (it’s not digital but now I am invest in one). The chocolate chips in France are dark chocolate so I instead used a bar of baking milk chocolate or chocolat a patisser au lait as it’s called here. I thought this was much better as well. I will use it in the states. Thank you so much for this recipe. Magnafique!
12 ounces. Hope this helps.
Oh!! It looks fabulous. Can’t wait to eat this cookie after seeing these yummy pictures. Thank you very much for this recipe as it is one of my favourite cookie.
These cookies were so easy to make and so yummy!
I am definatly keeping this recipe and making them again!
Thanks (:
Wow! This really is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, EVER. I make cookies every Christmas to send to my family and have never had chocolate chip cookies turn out this amazing – in looks and taste. I followed the directions to the letter and will be using this recipe going forward.
Thanks so much for sharing. YUM!
someone mentioned the cookies being too hard. I used organic brown sugar one of the four times I’ve made these this month and the cookies were definitely harder. The org brown sugar is grainier and the cookies just aren’t the same. Totally edible, just not as sublime – making another batch to send to family/bring to parties right now.
Alice – I am going to try these this afternoon (if my daughters cooperate). I will let you know what we think. They are easy to please, so is Hubby, but I want my cookies to look and taste good and I’ve been having a hard time finding a perfect recipe. Thanks!!!
Being the holidays, I would like to substitute red and green m&m’s instead of the chocolate chips. Will this be okay?
There is something wrong with this recipe the way it is written; 1 cup of flour weighs 6oz. Therefore 3 cups would weigh 18 oz. The recipe calls for 3 cups, but says 12 oz. So which is it? 3 Cups (18oz) or 2 Cups (12 oz). Thanks.
Hi Stuff2247.
I wanted to explain why weighing ingredients vs. scooping them into a measuring cup makes a difference. When people weigh ingredients, there is no room for error – it will be accurate 100% of the time. When people scoop flour into a cup there is A LOT of room for error. The primary reason for this is:
Not all measuring cups are the same. In other words, every manufacture making measuring cups do not use the same molds. For instance, I have a few difference measuring cups and my Kitchenaid brand always is bigger than the rest. So depending on your measuring cup you may or may not get 4oz. you may get up to 6 oz. This explanation doesn’t even factor in sifting flour either.
This is why it is important to weigh ingredients when possible. You will have the most accurate results by doing so. Hope this clears it up.
ALICE!!!! Just finished making these cookies and had my husband & daughters try them. We all agree – THESE COOKIES ARE AMAZING!!!! Thank you. I will be passing this website along to family & friends who want an excellent chocolate chip cookie recipe.
THANK YOU!!!
I just made these cookies and they are wonderful. I was just wondering – have you ever put pecans or walnuts in them? If so, what amount did you put in them and were they successful? My family really likes nuts in their chocolate chip cookies, although these are going very fast! They probably won’t last the night. Thanks.
Sure you could add nuts – up to a cup. Hope this helps!
Great cookies, I just made them first time….they will be added to the “favorite ones” to make from now on. Thanks so much for sharing!!
Merry Christmas!
I just made these cookies and they came out great! A couple of questions. Do you recommend light or dark brown sugar? Do you pack the brown sugar down? How do you recommend to store the cookies? Right now they are on a rack but not sure if I should put them in an airtight container or loose foil?
Thanks
Hi Alice,
I’m back again. I made your recipe again last night and they turned out even better the second time. I’m not sure if it’s because I used actual sticks of butter, or if it’s because I whipped everything longer last night… What do you think it was?
I still cooked them for 11 mins, and they are soft and chewy. Oh my gosh, they are heavenly!!!
Thank you (again) for posting your recipe!
Ashley
OMG, I just made these cookies and they are AMAZING. I substituted white chocolate chips for semi-sweet and Margarine for butter, but they are nice and crispy on the bottom and chewy throughout the rest. They are the BEST ever! Thank you SO much for the recipe!
made these 2x. everyone raved about them. thanx so much. they were perfect.
this is just like the recipe i use except i use crisco instead of butter and not quite as much sugar as you use (1/2 cup less) but im sure yours is good too. the full 3 cups of flour makes all the difference in the world
Thanks so much for this recipe. I took them to a potluck today and the kids and adults devoured them! I had people ask me for the recipe. The only thing that I would need to do differently next time is get a cookie scoop b/c my cookies seemed a bit “chubby” and not as pretty as the cookies in your pictures.
These looked amazing when they came out of the oven and the texture was great when I ate one. What wasn’t great was the saltiness of the cookie, it’s all I could taste. I’m going to try it again with table salt because the sea salt isn’t working for me! And I definitely measured it right and even crushed it up more before adding it
I can’t wait to try again with the table salt though because I could definitely taste the fierce potential of this recipe! Thanks for sharing!
I made these last week — so good!! I used unsalted butter since it’s what I had, but they were still amazing. I think this will be my go-to Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from now on.
I find that most recipes that call for two cups of chocolate say it equals 12 oz. The Ghiradhelli choco chip bag says two cups (12 oz) on it’s choco chip recipe. I found it was more than enough chocolate chips at any rate.
I made these cookies with my 3 year old and they came out great! The only issue was that they were a bit crunchy. Not sure if it was the brown sugar or the cooking time. I have the same questions as Susanne…… Do you recommend light or dark brown sugar? Do you pack the brown sugar down? How do you recommend to store the cookies? Thanks for sharing.
Best.Cookies.EVER!! I made them yesterday, and they are amazing!! This is a keeper, for sure!!
Hi Susanne and Nifa,
I checked the back of brown sugar and it is C&H “Golden” brown sugar. I purchased it from Sam’s Club but truthfully, I don’t think it matters which type you use – you will still have an amazing cookie. I do pack the brown sugar down as well.
Nifa,
If you’re cookies came out crunchy, try baking it for 3 minutes less and see if that helps. Everyone’s oven is calibrated differently so with yours, it may be running slightly higher than most. Hope this helps.
Alice
HELP!! The first time I made these cookies, they were PERFECT! Now they are too crispy on the edges, and too buttery/creamy. I them to puff up.
Sorry, I want them to puff up. Any suggestions?
Chevonne: It could be a few things. If you have old baking soda or powder that will effect the puffiness. Also, did you cream the butter and sugars until it was really really fluffy? If the edges were too crispy, than reduce your baking time. From your previous post, sounds like the first go around went great.. so I would think of what you could have done differently between your two batches. Hope this helps.
I have to confess, I’ve always made the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. But you appear to understand the significance of the brown sugar to white sugar ratio so, despite the fact that there’s no oatmeal in this recipe, I’m going to go make them right now and get back to you
.
we just moved to an apartment with enough counter-space to finally unpack our new kitchen-aid mixer that we received as a wedding present 7 months ago and these cookies were the first recipe i’ve made with it… and ohhhh wow. they are FANTASTIC. seriously, love them. they will definitely be making a regular appearance. thank you!!
Hi Alice,
Your cookie recipe sounds great and I look forward to trying it real soon. You are so right to suggest that people weigh flour instead of measuring it is so much more accurate. But since most people still measure I would offer a couple of suggestions. First, make sure to fluff up your flour with a fork or whisk before measuring it. Lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level it off with the back of a knife or spatula. Also, most of my cookbooks give the standard equivalent for flour as 4.5 ounces to 5 ounces. So, for people who measure, they would probably get better results by using 2 1/2 to 2 2/3 cups flour.
Hope this helps.
Yup–this is the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever made! The only issue I had was the spread factor as time went on thru the baking process. The first couple trays stayed truest to size. Next time I will probably refrig the remaining batter to keep it a bit chilled. They are FANTASTIC! My son at college will LOVE them! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Alice,
I’m new to your website (and new to baking!) but I got a stand mixer for Christmas and this was the first recipe I made with it. And may I say – what a great way to start my relationship with my new mixer!!
These cookies are fantastic. They must be made of magic – I brought some to work today and they’re doing an amazing vanishing act. 
Thank you for sharing your delicious recipe.
P.S. For anyone who wants puffier cookies, mine came out puffy and soft (kind of by accident but I like them that way), probably because my oven is usually 25-50 degrees hotter than it’s supposed to be. I think the outside of the cookies set quickly, holding the shape while the inside cooked. I used the usual cooking time suggested and they came out perfect. (Also, I used a cookie scoop so the batter went onto the sheet in round lumps, and I live at a fairly high altitude, 2000 feet, if that makes a difference.)
Thanks again for the recipe!
I just have to tell you, this is my absolute fave chocolate chip cookie recipe. And that says a lot because I have never been a fan of them…I made them last week for my sons birthday treat for his class. They were a hit…Although before they left the house my hubby tried to sneak them out of the container after trying one lol….
We are making another batch right now and just like the first batch they are coming out perfectly slightly crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside…Thank you!!!
I consider myself a ccc enthusiast and can’t wait to try these. I have a few recipes I always say are my favorite (at the time, like NYT), but I’ll never stop trying new ones. Saw these posted over at Maria’s Two Peas. They look great!
I just got myself into a French Silk Pie throwdown with someone who makes a great one and I’ve never made one! Eee. We’ll see how that goes!
I like the fact this recipe uses more brown sugar, I love brown sugar!. The other day I was looking through the dessert book from the pastry chef at the French Laundry in Napa ( this restaurant ranks in the top 15 of the world with chef thomas Keller) and one of the recipees in the book is for chocolate chip cookies. Like your recipe they use a lot of brown sugar – in fact it is all brown sugar, no white sugar at all. The thing that stood out the most to me though was the type of chocalate they use. They start out with a plain dark chocolate and chop it into chunks. That sounded divine. Here is the recipe. I am sure I am breaking some kind of copyright law, but it is for the love of cookies! 6.5 oz plain flour. 1/4 tsp baking soda, pinch of salt, 4.5 oz softened unsalted butter. 5.75 oz of soft dark brown chocolate. I medium eff lightly beaten. 8 oz dark chocolate (55-75% cocoa solids) chopped.
← Previous Comments