The Toll House Cookie, Essentially

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What I’m sharing is essentially the Toll House cookie — the one on the back of the yellow bag that has been feeding Americans since 1939 — with two changes I made on purpose, and have never undone. More brown sugar than the original, which keeps the center chewy and slightly fudgy even after the cookies cool. And a bit more flour, which gives the dough enough structure to hold its shape in the oven instead of spreading into a flat, lacy puddle. That’s it. That’s the whole story.

There is a whole genre of food writing devoted to the chocolate chip cookie, and I have read most of it. The brown butter versions, the 36-hour rest in the refrigerator versions, the ones with bread flour or cake flour or a combination of both, the ones with chopped Valrhona and fleur de sel and a provenance that involves a famous pastry chef and a trip to Paris. I have made many of them. Some were very good!

I realize this is not a glamorous thing to admit on a food website in the 21st century. But I’ve been cooking professionally for over twenty years, and one thing that experience teaches you is to stop messing with things that work. The Toll House recipe works. It has always worked.

My version works slightly better, for me, in my oven, with the chocolate I use — a good dark bar chopped roughly so you get uneven pieces that melt at different rates and leave streaks of chocolate through the dough rather than intact little morsels.

A few things worth knowing before you start:

• The chocolate matters more than you think. Chips are engineered to hold their shape — that’s why they don’t fully melt. A chopped bar of good semisweet or bittersweet chocolate melts into sensual blobs into the dough, which is exactly what you want.
• Both sugars are doing different jobs. Brown sugar adds moisture and that elusive chewiness. Granulated sugar helps the edges crisp. The ratio here is deliberately lopsided toward brown — more chew, less snap.
• Room temperature butter means actually soft. Not cold, not melted, not the butter you left on the counter during a heat wave. Press your finger in: it should leave a clean indent without the butter collapsing. If you forgot to take it out, slice it into tablespoon pieces and give it fifteen minutes.
• Don’t skip the chill. Even twenty minutes in the refrigerator firms the dough enough that the cookies hold their shape and bake up thick. You’re not waiting overnight. You’re waiting for the oven to heat up, which you were doing anyway.

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The Toll House Cookie, Essentially

Karen Tedesco

This is my desert island chocolate chip cookie — chewy middles, crispy edges, and two small tweaks on the Toll House classic that make it the one I always come back to.

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4.84 from 12 ratings

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Additional Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Desserts

Cuisine Baking

Servings 24 cookies

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 ¾ cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ▢ 8 ounces (226 g) room temperature unsalted butter, (2 sticks)
• ▢ ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 cup (200 g) packed light brown sugar
• ▢ 2 large eggs
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 8 ounces (225 g) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate bars, cut into chunks

US Customary – Metric

Instructions 

• Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
• Mix 8 ounces room temperature unsalted butter, ⅓ cup granulated sugar, and 1 cup packed light brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium-low speed (or use a hand mixer) using the paddle attachment until light and fluffy, 3 or 4 minutes. Add 2 large eggs one at time, mixing until each one is incorporated. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and mix it in.
• Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 2 additions, beating on low speed just until the flour is incorporated. Stir in 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate bars. Put the bowl in the refrigerator while the oven heats, about 20 minutes.
• Heat the oven to 350 (175C) degrees with the rack in the center of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Scoop 2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto the sheets, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 13-15 minutes, until the edges turn lightly golden. Cool on the pan for 3 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely,

Karen’s Notes and Tips

• This cookie scoop makes perfectly sized blobs of dough and uniformly-shaped cookies.
• Storage and make ahead: The best way to keep these chocolate chip cookies is to store them in a zippered plastic bag.
• Make the dough through Step 3 and refrigerate up to one day ahead.

Adapted from The Fearless Baker by Erin McDowell.

Nutrition per serving

Calories: 113kcal Carbohydrates: 18g Protein: 1g Fat: 4g Sodium: 162mg Fiber: 1g Sugar: 17g

Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.

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Hey, I’m Karen

Creator of Familystyle Food

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Professionally trained cook, cookbook author, and the person behind every recipe here. I cook the way I was trained: Start with good ingredients, understand why they work, and don’t apologize for the salt. These are the recipes I actually make, for the people I love. Read more about me here.