Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, Elevated

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

This is the famous Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe that you know and love, but made better with some cookie baking tips and tricks I’ve learned over the years! What does that mean, exactly? Sure, you can go ahead and make the original Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe and make some *pretty good* cookies. But what if I told you that, with a little bit of extra work and patience, you could make the cookies even better??? Intrigued yet?

But first, let’s talk about why I’m sharing this very famous cookie recipe as opposed to one of my own. A few weeks ago, I read and shared this fun Eater article about the joy of cooking recipes from the back of ingredient boxes and packages. I asked if you guys would be interested in a series exploring those recipes for Hummingbird High. Many of you responded with an enthusiastic yes! It’s no surprise—many of us grew up with back-of-the-box recipes. They are a source of comfort and joy.

But instead of simply reposting those same recipes, I also wanted to find ways to make them my own. I haven’t defined what that means exactly. But I do have a general game plan: try a handful of back-of-the-box recipes (let me know if you recommend any!), and share the ones that are worthwhile. Maybe that means I’ll be sharing the original recipe as it is; maybe I’ll make a few modifications here and there to “elevate” them and make them my own. We’ll see, we’ll see.

Now let’s talk about the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe:

The Fictional History of The Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

There’s a myth floating around that chocolate chip cookies were invented by accident. The most common story is this: in 1930, a woman named Ruth Graves Wakefield and her husband ran the Toll House Inn on Route 18 near Whitman, Massachusetts. Ruth, a dietician and home economist trained by the Framingham State Normal School Department of Household Arts, prepared all the food for the guests at the inn. She soon became renowned for baked goods like sticky pecan biscuits, Indian pudding, and Boston cream pie. These baked goods had celebrity fans—John Kennedy Senior apparently regularly ordered Ruth’s brownies for his kids, and Duncan Hines (yes, that Duncan Hines!) was partial to Ruth’s Indian pudding and lemon meringue pie.

One night, Ruth decided to bake a batch of Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies, a popular old colonial recipe. However, in the middle of baking, she discovered that she was missing one of the recipe’s key ingredients—baker’s chocolate. So in its place, she chopped up a batch of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate. She figured that the chocolate would melt into the cookie like baker’s chocolate. But of course, that’s not what happened. The chocolate pieces retained their individual shapes, which were studded throughout each cookie. And so Ruth had inadvertently created the world’s first chocolate chip cookie.

It’s a cute story, right? But unfortunately, it’s not true.

I know. I was bummed too. But here’s the real story:

The REAL History of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

According to both The New Yorker and The Toast, the truth is much more boring. It turns out that Ruth, a talented recipe developer and pastry chef, specifically developed a chocolate chip studded cookie to pair with ice cream. The resulting recipe was featured on the incredibly popular The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air radio program. According to this Business Insider article, this feature on the radio program caused the recipe to explode in popularity and become a household favorite across the country. A few years later, Ruth published the Toll House Tried and True Recipes cookbook (containing her signature cookie recipe, natch), cementing the chocolate chip cookie’s place in history.

And because of the recipe’s popularity, sales of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate skyrocketed. Nestle struck a deal with Ruth to include her popular recipe on their chocolate labels. In addition to including her recipe on their labels, Nestle began making changes to make their chocolate more suited to her recipe. Things like scoring the chocolate bars to make them easier to cut, and including a special chocolate chopper for people to use to make chocolate chips. Finally, in 1939, Nestle introduced conveniently pre-chopped chocolate: Nestle’s Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels. And yes, these are the very same chocolate chips that both you and I know and use in our kitchens today.

The Original Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Interestingly, Ruth’s chocolate chip cookie recipe remained unchanged on Nestle’s products until 1979. Her original recipe used shortening instead of butter, as well as a splash of hot water (according to The Toast, the hot water was used to help activate the baking soda). You can see the original recipe over on Wikipedia. Ruth’s original recipe also instructed bakers to use a ½-teaspoon measure to scoop out the cookies; as a result, the recipe made small, thick, and crunchy cookies.

However, in 1979, Nestle’s contract with Ruth expired. Nestle then decided to “modernize” the recipe with a few updates. They replaced the shortening with butter, ditched the hot water completely, and instructed bakers to use a 1-Tablespoon measure to scoop out the cookies instead. The new recipe resulted in chocolate chip cookies that were larger, thicker, and chewier. These updates were so popular and well-received that this updated recipe is STILL the exact same recipe you get on Nestle products today. Cool, right?

Why You Should Make This Version Of The Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Now that you’ve learned all about the history behind the famous Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, let’s talk about why you should make MY take on the recipe.

My version of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe instructs you to toast the nuts.

Toasting nuts brings out more flavorful oils within the nuts themselves, leading to deeper flavors. You also improve their texture by adding snap and crunchiness.

My version of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe instructs you to melt the butter.

The original Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe instructs you to cream the butter together with the sugars. However, my recipe instructs you to melt the butter first before mixing it in with the sugars. I found that doing so creates a wonderfully fudgy cookie with dense and ever-so-slightly doughy centers. Plus, you get to save yourself some time since there’s no waiting for the butter to come to room temperature.

My version of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe instructs you to use chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips.

If you read my cookbook, Weeknight Baking, you probably know that I have a grudge against chocolate chips. Why? Most chocolate chips are made with cheap chocolate. The chocolate chips are pumped with additives like paraffin wax and palm oil to help them keep their shape even after being baked in the oven. These additives compromise the chocolate chips’ flavor and texture, making them taste waxy.

Thankfully, most “good” chocolate bars don’t suffer from this issue. Chocolate bars traditionally don’t use the same additives. So instead of using chocolate chips, I instruct you to chop up a “good quality” chocolate bar into ½- and 1-inch pieces. Instead of holding its shape like chocolate chips, the chopped chocolate melts and gives the cookies pockets and puddles of chocolate throughout each bite. Once you’ve tried this upgrade, you can’t ever go back.

But what’s a “good quality” chocolate bar? If you’re on a budget, Trader Joe’s Pound Plus and Ghirardelli baking bars will do the trick. If you want to splurge (and I recommend you do), I recommend upgrading to Guittard or Valrhona chocolate bars or discs. Learn more in the Ingredients section below!

My version of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe instructs you to chill the cookie dough overnight before baking.

In general, most cookie doughs freeze and refrigerate wonderfully. Furthermore, there’s research that states that “resting” your cookie dough by chilling or freezing will lead to more delicious cookies. Why? The extra time in the freezer/refrigerator allows the flour and sugar to absorb more flavors from the other ingredients in the dough. The resulting cookies have subtle butterscotch, caramel, and toffee flavors in them. So for little to no extra effort on your part, you end up with better cookies. Pretty amazing, right?

My version of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe instructs you to bake the cookies at a lower temperature.

The original Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe instructs you to bake the cookies at 375℉. However, I found that doing so resulted in cookies that were far too crunchy on the bottom. I like some crisp/crunch in my cookies, but only around the edges. To me, the ideal cookie is still fudgy and soft in the middle. To achieve this texture, I lowered the baking temperature in my version of the recipe. Baking at a lower temperature makes the cookies spread out more (they stayed a little puffy at the original temperature), with perfectly crisp and crinkled edges.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ingredients and Substitutions

Now that I’ve convinced you to make my version of the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, here’s your shopping list for the recipe:

Shopping List for My Elevated Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

• nuts (preferably walnuts)
• all-purpose flour
• baking soda
• kosher salt
• dark OR light brown sugar
• unsalted butter
• large eggs
• pure vanila extract
• dark (between 60 to 70% cacao) chocolate (preferably from a high-quality chocolate bar)

And let’s talk about some of the key ingredients:

Nuts

The Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe uses 1 cup chopped nuts to make the cookies.

The Best Nuts To Use In The Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I tried the original Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe and my version of it with a variety of nuts: almonds, hazelnuts, macadamias, pistachios, pecans, and walnuts. My absolute favorite—and the one I recommend in my recipe below—were the cookies with walnuts.

Do I have to use walnuts in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe? Can I use another type of nut instead?

Yep, absolutely! You can use whatever nuts you prefer. Although walnuts were my favorite in the recipe, both hazelnuts and pecans came in at a close second.

Can I mix and match the walnuts with other nuts in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Yep, absolutely! You can use whatever mix of nuts you want, as long as the total volume equals 1 cup. If you want a classic flavor, I recommend pairing ½ cup pecans and ½ cup walnuts.

Do I even have to use nuts in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe?

Nope! I’ve made the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe and my version of it below without any nuts. It’s just as delicious (or, maybe even more so, since I usually prefer my chocolate chip cookies without any nuts, lol). So if you want to skip the nuts, do it! There’s no need to replace the nuts with anything. You can simply omit from the recipe. However, if you’re feeling wild, you can replace the 1 cup of nuts with an extra 1 cup of chopped chocolate! But let me warn you now—it’s a LOT of chocolate (and this is coming from one of the world’s biggest chocolate lovers).

Brown Sugar

The Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe uses ¾ cup tightly packed brown sugar to make the cookies.

Light versus Dark Brown Sugar

Brown sugar is granulated white sugar with a touch of molasses to give it its signature color and flavor. Because brown sugar contains molasses, it adds more moisture baked goods than granulated sugar otherwise would. Brown sugar is available in two varieties: light or dark. Dark brown sugar is my personal preference; because it contains more molasses, I find it to be more flavorful. However, you can use either in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe without altering its flavor too much.

Can I use coconut sugar instead of brown sugar?

Sadly, no. These cookies are leavened by baking soda. What does that mean, exactly? Leaveners are the ingredients in baking recipes that responsible for making the baked goods rise. They do so by reacting with other ingredients to create bubbles in batters and doughs. The reaction is usually activated when an acidic ingredient is mixed an alkaline ingredient, and/or the heat from the oven.

In this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, the baking soda reacts with brown sugar (which is slightly acidic, thanks to the molasses in it) to give the cookies their signature chewy texture. Unfortunately, coconut sugar does not have this same acidic quality and has a neutral pH level similar to that of granulated white sugar.

What does that mean for your Toll House chocolate chip cookies? If you use coconut sugar instead of brown sugar in this recipe, your cookies will likely be flatter and spread far more than mine. It might still be tasty, but I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

Dark Chocolate

My version of the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe uses 12 ounces of chopped dark chocolate to make the cookies.

The Best Chocolate To Use In The Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

For my version of the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, I used this Valrhona Caraïbe chocolate bar, which 66% cacao. In general, for this recipe, I recommend using a dark chocolate that is between 62% and 73% cacao. If you can’t find the Valrhona chocolate I recommended, other great alternatives include: Divine 70% Bittersweet Baking Bar, Ghirardelli Bittersweet 60% Cacao Chocolate OR Ghirardelli Extra Bittersweet 70% Cacao Chocolate, Guittard Semisweet Chocolate Baking Bar with 64% Cacao OR Guittard Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar with 70% Cacao, and finally, Trader Joe’s Pound Plus 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate. If you like your chocolate a little sweeter, I recommend using Divine 55% Semisweet Baking Bar, too. I also recommend mixing and matching chocolates with different percentages—like using a combo of Guittard’s Semisweet and Bittersweet chocolate bars together—for a more nuanced, layered cookie.

Bittersweet versus Semisweet versus Dark Chocolate

You’ll notice that all the chocolate I recommended above has specific cacao percentages. That’s because I typically avoid any chocolate that’s labeled “bittersweet” or “semisweet” without providing specific percentages. Why? In the United States, there’s no official benchmark for each designation. It’s up to manufacturers to determine how much cocoa to use, and percentages will vary greatly from brand to brand. Technically, both bittersweet and semisweet chocolate are considered dark chocolate… but you never know. Because of this, I advise you to ignore these bars and stick with the ones above that list their cocoa percentages fo you know what you’re getting.

Do I really need to chop chocolate for this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe? Can I use chocolate chunks or chocolate chips instead?

Honestly, yes. You can use chocolate chunks or chocolate chips in this recipe. Your cookies will still taste good. However, the whole point of this recipe is to elevate the original Toll House chocolate chip cookie… and a big part of that is using chopped chocolate. But you do you!

Can I use chocolate baking discs like Guittard wafers or Valrhona fèves in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe instead?

Absolutely! In fact, I actually recommend using them in almost all my cookie recipes. I like the way that they melt into puddles in cookies. You can see what I mean in this recipe for Vegan Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies and these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups. If using baking discs, there’s no need to chop them up! You can simply leave them as is to get that chocolate puddle effect throughout the cookie.

Can I use milk or white chocolate in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe instead?

Yes, with reservations. Either chopped milk or white chocolate works well and tastes good in this recipe. However, the cookies tend to stay a little puffy? To remedy this issue, after scooping the dough into cookie dough balls and before baking, give the cookies a gentle pat to squish them slightly. Doing so will help the cookies flatten out as they bake.

Can I use unsweetened (100% cacao) chocolate in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe instead?

No, please don’t. Unsweetened chocolate is 100% cacao, with no added sugar. On its own, its quite bitter and will make your cookies taste that way, too. Furthermore, sugar helps the cookies spread in the oven. Without the sugar from the chocolate, your cookies will likely stay rounded and puffy.

How To Make The Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe From Scratch

Here are the basic steps to make my elevated recipe for Toll House chocolate chip cookies from scratch:

First, prep your ingredients.

1. First, toast the nuts. (Work Time: 5 to 10 minutes)
   These Toll House chocolate chip cookies are made with toasted nuts. Like I said above, toasting the nuts releases oils that rejuvenates the nuts and makes them more flavorful! The easiest way to toast nuts is to spread them in a thin layer on a sheet pan and bake in the oven until fragrant and lightly toasted.
   
   
2. Next, prep the rest of the ingredients for the cookie dough. (Prep Time: 10 minutes)
   The best way to prep the ingredients for these cookies is to start by melting the butter. I recommend doing so in a small sauce pan on the stove top over low heat. As it melts slowly, chop up the chocolate and nuts. Then, prep the rest of the ingredients for the cookies. I like to measure out the flour, baking soda, and salt in a smaller bowl, then the sugars in the big bowl that I’ll eventually use for mixing the dough.

Then, make and chill the cookie dough.

1. Make the cookie dough. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   The cookie dough comes together really, really quickly. First, whisk together the dry ingredients. Then, whisk together the melted butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients, then the chocolate and nuts. That’s it!
   
   
2. Next, scoop the cookie dough into cookie dough balls and prep for chilling. (Work Time: 5 minutes)
   The fastest and easiest way to portion cookie dough is with a cookie dough scoop. Most cookie recipes work best with either a 3-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop (my personal fave for cookie recipes!) or a 4-Tablespoon cookie dough scoop. Use the scoop to portion the dough into cookie dough balls, placing the cookie dough balls on a lined sheet pan as you go.
   
   
3. Chill overnight.
   Once you’ve scooped the cookie dough onto the pan, loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate in the fridge overnight. Alternatively, you can freeze them for baking later—check out the FAQ below for more instructions on how to do so!

Finally, prep and bake the cookies.

1. Prep the cookies for baking. (Prep Time: <5 minutes)
   Before doing anything else, line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Take the cookies out of the refrigerator and place them on the sheet pans at least 3 inches apart. Then, position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 350℉. Leave the cookies out at room temperature while the oven preheats—doing so thaws the cookies slightly and will ensure that they spread properly when baked!
   
   
2. Bake the cookies. (Bake Time: 10 minutes)
   You need to bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges and bottoms of the cookies have set and feel firm to the touch. The centers should still look a little doughy—that’s totally normal, I promise! It’s the secret to perfectly chewy centers.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ

FAQ: Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Techniques

Do I have to toast the nuts in this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe?

In the first step of the recipe below, I instruct you to toast your nuts in the oven. Honestly, you can skip this step to save time, but your cookies likely won’t be as good and flavorful as mine. Why? Toasting nuts brings out more flavorful oils within the nuts themselves, leading to deeper flavors. You also improve their texture by adding snap and crunchiness. If you skip this step, you’ll be sacrificing flavor and texture in your cookies!

Many stores sell “roasted” nuts. These are technically nuts that have already been toasted. However, the longer they sit, the staler and less flavorful they become. So even if you have roasted nuts on hand, I suggest that you toast them anyway. You may want to toast for less time than what’s listed in the recipe below—I’d start checking for doneness at the 5 minute mark.

I’m way too impatient to wait for my cookies. Can I bake the Toll House chocolate chip cookies without chilling them first?

Yep, absolutely! To do so, leave the oven on after you finish toasting the nuts. And instead of scooping the cookies onto a single sheet pan, you can scoop them into two lined sheet pans. Make sure to leave at least 3 inches of space between each cookie. Bake as directed in the recipe.

FAQ: Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Results

Help! My cookie dough is SUPER greasy, and the dough feels too loose to scoop. What did I do wrong?

Don’t panic! We can fix this pretty easily. If your dough feels greasy and loose, it’s likely that you added in the butter while it was still too hot. To fix the issue, simply place the entire bowl of cookie dough in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Doing so will help the dough firm up. After 10 minutes, check the dough. If it still feels too loose, give it another 5 to 10 minutes in the fridge. However, I don’t recommend chilling it for longer—doing so will harden the cookie dough too much and make it really hard to scoop!

Help! My cookies spread way too much. They look much thinner and more brittle than yours. What did I do wrong?

Ah. First things first, scroll up and read the preceding question and come back. Now—did you skip the chilling period and bake the cookies right away, when the dough felt super greasy and loose? If so, that means that the butter was still too hot from being melted. Butter that’s too hot causes the cookies to spread out way too much in the oven, creating thin and brittle cookies.

Alternatively, if you chilled the cookie dough and your cookies still came out too thin and brittle, you may have an ingredients issue. It’s likely that you used way too much sugar by accidentally packing in too much in the measuring cup. See the next question below for more info on how to properly use measuring cups!

Help! My cookies came out too puffy. They didn’t sink after baking and don’t look flat like yours. What did I do wrong?

Okay, there are several things that could be responsible for overly puffy cookies:

You didn’t chop your nuts small enough.

First things first, let’s talk about nuts. Be sure to chop your nuts so that most of its pieces are no larger than ¼- to ½-inch pieces. When testing this recipe, I found that leaving larger, 1-inch pieces of nuts sometimes made the cookies too puffy and prohibited them from falling flat. It’s still plenty tasty. But if the puffy look bothers you, chop up your nuts into smaller pieces!

You didn’t measure your ingredients properly.

Next up—let’s talk about how you measure ingredients. If you used cup measures as opposed to weight measures, there’s a larger chance your cookies will come out puffy. Why? As weird as this sounds, there’s a LOT of variation in how people use measuring cups. Like, somebody who scoops ingredients into a measuring cup and packs it down as they go will have a cup that has way more ingredients than somebody who simply scoops the flour into a cup and levels it off as its filled. This is why bakers love measuring by weight with a digital scale instead—it’s much more reliable and completely eliminates any inconsistencies.

While these variations aren’t a big deal for many recipes, they can be a big deal for cookies. Specifically: if you pack a heavy cup of flour, your cookies will come out too puffy. They won’t fall and sink in the same way as mine did.

So the correct way to fill a measuring cup is this: set the measuring cup on a flat, level surface like your kitchen counter. Spoon the ingredient you’re measuring into the measuring cup until it forms a small mound within the cup. Use a butter knife or bench scraper to level off the mound so that the ingredient is flush with the top edges of the measuring cup. If you’re measuring a dry ingredient that has a tendency to clump or get packed down (like flour, confectioners’ sugar, or cocoa powder), give them a quick whisk in their bags or containers first before scooping into the measuring cup.

You didn’t let the cookie dough thaw slightly before baking.

In the recipe below, I instruct you to place the chilled cookie dough balls on lined sheet pans, THEN preheat the oven. It usually takes 10 to 15 minutes to preheat an oven. During this time, the cookie dough balls will thaw slightly and start to come to room temperature—this is a good thing! If you bake them straight from the fridge while they’re still cold, the cookies tend to stay puffy and don’t sink as much. However, this slight thawing period during the oven preheating process ensures that the cookies will fall flat when baked.

FAQ: Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Storage

How To Store Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

After baking, the cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Can you freeze Toll House chocolate chip cookies?

Yes! You can freeze these elevated Toll House chocolate chip cookies in the following ways:

1. Freeze the UNBAKED Toll House chocolate chip cookies.
   Follow the recipe instructions to make the cookie dough and scoop them out into cookie dough balls. Place the cookie dough balls in a small sheet pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1 hour, or until the cookie dough balls are frozen solid. Transfer the cookie dough balls to a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 1 year.
   
   To bake the frozen cookie dough balls, follow the recipe’s instructions for preheating the oven and arranging the cookie dough balls on a sheet pan. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still gooey.
   
   
2. Freeze the BAKED Toll House chocolate chip cookies.
   Individually wrap any leftover chocolate chip cookies in two layers of plastic wrap, then a layer of aluminum foil. The aluminum foil will prevent the cookies from absorbing any other flavors or odors in the freezer. When ready to serve, transfer to the refrigerator to chill overnight. Rewarm in the microwave or in the oven at 350°F for 5 minutes before serving.

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This post was last updated on 9/9/2020.