Toll House chocolate chip cookies are the tried and true soft and buttery chocolate chip cookie. The original recipe of Toll House Inn, they come out perfectly every time and have gooey real chocolate morsels in every bite.
The first batch of cookies I ever made as a child was the Toll House recipe. They made the perfect after-dinner dessert and I always managed to sneak a few in my school lunch when there were leftovers. Since then, my baking has come a long way, but I always come back to the original Nestlé, just like my mom does.
If you want to kick this recipe up a notch – try adding a marshmallow topping similar to a S’more using our Smookies recipe. You can use this Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe as the base and follow the rest of the steps to make it a S’more cookie! You can also use this base for our chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecakes or for the bottom layer in our Slutty Brownies.
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🍪 Ingredients:
These Toll house cookies contain a number of basic ingredients, and all of them are easy to find at your local grocery store. Let’s talk about the most important ingredients.
- all-purpose flour – see the notes above if you are baking at a higher elevation. To properly measure flour, stir to loosen the flour, then spoon it lightly into a measuring cup and swipe the cup level with a knife. Too much flour in a recipe can make the cookies dry and tough.
- unsalted butter – soften at room temperature; the butter should indent when you press gently with the pad of your finger. Cold butter will not indent. Overly soft butter will collapse under gentle pressure. There is a lot of hype in recent years that many brands of butter have more water in them and result in flatter cookies. Use a high quality butter. Unsalted has less water than salted butter.
Optional Garnish:
Add additional chocolate chips on top just before they come out of the oven for aesthetics and a more chocolatey flavor.
For a complete list of ingredients and their measurements, please refer to the printable recipe card 📋 at the bottom of the post.
Variations and Substitutions:
- Pan Size: to turn this chocolate chip cookie recipe into bars, add the dough to a greased 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Chocolate chunk cookies – use a semisweet chocolate bar chopped into chunks instead of semisweet chocolate chips.
- Slice and bake cookies – to make the nestle toll house chocolate chip cookie dough ahead of time and bake as needed, prepare the dough according to the instructions below. Divide it in half, then roll into a log and wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper and chill until it’s firm. Cut the dough off into ½-inch pieces and bake for 8-10 minutes. The dough will keep for 7 days in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer.
- Nuts – if desired, add a cup of chopped pecans, walnuts, or macadamia nuts when folding in the chocolate chips.
- High altitude – those living up the mountain should use 2.5 cups of flour and add a couple of teaspoons of water. Use ⅔ cup of both sugars.
- Use brown butter instead of the regular butter. Follow the recipe for browning butter, then chill in the refrigerator until it’s the same texture as softened butter. Or store in the refrigerator and then set it out to soften when you’re ready to make the cookies.
- Air fryer – use this recipe on my other site to make perfect air fryer chocolate chip cookies.
🔪 Instructions:
PREP: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Step 1: Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl.
Step 2: In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla until fluffy. Mix 1-2 minutes on high speed.
Step 3: Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one.
Step 4: Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, a heaping spoonful at a time.
Pro Tip: Leave enough room on your baking sheet so the cookies can spread out.
Step 5: Fold in the chocolate chips.
Step 6: Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop and place each cookie dough ball onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Step 7: Bake until golden brown. Cool on the cookie sheets for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
SERVE: Enjoy the best cookies with a cold glass of milk!
Recipe Tips for Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Don’t over-mix the cookie dough once you have added the dry ingredients.
- This recipe makes 32 cookies when using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop.
- Room-temperature ingredients are much easier to mix. The butter needs to be softened at room temperature in order to cream properly with the sugars.
- Take the cookies out of the oven sooner rather than later so they are soft and chewy. They will bake a little more while cooling.
- The classic Tollhouse recipe does not require chilling. In fact, I have experimented with chilling or not chilling the dough, creaming the butter and sugar for less time and more time, baking on parchment lined/greased/ungreased baking pans. I found that none of these things make any noticeable difference in the texture or spread of these cookies, leading me to believe that it is the specific quantity of ingredients that results in the classic Toll house chocolate chip cookie.
Fun Fact
Ruth Wakefield was the first one to create classic chocolate chip cookies, and it was by accident! She added milk chocolate morsels to her cookies, expecting them to melt while baking. When they didn’t, it became the most popular cookie today!
Recipe FAQs
Keep leftover baked cookies in an airtight container or bag on the counter for up to 5 days.
Be sure that your baking soda has not expired and that your oven isn’t cooking too hot. Ensure you’re using a high quality unsalted butter – salted butter and some brands have a higher water content and may contribute to flat cookies. Creaming the butter and sugars together properly is also necessary to prevent flat cookies.
Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet. Using non-stick spray, baking mats, and parchment paper can change the way they bake and cause them to spread more.
More Irresistable Cookie Recipes
If you try these Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups 12-ounce package NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
- 1 cup chopped nuts Optional. If omitting, add 1 to 2 Tbsp. of all-purpose flour.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F
- Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
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Notes
- Don’t over-mix the cookie dough once you have added the dry ingredients.
- This recipe makes 32 cookies when using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop.
- Room-temperature ingredients are much easier to mix. The butter needs to be softened at room temperature in order to cream properly with the sugars.
- Take the cookies out of the oven sooner rather than later so they are soft and chewy. They will bake a little more while cooling.
- The classic Tollhouse recipe does not require chilling. In fact, I have experimented with chilling or not chilling the dough, creaming the butter and sugar for less time and more time, baking on parchment lined/greased/ungreased baking pans. I found that none of these things make any noticeable difference in the texture or spread of these cookies, leading me to believe that it is the specific quantity of ingredients that results in the classic Toll house chocolate chip cookie.
Increase flour to 2 ½ cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to ⅔ cup each. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookies for 17 to 19 minutes.
Nutrition
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