Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

This is my favorite Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe that is quick to make in one bowl, without a mixer or refrigeration. A vintage Toll House Classic (with a few minor improvements!)

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Ingredients

Sugar, a large egg, all purpose flour, baking soda, light brown sugar, salt, softened or melted butter and/or margarine, and chocolate chips.

Then & Now

I've been making chocolate chip cookies this way since the 1990's. I tore a recipe page out of a Nestle Tollhouse booklet, and stuck it in my recipe box. This was a different recipe than is currently on the back of the chocolate chips package. I've always loved this recipe because it's so easy. One Bowl. One Spoon. To me, the easiest method is the preferred method!

I figured out pretty quickly that ALL BUTTER chocolate chip cookies are too greasy for me. With all the butter, they got so hard the next day. I like a chewy center. The recipe gives you the option of using softened butter or margarine, So I usually use half and half. As you can see I noted that I would use only 6 Tbs. of margarine along with 1 stick of butter.

I usually start the recipe with the melted butter or margarine in the mixing bowl and it's one less dish to wash.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I played around with it many times and found out a few things.

• Perfect Chocolate chip cookies aren't rocket science - No weird ingredients needed!
• An expensive Vanilla extract made no difference in the taste. So why use it?
• You can make this recipe with one large bowl, and one spoon. No more, no less.
• The recipe is pretty fail-proof. The dry ingredients don't have to be mixed or sifted separately.

Then and Again

I originally published this post in June of 2013 and called it Heavenly Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was funny because my photography skills weren't so hot back then and when the picture came out, it looked like the cookies were sitting in the clouds.

So they would be, "Heavenly Chocolate Chip Cookies." 🙂 It still makes me laugh. I don't know how that happened but the name fit.

Crispy or Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies?

How about both? Crispy on the edges and soft and dense on the center.

The reason I started using part margarine is that even though the all-butter recipes are divine when they first come out of the oven, by the next day they are too firm. A softer center is delicious along with crispy edges.

The recipe on the back of the Tollhouse is very similar. It uses all butter and more of it. It also has more eggs and more salt. Includes Vanilla extract. I made two batches once and included extract in one and not the other. You could not taste the difference between having it and not having it. So I don't waste my good vanilla for CCC's.

The recipe states simply "Brown Sugar" but my recipe requires LIGHT brown sugar. There is a difference in the way the cookies turn out whether you use light or dark brown sugar. It's not the same product.

The Tollhouse package recipe also instructs you to use a mixer.

No sifting, no hand-mixer...Just put all of the ingredients in the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. I use no fancy flour, and no waiting by the freezer.

The only tools are 1) A cookie scoop to make the Tablespoons of dough balls 2) and a baking mat OR Parchment paper (not waxed paper). If you don't have either of those, just put it right on the ungreased cookie sheet.

The cookie scoop isn't REALLY necessary to make these Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies but it will make all of your cookies the same resulting in a batch of cookies uniform in size.

However, there is a disadvantage to making cookies with a scoop. They looked too perfect and I was once accused of purchasing cookies at the grocery store and pretending I made them!

Can you believe that?! I would never do such a thing. That would be too much work. LOL

CHOCOLATE: I like semisweet chocolate chips for Chocolate Chip Cookies. The mini-chips are my favorite so there are little bits of chocolate balanced out by the dough. Ohhh, Dove dark chocolate bars chopped up into chocolate chunks. Anything goes! What do you like? Put it in there! If milk chocolate chips are your thing, go for it. Maybe even toss in some peanut butter chips with your chocolate.

I like equal parts chocolate chips, equal part cookie. But some people like chunks of chocolate with just cookie batter holding it all together. You decide how much chocolate you like! 1 to 2 cups. I only use ¾ cup.

If you love dark chocolate, check out my recipe for Special Dark Chocolate No Bake Cookies!

In my photos here, I only use ¾ cup chocolate chips. But add as much chips as you like.

Extra! Extra!

*Remember that cookies continue to bake on the sheet from the bottom up for about 2 minutes after you pull them from the oven, so you might want to pull them out right before you think they are golden.

They need to cool and set for 15 minutes before you remove them from the baking sheet. Then to the wire rack for additional cooling.

Another note! Oven temperatures vary so use your best judgment for your oven. I've made these in one oven that took 8 minutes and another that took 12 minutes.