Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I tested five chocolate chip cookie recipes to bring you what I consider to be far and away the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in existence. 

In an exhaustive search to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie - the sole recipe I will use from now on and pass down through the generations -  I made sure to test out the most popular recipes I could find.  Candidates for tastiest chocolate chipper included:

•  Nestle Toll House Cookie Recipe
•  NYTimes Chocolate Chip Cookies
•  David Lebovitz's Chocolate Chip Cookies
•  Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cook's Illustrated
•  Allrecipe's Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

The winning cookies taste like they came from a high-end bakery, I'm not even kidding you. But you can make them yourself - it's easy!

I tell you this, Instructables fans, I hesitated to share the results of this experiment with you. It is now one of the most potent tools in my recipe belt, and I have secretly entertained fantasies of launching my own bakery, based on the inspiration provided by this recipe alone. But alas, I already have an awesome job here at Instructables HQ, and it would be criminal of me to keep this secret to myself.

If you follow this recipe, you'll soon be known wide and far for your amazing chocolate chip cookie skills, and will be called upon to provide them at every function. I recommend making up a huge batch and storing them in the freezer. What could be better than surprising your guests with freshly-baked, bakery-quality chocolate chip cookies in fifteen minutes?

Nothing. That's what.

Step 1: Ingredients

If you have a scale, the whole recipe is made easier by measuring the weights of your ingredients.  If you don't have a scale, you should get one!  :)

And here I present to you, David Lebovitz's recipe, the winningest cookie in the world (or at least my kitchen):

• 2 1/2 cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (8 ounces/225 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup (215 g) packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups (about 225 g) nuts, toasted and chopped
• 14 ounces (400 g) bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• Sea salt for sprinkling on top (what??)

Comments

[djost007]

Just tried this, and OMG!!!!! These are, by far, the BEST Chocolate Chip cookies I have ever made (in 30 years of baking cookies), and perhaps ever tasted. Well done!

[djost007]

Still thinking about how GOOD these cookies were. Luckily, I snapped some pics to remind me of them...OK..., I can't take it anymore! I'm going to be starting another batch tomorrow.

BTW, I have noticed that some folks have had a few challenges making this recipe. Persevere! They ARE worth it!!

Cheers,

DJ

[danstax]

Wow, I tried to make these, and what a disappointment. I did everything like the recipe with the following exceptions. I didn't have enough all-purpose flour, so I mixed cake flour (no gluten) and bread flour (lots of gluten). I didn't have baking soda, but baking powder is pretty close, isn't it? I had a packet of salt from Wendy's, must be about 1/8 tsp. I was low on butter, so I used olive oil and lard, mixed. Had dark brown sugar, so I mixed it with some Splenda to lighten it up. Granulated sugar? No, but some really old confectioner's sugar that was grainy. The vanilla extract was dried up, but I had some Kroger brand "Very Vanilla Ice Cream" that looked good. The eggs I had must have been in a warm room, or they might have been lightly boiled once. They seemed semi-solid. I was surprise to find I did have some nuts I didn't remember buying. They were in a bottom drawer for some reason in a bed of little newspaper pieces and what looked like little licorice sprinkles. They cleaned up okay. I really didn't want to spend a lot of money on fancy chocolate, so I chopped some chocolate bunnies I had left over from Easter. (minus the ears, of course). I didn't have any sea salt, either, but I had bath salts, and salt is salt, and they both got something to do with water, right? I mixed it just like you said, only I don't have a stand mixer, so I threw it all in a blender on puree for 20 minutes. You were right, I couldn't wait 24 hours, so I stuck it in the freezer for 2.4 hours. I feel that ratio is just about correct. I didn't want a bunch of little cookies, I wanted a big one like from the mall, so I put the dough in a frying pan, and since it was so big, I figured it needed more heat to bake evenly, so I set the oven at 450. After 5 minutes, I turned the frying pan around, just like you said. After 10 minutes, I took my giant cookie out of the oven. This was a nasty, gooey, yet burned, soapy tasting mess!!! What I want to know, is, would using parchment paper have made a difference?

Okay, truth is I made them according to directions, they are wonderful, and everyone who has tried them has loved them. The sea salt is da bomb! Thanks for the recipe.

[scoochmaroo]

Your problem was obviously the parchment.

[grue]

bath salt? i don't think it's NaCl

[smodawell]

I think this is the funniest thing I have read in a long time.... sad thing is... I know people like this! LOL

[SuzanneDevlin]

Best laugh I've had in a long time. Reminds me of the time I had company for dinner back in the 70's and made stuffed (twice baked) potatoes. I use chedder cheese, sour cream, chopped green chile, chopped onions, parsley, salt and pepper and refill the potatoes and pile high then top with more grated cheese and a bit of paprika for color. My friend went crazy about them and asked for the recipe. Months later she invited us over for dinner and served "my potatoes".....or so she said. They were flat and butt ugly. She complained that they didn't taste as good as mine. I asked her how she made them. Well she said, "I left out the sour cream and green chile because I don't like sour cream and used milk instead and I didn't have any green chile."

If you love what was served to you, why would you change the recipe? Makes no sense. You shouldn't even post here unless you've already tried the original recipe.........then........improved on it.

The note above is hysterical and reminds me of my dear old friend, Lorene, the tranplante Texan. Other wise, she was a great cook.

[danstax]

Thanks, this (the original) recipe is great, definitely worth making a big batch, everyone loves them!

[cooknmom]

OMG My eyes kept getting bigger as I was reading on & finally when I read you used bath salts I was really wondering how you lived,but caught onto the joke & thanks for the laugh..it was very funny!!!

[schumi23]

hehe at the beginning, i didn't notice you were joking, and i figured the reason it was bad was cause you used baking powder instead of soda :) hehe, but then i read the comments, and then i read that last sentence, and then i read the entire paragraph :) great laugh :) o, and great recipe, I'm about to try it out :)

[MrFlynn]

LAWL

[tanps]

I don't normally write a comment. But for this reciepe i should. It is AMAZING GOOD!!...I used only brown sugar and less, i don't like it to be too sweet, and i add a little bit of instant coffee to have it a bit bitter. The sea salt make it a WOW for everyone. Thanks for the good share!!

[jimdonald]

I made the logs last night (and yes, I managed to go 24 hours without wanting to eat them!) and baked my first batch a couple of hours ago. Hands down the best chocolate chip recipe ever! I sat wondering between the creating process yesterday and the baking today how the hell does sea salt work in this? Answer: It does. Next time someone says "You know what sounds stupid in a chocolate chip recipe? Sea salt.", go up and smack them upside the head. The salt definitely bumps the flavor up way more than a notch.

The instructions were great and easy to follow. The end result is I think I'll be making these all of the time! Thanks for sharing this!

[TheEdibleCow]

Awesome recipe! Thanks for sharing it! I was just wondering how many cookies does this recipe make? And also would I be able to half this recipe?

[sfox9]

I'm planning to make these for Thanksgiving. I was wondering, though, do I use coarse or fine sea salt? And I couldn't find bittersweet chocolate, should I use semi-sweet or unsweetened? Thanks so much, can't wait to try these!

[scoochmaroo]

The sea salt is up to you. I just bought some that's "coarse" and it's like rocks! Much bigger than I'd seen before. Either way, just have a light touch with it. Use the semi-sweet chocolate, since unsweetened would be too bitter.

[hairy mcleary]

THOROUGHLY disappointed. I followed the recipe exactly, and they came out light and fluffy, like cookie cakes (and about 4cm high!). I found the actual cookie bit between the delicious chocolate rather tasteless and would rather put a little extra salt in the dough than on top.
I'm really stumped as to how they got so cakey. Any ideas??

[MKosterich]

I have a pretty awesome cookie recipe as well... I think it is time for a bake off!

[bowow0807]

I had to healthy mine up one time, because i didn't have anymore APF all I had was whole wheat flour. But the cookies still tasted delicious!

[manadhon]

I'll have to tell my mom about this.
She works at a nestle toll house cafe.

[Bleu Eyes]

I made these cookies a few nights ago, and they were DELICIOUS!!!!!! Thank you for posting this instructible, I love cookies, and these were amazing:) Well done.

[Dan39]

uhhh just finished mixing it all and its kindy too mushy to roll into logs. im putting it in fridge for like 10 minutes, see if it gets a lil hardy so i can roll into logs ooo wait looks like you put some flour down on table? that may help like i said, i never cook lol

[scoochmaroo]

It might be too warm where you are, or the dough may be overworked. You did the right thing! Yeah, I added flour to my marble counter tops to keep the dough from sticking while I rolled the. Good luck, I have my fingers crossed for you!

[Dan39]

it was like maybe 75-76 degrees F in kitchen.

yea we were mixing for like a half hour at least with electric mixer. like i said, im only 20, i never bake, so this all takes me forever to do lol.

i baked 1 log. the cookies flattened out a good bit... maybe i used 2 too large eggs or something?

well it looks like we put too much chocolate in. i used the 14 ounces like in the recipe, but when i put it into mix i scraped it off cutting board, and all the like tiny chocolate pieces and chocolate dust went it, maybe next time ill only put in the chip sized pieces...

[jwilliamsen]

Be sure that you don't *melt* the butter - it should be soft and at room temperature, but not melted - this makes a big difference. I know, because I used to do that - lol. It also sounds like you might have overworked the dough a bit - 30 minutes of mixer time sounds a tad excessive ;) As with all things, cooking requires practice, too.

[MrFlynn]

oops.......no melting the butter

[D.I.Y._OR_DIE]

I have sliced the logs into discs as the recipe commands and i am currently preheating my oven. Then, to my terror, I wonder. Should I press the discs so that they spread out or not?

[MrFlynn]

NO

[imbignate]

how many cookies does this recipe make?

[MrFlynn]

A lot!
(About 25-45 depending on how big you make them)

[Mauigerbil]

I have no pecans... Would peanuts work?

[MrFlynn]

Probably not. They're good without nuts too, though.

[aclark22]

These are amazing!!! I used butter flavored crisco, semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips and omitted the nuts. I tried some with vanilla sea salt sprinkled on top and some without, and I enjoyed both. They are super sweet, so the salt helped neutralize that sweetness. I agree that these truly are the best! Thanks for sharing this recipe and the tips.

[TheCritic]

Wow, This is something that I must try soon. Sounds fantastic. I am not much for sweets so it is hard to impress me with them. but I am excited to try this soon. Not only for me but my family cause they love sweets.
Thanks for posting this.

[lola9724]

I did EXACTLY as you said and did a tester batch before waiting 36 hours just to try how it would taste like but the cookies were really really reallly sweet.. i don't understand as i followed 1 cup (215 g) packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar but it still was ridiculously sweet. Are the cookies supposed to be like this? :O

[valkgurl]

I haven't tried these yet but they are on my "Over the Weekend" list---but an amazing addition to ANY Choc Chip Cookie recipe is 1/4 CUP of PURE MAPLE SYRUP.

Not the ":Mrs. Butterworths" fakey stuff but the REAL DEAL. I got this from an old Yankee Magazine recipe which is still very very good but have stolen the idea for other recipes.

Add this to the softened butter and eggs mixture---it may make the mix look funky or curdled but that is OK. It may also look a bit "seperated"--that is ALSO OK. Leftover syrup from Sunday breakfast or other meal is fine---if you don't want to pour your syrup back into the jug save it for this. If it is a bit shy of 1/4 cup that is OK too.

This will help with the liquid absorbtion in the fridge storage stage and also help get the crispy outside but gooey melty inside and add a subtle but delish flavor all it's own. You will NOT get the full-on maple taste you get from say poaching something in syrup; just a note of Mmmmmmmm.....What WAS that in there?

If you don't do the fridge step you should add a bit more flour to sop up some of the liquid you added with the syrup. Maybe a 1/2 cup say.

[Kringlur]

I made these and had a problem. The cookies barely spread at all. I followed all of the instructions, tried 1/4ths of the batch without refrigerating and the rest normally. They also didn't get the crackle texture like in other people's photos.

The only difference is I used plain, white wheat flour instead of "all-purpose flour" (and I don't know the difference between them) and I didn't have enough chocolate and nuts so there were less of those.

[ithompson3]

can i make this with semi-sweet chocolate?

[jimbom]

I wondered this myself as I was shopping for ingredients and could only find semi-sweet chocolate chips where I was shopping. I used those instead and I think they turned out pretty well.

According to what I am reading on the internet, the difference between semi-sweet and bittersweet is the cacao content (with semi-sweet being the sweeter of the two). I would guess that bittersweet would probably have made for an even more intense chocolate taste, but again, as I said, I used semi-sweet and it turned out fine for me.

[jimbom]

Great recipe! I'm not the best cook in the world, but these cookies seem to have turned out really good. The sea salt was an excellent suggestion.

As I have been making these cookies, I just figured out that the cookies will be fairly soft when they come out, and then as they cool on a wire rack they get a little firmer. I didn't realize that and left my first cookies in for 15 mins instead of 10 trying to firm them up. Although the cookies were still good, they are definitely crunchier than the later batches where I stayed closer to 10 mins.