The Nestle Toll House Cookie Recipe is the first recipe many of us ever made, often with our mothers or grandmothers. This classic chocolate chip cookie recipe is one that has been enjoyed for decades.
While I’ve always loved this recipe, I’ve found a few simple tweaks make it so more delicious! Read on for my easy tips for making Nestle Toll House cookies – even better!
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Reasons To Make This Recipe
- This recipe creates an absolutely delicious chocolate chip cookie.
- Readers here, as well as on Pinterest and Instagram, rave about the results. May say they are the best cookies they’ve ever made!
- You are never fully satisfied with the results you get when you follow the traditional Toll House recipe.
- While you like the flavor of Nestle Toll House Cookies, you long for cookies that aren’t quite so flat.
Toll House Cookie Recipe
Changing the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe feels almost like baker’s blasphemy. They say don’t fix what’s not broken–and Toll House Cookies always come out tasting great.
However, one of my favorite things about baking the same recipes for years is all the little adaptions I come up with over time. If you’re like me (and my mother and her mother before here) you do the same.
I’m excited to share with you MY version of the world’s most famous chocolate chip cookie recipe!
More Flour
Whenever I’d bake the Nestle cookie recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag, I’d end up adding a couple of spoonfuls more flour to the dough to get it the right consistency. This recipe uses slightly more flour than the original in comparison to the amount of butter in the recipe.
With the original Nestle Toll House Cookie recipe, I’ve found the cookies often spread quite a bit. I’ve also found that many times the chocolate chips sink to the bottom of the cookie. The photos below help illustrate this.
Disclaimer: If you like the flat, often greasy cookie that the original recipe makes, may I suggest sticking with that. This is for the people who aren’t satisfied with that.
Less Butter
In this recipe, it turns out less is more! Reducing the butter helps prevent the cookie from spreading so flat. Don’t worry, it’s still got that delicious, buttery cookie taste!
Chilled Dough
Chilling the cookie dough before baking the cookies helps alleviate both problems. I added a half a teaspoon more baking soda to the dough so the cookies spread just the right amount during baking.
Yes, dough chilling can take time and planning. That said, even just one hour in the fridge can make a difference in the outcome of your cookies.
With a few very simple ingredient changes, and some dough chilling, I think these cookies go from good to GREAT.
These cookies are soft and chewy with sweet chocolate chips in every bite. Serve them with an ice cold glass of milk to make the kid in everyone extra happy.
Toll House Chocolate Chips Cookies are the first thing many of us learn to bake for a good reason: they’re so easy and virtually fool-proof. The only equipment you need is a mixing bowl, a spoon and a cookie sheet.
I can’t think of a single occasion when a batch of fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies wouldn’t be welcome. This is the perfect cookie recipe to share with friends over a cup of coffee or to tuck into a school lunch box.
The ingredients in my adaption are the same as the original.
Ingredients At A Glance
Amounts and full instructions found below in recipe card
- Flour – DO NOT OVER MEASURE! If you do, your dough will be too dry. Sift, then gently spoon into measuring cup, and level. If you measure by scooping your flour, it will be too much!
- Baking Soda – Make sure you use soda, not powder.
- Salt
- Butter – Salted or unsalted, I don’t notice much difference so use what’s on hand.
- Brown Sugar – Dark or light will work.
- Granulated Sugar
- Eggs – Large!
- Vanilla – Pure Vanilla Extract if possible.
- Chocolate Chips – While I prefer dark or semi-sweet, milk works too!
While the original recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag includes nuts as an optional ingredient, I prefer my chocolate chip cookies without nuts. If you enjoy nuts in your cookies, chopped walnuts or pecans would be a nice addition!
How To Make Nestle Toll House Cookies
Full printable recipe below in recipe card
Nestle Chocolate Chip Cookies are nothing fancy and that’s part of their appeal. Pretty Sugar Cookies, festive Gingerbread Man Cookies and dainty Orange Slice Cookies all have their time and place but sometimes you just want the simple pleasure of a truly good chocolate chip cookie.
If you’ve been making the Toll House Cookie recipe for years, I can’t wait for you to try my “new and improved” adaptation and let me know what you think!
Looking for more great cookie recipes? Give these a try next.
Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies are ideal for the crunchy cookie lovers in your life. Chocolate Chip Pudding Cookies stay soft even days later–and my recipe doesn’t even require pudding mix! Neiman Marcus Cookies come with a fun backstory and a well-deserved reputation. If you’re an oatmeal fan like I am, don’t miss my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies! Short on time? You can’t go wrong with these thick and chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. How about Oreos and Chocolate Chip Cookies all in one? My Oreo Stuffed Cookies do just that! For another famous recipe, try the Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. Love a gourmet bakery cookie? Try my Crumbl Cookie Recipe. I’ve rounded up all of my favorite chocolate chip cookies in my Best Chocolate Chip Cookies post, don’t miss it!
Nestle Toll House Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups plus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, softened salted or unsalted is fine
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups Nestle Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips other chips can be used
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer beat together butter, sugars and vanilla until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
- Add in half the flour, along with all the baking soda and salt. Mix by hand to combine, then add remaining flour and chocolate chips.
- If possible, cover and chill the dough for at least one hour, but not more than 24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Scoop dough into rounded tablespoons and place onto an ungreased baking sheet, leaving approximately 2 inches of space between cookies. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until starting to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets, on wire cooling racks, for two minutes. Then transfer cookies to wire cooling racks with a spatula to allow to cool completely. Store tightly covered.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Katherine says
So I thought I would make this recipe and jumped right to the recipe and didn’t read anything. When I make cookies I always double it. So after I made it I looked back at what you wrote about less butter. NO….I put 4 sticks of butter and not 2. I then had to yet double it again. Now they taste great but the are flat, flat as a pancake. Lesson learned READ instead of assuming.
Sara says
My cookies didn’t turn out to look this good. Also they were very thin and some seemed undercooked from the middle so had to bake them for 2-3 mins more. What could I have done wrong ? Followed the exact instructions. But they still taste very good. I’m just concerned about the looks
Christi Johnstone says
Sara, well I’m glad to hear they taste great! My first thought is your oven temperature might be off. Do you have an oven thermometer? I had an oven in the past that could run hot (or cold, it was inconsistent) and I was running into the same issues with my cookies. If you don’t have one, look into a very inexpensive oven thermometer and check your temp. Also, just because a few other people have made this mistake, I want to verify that you are only using 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick). 1 cup (2 sticks) is such a norm that a few people missed that it was just 1/2 cup.
Nancy says
Is it okay to use the light brown sugar instead of dark? Does it make a huge difference? Also, if I use salted butter, is it best to reduce the salt or just keep it the same?
Thanks! (:
Christi Johnstone says
I prefer dark personally because I like that more caramely taste, but that is just a matter of taste, using light won’t change how the recipe works in any way. Same goes for the butter, if you are salt averse then sure, reduce it. Personally I actually double the salt listed in the recipe because I LOVE the sweet salt balance and think most cookies aren’t salty enough, but I have very salty tastes.
Lindsay says
All I have is milk chocolate chips… can I use them instead of the semi sweet chocolate chips or no?
Christi Johnstone says
Lindsay, the type of chocolate chips is always a matter of taste, it won’t change the structure of the recipe or baked good. I don’t love milk chocolate, so I always recommend semi-sweet or dark, but if you like milk chocolate, than absolutely!
Tara says
Hi! 48 cookies is lots for 2 of us. Should I still bake all and freeze the cookies or is it better to freeze the unused dough? What are your thought?
Christi Johnstone says
Honestly either one. If you freeze the cookies, you are always minutes away from cookies, if you freeze them, you will just have to plan time for baking. But either will work.
Sarah says
These are absolutely delicious! My mom always made the Tollhouse recipe when I was growing up but the past few years I haven’t enjoyed how flat they’ve turned out and have moved to other recipes. This has all the flavor of the original, but with a thick, chewy consistency. I made them a lot bigger (24 instead of 48) and baked them for 11 mins. Will be making again!
Pixie says
Hello. So I am new to baking and made the dough, placed it in the refrigerator with the intent of baking within 24 hours, but got called into work and now the dough has been in the refrigerator for 3 days. Can I still bake them? Is the dough still good? Sorry, newbie here.
Christi Johnstone says
Pixie, so I am kind of over the top about food safety, thus for me, I would not use it. It’s also likely to have dried out, which is going to impact how the cookies turn out. Sorry!
Delia says
I prepare lots of batches for my family and friends and never had an issue with dough being in the fridge over 24 hours. Also I usually wait 12 to 24 hours before I bake to allow the vanilla to soak in. This also allows for the cookies not to spread and come out just right. Never flat.
Diane says
How is this recipe more flour than the original if this one uses 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons and the original calls for 2 1/4 cups? Thanks!
Christi Johnstone says
Diane, the flour to butter ratio is different as this recipe uses half the butter that the traditional recipe does.
Lisa says
I think you mean 1 cup(2 sticks) of butter not a half?
Christi Johnstone says
Lisa, it’s 1/2 cup, as written. As mentioned in the post, this recipe calls for less butter. You will also note a photo that helps illustrate the difference.
Darlene says
I have been wanting toll house cookies but don’t like how they turn out anymore. I can’t wait to try this. Thank you for recipe.