Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
The recipe that started it all: a butter, white sugar and brown sugar drop cookie loaded with semisweet chips and walnuts, baked hot and fast until just golden.
Ruth Graves Wakefield ran the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, with her husband, Kenneth. Wikipedia says she created the cookie in the 1930s (sources differ on the year) and that it was first printed in her 1938 cookbook "Toll House Tried and True Recipes" as "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies"; she broke a Nestlé semisweet bar into pieces with an ice pick and stirred them into a brown sugar dough. The famous version, that she ran out of nuts or expected the chocolate to melt and discovered the chip by accident, is DISPUTED: Wikipedia notes that food writers Stella Parks, Carolyn Wyman and Tim Miller call the accident stories improbable given her home economics training, and Wakefield herself said in the 1970s that she was varying a thin butterscotch nut cookie her guests liked. In March 1939 she agreed to let the recipe appear on Nestlé chocolate wrappers, and Nestlé began selling chocolate "morsels" in 1940. Massachusetts made the chocolate chip cookie its official state cookie in 1997 (Wikipedia).
🗳️ Chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin? Vote: Chocolate chip vs Oatmeal raisin →
📖 What's wrong with this picture?: Is the Black and White Cookie From New York City or Utica? → 📖 Origin story: Was the Chocolate Chip Cookie an Accident? Ruth Wakefield's Story →
Why it works the kitchen science
Two sugars
White sugar spreads and crisps the edges, while brown sugar's molasses keeps the centers soft and gives the caramel flavor.
A hot oven and small scoops
375°F sets the outside quickly so a tablespoon of dough bakes in about 10 minutes with crisp edges and a soft middle.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 375°F. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
- Step 2
Beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Step 3
Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
- Step 4
Gradually beat in the flour mixture, then stir in the chips and walnuts.
- Step 5
Drop rounded tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Step 6
Bake 9 to 11 minutes, until golden brown at the edges and just set in the middle.
- Step 7
Cool 2 minutes on the sheet, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Serves 30 (2 cookies each) · about 60 cookies · 55 min total
Dry
- 2 1/4 cups (270 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
Dough
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 227 g) butter, softened
- 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (160 g) packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Mix-ins
- 2 cups (one 12-oz bag, 340 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup (113 g) chopped walnuts (optional; without nuts, add 1 to 2 tbsp more flour)
Method
- Heat the oven to 375°F. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
- Beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each.
- Gradually beat in the flour mixture, then stir in the chips and walnuts.
- Drop rounded tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake 9 to 11 minutes, until golden brown at the edges and just set in the middle.
- Cool 2 minutes on the sheet, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Adapted from Nestlé's "Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies," the recipe printed on the morsels bag and published at verybestbaking.com, as written (5 dozen; we call a serving 2 cookies). Nestlé's page refused our direct requests (403); the ingredient list, 375°F oven, 9 to 11 minute bake and 5 dozen yield were confirmed through search results quoting it, and the recipe is reprinted at The Daily Meal. Gram weights are ours, from King Arthur's weight chart. Nestlé lists the nuts as optional; we keep walnuts in and count them. verybestbaking.com. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Pull them when the centers still look a little underdone; they firm up on the hot sheet during the 2 minute rest.
- Cool the baking sheets between batches; dough on a hot sheet spreads before it bakes.
- Scoop with a 1-tablespoon cookie scoop for even cookies that all finish at the same time.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Ruth Wakefield invented it by accident. Disputed: the popular story says she ran out of nuts or expected the chocolate to melt; Stella Parks, Carolyn Wyman and Tim Miller (as summarized by Wikipedia) call that improbable, and Wakefield's own 1970s account describes a deliberate variation on a butterscotch nut cookie.
- It was invented in 1938. Disputed: 1938 is when the recipe was first printed; sources give different years for when she first made it (Wikipedia says sources differ; search results show 1930 and 1933).
- Nestlé paid her a dollar, or a lifetime of chocolate. Folklore: Wikipedia says "accounts say" she was promised a dollar and some describe free chocolate; we did not see the contract.
- The original had nuts. Documented: Nestlé's recipe still lists chopped nuts, as optional.
- The chocolate chip cookie is the Massachusetts state cookie. Documented (1997, Wikipedia).
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