This is the original Toll House recipe. It's the best, The ingredients matter. Use standard bleached white AP flour, cane sugar (it must say ”cane”), The Expert uses 100 Calorie per tbsp margarine with dairy solids (used to be standard, but now hard to find). I've used vegan and it worked fine, but The Expert didn't like them. Neither of us use nuts and we don't adjust the flour.

If you follow the recipe with the right ingredients, you should get good cookies. Good luck.

Toll House Cookies, Ing. Instr. Old Style Chewy

nestle.com with added commentary from me

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 c all purpose bleached flour, such as Gold Medal
1 tsp table salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 sticks baking margarine, 100 Calories per tablespoon, or American butter 80-82% fat
3/4 cups white cane sugar
3/4 cup well packed dark brown cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp water for chewier/softer cookie--adjust for humidity. If brown sugar is damp, use less
2 large eggs
1 12 oz package Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup nuts, chopped optional--according to website, if omitting, add 1-2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, but I don't

DIRECTIONS

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 chips (and optional nuts) with a big cooking spoon.

If kitchen is warm, or you don't form the cookies right away, chill.

Drop about an inch ball onto ungreased baking sheets, gently press with spoon to lightly flatten..

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown for crunchy. Start with less time, and check to see how they do in your oven. For softer cookies, bake until the edges are looking brown and firm, but the centers are still soft and uncooked looking. Cool on baking sheets for 2 (or more if the seem to need more heat) minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

This is the original Quaker Oats cookie recipe from the underside of the lid. I add a cup of mini chocolate chips to it:

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 Cup (2-1/2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
• 3/4 Cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 Cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Cooking Instructions

• Heat oven to 375°F.
• In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy.
• Add egg and vanilla; beat well.
• Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; mix well.
• Add oats and chocolate chips; mix well.
• Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 8 to 9 minutes for a chewy cookie or 10 to 11 minutes for a crisp cookie.
• Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack.
• Cool completely.
• Store tightly covered.

This is the chocolate chip cookie recipe we use for edibles.

These are not the flat, gooey chocolate chip cookies, like most store-bought or homemade treats. Because the dough is so dense, you can easily shape these into bars, cut them into stars, or just leave them as tasty lumps.

With the exception of the cocoa powder (Ghirardelli) and the mini chips, everything is organic. Also, make sure the mini chips are frozen. It will prevent them from melting completely as the cookies bake.

Ingredients:

• 3 sticks unsalted butter or 200 grams cannabutter plus 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon mint extract
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup frozen mini chocolate chips

Process:

Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and mint and mix well. Sift flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder and add one cup at a time. At this point the dough is quite dense. Remove it from the mixer and add the chocolate chips, combining them by hand. Roll into balls 1" in diameter and flatten. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Yields 4 dozen cookies.

I use the Toll House Recipe...expect...use REAL butter, REAL vanilla and leave out the baking soda.

This recipe is from a Woman's Day magazine, at least 40 years ago. My family's absolute favorite.

CHOCOLATE CHIP PUDDING COOKIES (7 dozen)

2-1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 package vanilla instant pudding (3.4 ounce size)

2 large eggs

1 package chocolate chips (12 ounce size, 2 cups)

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Mix flour with baking soda. Combine butter, sugar, vanilla and pudding; mix in large mixer bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture, then stir in chips and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonful about 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

donna_loomis, that recipe sounds like something my BF would like. I imagine the vanilla flavor and scent is really ramped up. What is the texture like? Is the classic chocolate-chip cookie texture altered and made softer by the pudding mix?

Nothing beats the original Nestle’s Toll House recipe for me. I use all butter (salted for flavor preference) and make the dough the day before to chill overnight. Form into balls (can also do in advance for chilling) and bake as directed. Ovens will vary so check at the minimum time given. Obviously the baking time can vary depending on the size of the dough balls (mine are usually fairly large). Cookies will set up more after oven while sitting a few minutes on baking sheet. FWIW, I do the same for all drop cookie recipes.

The balls of cold dough work great for me. I saw these taller shapes recently that would result in an even thicker cookie.

Thank you for all the recipes! I am baking for a fundraiser and want to have some yummy cc cookies (and may eat 1 or 2 cookies for quality control!)

Just 1 or 2???🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪😊

Betty Crocker Cookie Cookbook from 1980. The only one I use,

Chloebud - lol!

The Tollhouse recipe is what I use too - with a few tweaks. I use organic ingredients, butter, leave out the water, and add raisins and walnuts, which remind me of Chunky candy bars - I used to love those 🙂

Whatever recipe you use, I recommend using the method described here to make perfectly round cookies. Not necessarily for the looks, even though they do look nice perfectly round. But I love that this method makes them a bit more chewy with a little wrinkle or two on top.

How to Make Perfectly Round Cookies - My Baking Addiction

How to make perfectly round cookies by hand. We bake between 500 and 1000 cookies a month, always in batches of at least 150. All our cookies are rolled by hand and then pressed with a cutting board. These are the results:

I find the Nestle recipe too salty, and so I reduce the salt to 1/4 or leave it out. I really dislike salty cookies, but some people like them.

I often add granola (instead of oatmeal), and then I reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup, and I also add shredded coconut, if I have it on hand.

I use a recipe from Cooking With Gourmet Grains (book in storage at the moment), which calls for oatmeal, but I like the crunch of granola. I only use plain granola or granola with almonds and/or coconut.

Stacey, this link was an email I’m just sharing, FWIW.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Versions

“This is the original Quaker Oats cookie recipe from the underside of the lid.”

Ricky, that’s another favorite of mine. I often add dried cranberries or cherries to the dough.

I’ve used both the Nestle and Quaker recipes for ice cream sandwiches. In that case, I like the cookies to be a bit thinner so I don’t chill the dough as long…if at all.

I always had good luck with the Mrs.Fields recipe. It makes a LOT.

Mrs Field's chocolate chip cookies

@fawnridge (Ricky) What do you do with 1500 cookies a month? Just curious. I can pack away cookies, but do have my limits.

@Kendrah, we bake edibles for use by chemo patients as well as for adult recreational use. We live in a legal state and are bordered by several others.

Thanks again to all. Some amazing ideas here!

Its really hard to find a really good one that is the way you like it. that is the problem. some like theirs flat. some like chewy, some like crispy. i have tried many recipes and have yet to find one that gives me consistantly the same as I like. I would like mine to turh out like the ones I buy at Costco bakery section. Kinda flat, amd a little chewy. Moist. Nuts or not.

Lulu, I don't know if this will help because the names of the qualities one wants aren't scientific or universal: I learned in a class from a baking scientist (a friend dragged me there but I learned some good stuff!) that a teaspoon of water in a regular batch of cookies (i.e., several dozen average size) makes the difference between chewy and hard, all other things being equal. So when Nestle took the spoon of water out of the Toll House recipe on the package, they were opting for crisper than chewier.

Do be sure to use cane sugar. There are people who can successfully use beet sugar because they know how, but cookies are the most sensitive to different ingredients, and there's a 3% difference in the makeup between cane and beet sugar. Beet bakes up much drier. Also, regular cookie recipes assume granulated white sugar, not superfine (also called castor sugar or baking sugar) or raw or anything else. The brown sugar should be white cane sugar which has molasses added. Other kinds of sugar work differently. You can adapt recipes to them, but they're not likely to come out just right as written.

Basic American recipes also assume bleached white AP flour. They'll usually work out fine with unbleached, but the texture may be affected. The process of bleaching affects how it absorbs water.

The kind of butter you use makes a difference, too. Different butters have different water contents. High quality American style butters have a butterfat content of 82-83%, and the difference is reflected in the water content. European style butter has 85-86% butterfat, and American bargain butter has about 80% butterfat. Most American recipes are meant for the 82%. You can't tell from the per serving nutrition information, but even if your brand doesn't say what the percentage is on the package, they often will on their websites, or sometimes you can find it on baking or nutrition oriented websites. Usually, if it doesn't say, however, top brands are the 82% and discount brands are 80%. The Euro style ones will usually say that they are. Use the euro style for croissants and the American premium for cookies.

Baking margarine (inc. "vegan butter") is only suitable for cookies if it's sticks with 100 Calories per tablespoon. The others have too much water and/or other weirdness that might work fine on your baked potato but won't bake right. Margarine has a different sized fat globule and a much higher melting point. This greatly affects the texture of the cookies. Use butter if you want a melt in your mouth kind of cookie, and/or a crispier one. Also, if you're doing dough balls that are supposed to spread in the heat of the oven. Use margarine for drop cookies that spread less and hold the shape you make them better because of the higher melting point. This also lets you skip the chill before baking step that helps when you use butter. (The proportions of flour to fat, etc., in cut out cookies are generally such that they hold their shape even with butter.) When I make flat chewy Toll House, I use The Expert's method: Make a quenelle of cookie dough, place it on the sheet, then flatten with the back of the spoon.

The Expert, who is famed amongst those who know for his Toll House cookies, is also the one who contributed the instruction to pull the pre-flattened cookies out of the oven before the centers are set. If you wait for them to completely firm up they won't be particularly chewy. The edges should be firm, with the faintest hint of brown, when you take them out, and they finish up on the warm cookie sheet.

Finally, do make sure your oven is well calibrated. If it's too accurate, it might also affect older recipes and need to be adjusted down a little. If it's an older or less precise oven with a greater variation of actual temperature, the setting and/or time may be affected. Even so, each oven is different. Don't just follow the recipe on that. Get to know your own oven, and what timings and temperatures give you your desired results. An extra minute can also be the difference between chewy and hard.

I don't know if this addresses your problem, but most often with cookie issues it's because of the ingredients being different or the bake time/heat not being watched..

Good luck!