The Original Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

This is the original chocolate chip cookie recipe from Ruth Wakefield, inventor of the chocolate chip cookie. This version makes a fairly thin and crispy cookie, and you will notice it is slightly different from the version Nestlé prints on its chocolate morsel bags today. I have added comments in parentheses.

You can also read about the history of chocolate chip cookies.

Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies – Original Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Cream:

1 cup butter

Add:

3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 (large) eggs beaten, whole

Dissolve:

1 tsp soda in
1 tsp hot water

Mix alternately with:

2 1/4 cups flour sifted with
1 tsp salt

Lastly add:

1 cup chopped nuts

2 bars Nestlé’s yellow label chocolate, semi-sweet, which has been cut in pieces the size of a pea. (Later changed to “2 packages of chocolate morsels,” which is the equivalent of a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips.)

Flavor with:

1 tsp. vanilla

Drop half teaspoons on a greased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes in 375F oven.

Makes 100 cookies.

Ruth’s commentary from later editions of her book, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, which is still in print:

“At Toll House, we chill this dough overnight. When ready for baking, we roll a teaspoon of dough between palms of hands and place balls 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Then we press balls with finger tips to form flat rounds. This way cookies do not spread as much in the baking and they keep uniformly round. They should be brown through, and crispy, not white and hard as I have sometimes seen them.”

Chilling the dough is really key, in this and all chocolate chip cookie recipes, in my opinion.  The longer you chill the dough, the more buttery and caramelly your cookies, and the better they hold their shape.  Consider chilling for 2-3 days, even.

If you like the original chocolate chip cookie recipe, try our other chocolate recipes.