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In this post I’m going to share with you how various ingredients and techniques can affect the taste, texture, and appearance of your chocolate chip cookies. This will hopefully help you understand how a Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe works so you can make the PERFECT batch every time, whatever you consider to be perfect. This information will allow you to alter or create your own chocolate chip recipe that produces cookies just the way YOU like them. You’ll be an expert on the anatomy of the chocolate chip cookie.
I used the Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe as my control and made little changes and variations in techniques and ingredients to show you how they affect the cookie.
I halved and adapted the original Tollhouse recipe. I kept everything the same through each recipe test, changing just one key thing to see its effect and photographing the results for you.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
Cookie Tools and Ingredients Used:
Tools and Ingredients Used (when applicable):
-Spring-Loaded Cookie Scoop (Medium or 1 1/2-Tablespoon size)
–Chicago Metallic sheet pans
–Escali Digital Food Scale
–KitchenAid 5-quart Stand Mixer
–Oven thermometer
–Unbleached parchment paper
-Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour
-Fine sea salt
-Light brown sugar
-Large eggs
-Unsalted butter at a cool room temperature
Control Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (142 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 grams) granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup (170 grams) semi sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper.
In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, beating well to combine. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls and place onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
Here is the control, an adapted version of the Nestle Tollhouse recipe. The full recipe I used to base all of the tweaks on is at the bottom of this post.
Baking Powder:
Removed baking soda from recipe and used 1/2 teaspoon baking powder. This produced results that were more cakey and puffed while baking.
Baking Powder AND Baking Soda:
Used 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. This produced results that were crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, with a good amount of spread. The combination of the two leaveners produced the best results in my opinion.
MORE Flour:
Increased the flour to 2 cups (250 grams) which created a more crumbly dough and very little spread. The cookies were small yet thick and relatively undercooked (ooey and gooey) in the middle.
MELTED Butter:
I replaced the room temperature butter with melted and cooled butter. Instead of creaming the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, I simply stirred the butter and sugars together then let sit for 5 minutes, until the sugar was better absorbed by the butter. This produced flatter cookies that had a shiny, crackled top reminiscent of brownies. They were also more crisp at the edges.
All Granulated Sugar:
I used 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 grams) in this recipe which produced flat, white, chewy, and slightly crunchy cookies but with little flavor. Since baking soda (called for in the control recipe) requires an acid (such as brown sugar) to react, these cookies fell very flat as you can see by the way the chocolate chips protrude.
All Brown Sugar:
I used 3/4 cup (150 grams) packed light brown sugar in this recipe which produced thick, brown, and soft cookies with an intense butterscotch flavor. The original control recipe uses an even ratio of granulated and brown sugars. If you prefer your cookies to be flatter, chewier, or crisper, use more granulated sugar. If you prefer your cookies to be softer and thicker and have a pronounced butterscotch flavor, use more brown sugar.
24-hour CHILLED Dough:
I used the control recipe but chilled it in the fridge for about 24 hours before shaping and baking. This produced cookies that were slightly thicker, chewier, darker, and with a better depth of butterscotch flavor. If you have time, try chilling your next cookie dough for at least 24 hours, or up to 48 hours.
Final Comparison:
Great post! Was wondering if you have tried not using butter but rather shortening or oils instead of butter? I love butter but my vegan friends do not. Some of my pals like to use crisco type stuff and swear by it. What you you think? Any photos?
Thank you. I bet your house smelled awesome for days.
Wow. Thanks so much for this. I have always wondered how many of the changes you made would effect the cookies. By the way, I have used shortening in peanut butter cookies and snickerdoodles. I found the recipes on King Arthur Flour’s website. My family now requests them that way. I use butter flavored shortening.
this is excellent, just what i needed!! and it reminds me of the friends episode, I didnt realise phoebe was the only one who looked to nestle for inspiration on cookies.
This is a super useful guide. Somehow my chocolate chip cookies always turn out a little different from everyone else’s. Now I know why!
Replacing the white sugar in the Nestle recipe with a small box of instant vanilla pudding will create puffier, softer cookies, that are more flavorful and STAY soft. So good.
Someone may have already shared this but or my “Bailey’s Chocolate Chip Cookies,” I use 1 stick of butter and 1 cup of shortening to get a lighter, fluffier cookie that isn’t as greasy!
Last year when I found out I was expecting I became obsessed with baked goods. That was my ultimate craving and we made it a goal to find the best chocolate chip cookie and after almost a year in researching and 5 experiments I can finally say we found it. I love all your details that can either change or make a cookie. We personally went with the recipe with added baking powder. The cookies are awesome and a thumbs up with my entire family ! Thank you so much for a recipe I can use again and something to pass onto my girls!
…Cookies made with butter usually are too soft and old tasting after a day or so vs if you use vegetable shortening which keeps them soft yet also crunchy and fresh…I just wish it was healthier.
You mentioned your favorite batch were the chilled ones. Both baking soda and baking powder recommend that you cook the cookies immediately after mixing, as the active ingredients in both have a quick reaction time. Baking powder has both single and double acting varieties. Perhaps you used double acting, as that can sit for a longer period of time? I know that you should never let items w/ baking soda sit for any length of time.
Hi! Love the tips, but my concern is that my chocolate chip cookies turn out hard when they get cold! 🙁 and I dont know what it is, I hope you can give me some suggestions,
Thanks
Wanda
Have you ever tried using half butter and half vegetable shortening (crisco in the can)? Just curious – that’s what my grandma did a LONG time ago!