No.1 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Toll House chocolate chip cookies

Made famous by Ruth Graves Wakefield

Photo: Mshuang2, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Toll House Tried and True Recipes, 1938.

Created at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, and printed on every bag of Nestlé chips since 1939; the most baked cookie in the world.

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in Toll House Tried and True Recipes.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks, 226 g) unsalted butter, softened to about 65F (it should dent when pressed but not look greasy)
• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (165 g) packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups (340 g) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup (115 g) chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 375F (190C) with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl for 20 seconds so the soda is evenly spread; lumps of soda taste bitter.
3. Beat the butter, both sugars and the vanilla with a mixer on medium-high for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping the bowl once, until the mix is pale, fluffy and looks like wet sand that holds together.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each, until no streaks of yolk remain.
5. On low speed, add the flour mixture in two parts and mix only until you can no longer see dry flour. Overmixing makes a tough, cakey cookie.
6. Stir in the chips and nuts with a spatula. For the best flavor and a thicker cookie, cover and chill the dough 12 to 24 hours; you can bake it right away too.
7. Scoop rounded tablespoons (about 25 g) 2 inches apart. Bake 9 to 11 minutes, swapping the pans top to bottom halfway, until the edges are golden brown and the centers still look slightly underdone and puffy.
8. Let them sit on the pan 2 minutes to set, then move to a rack. They firm up as they cool.

Chef's tips

• Chilled dough needs 1 to 2 minutes longer in the oven.
• For bakery-size cookies, scoop 3 tablespoons and bake 13 to 15 minutes.
• Dough balls freeze for 3 months; bake from frozen, adding 2 minutes.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in Toll House Tried and True Recipes by Ruth Graves Wakefield: get the book.

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