Toll House chocolate chip cookies, but with a twist making them softer and chewier even on day two. You'll love these cookies! This post was originally shared in 2020 but has been updated with new imagery.
You might also like our Chick-fil-A chocolate chunk cookies, chewy bakery-style peanut butter cookies, or Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookies.
Watch our step by step video!
*Almost* Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Every family has their favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and it's typically one that originated from someone else and has been slightly tweaked to meet their taste. The Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe has been a staple recipe for decades and for good reason. It's an all-around great recipe. Over the years I've tweaked it slightly to create our family's version. I wouldn't say the tweaks are enough to warrant a new name or claim it to be mine so I call these *almost* Toll House chocolate chip cookies.
Soft and Chewy Toll House Cookies
The one thing that always bothered me about the Toll House recipe is that they tasted amazing on day 1, but were always hard on day 2. That might not be the case for everyone, but it was for me. Regardless of lowering the baking time, temp, etc. The cookies hardened and were only chewy if I warmed them up again in the microwave. I had recently tweaked my peanut butter cookie recipe, adjusting the brown sugar to white sugar ratio and the results were amazing. Peanut butter cookies that STAYED SOFT FOR DAYS. They didn't crumble! I made the same sugar swap to the Toll House recipe and added a bit more flour. The result is soft and CHEWY chocolate chip cookies that are even chewier on day 2. That's it!
We recently had friends stay with us for the weekend. As they arrived I was finishing up making a giant batch of these. I doubled the recipe and had the BIGGEST bowl of cookie dough known to man sitting on the counter. We questioned if we'd actually go through all of them before they went home. Let me tell you, it wasn't a problem. Those cookies were enjoyed for 2 days and all 7 dozen were gobbled up.
That's the beauty of this recipe! You don't need to chill the dough, use two types of flour, add in any gourmet ingredients, or anything out of the ordinary to get GOOD cookies.
Brown Sugar Vs. White Sugar in Cookies
White sugar has its place. In recipes like sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, and shortbread it truly shines. A combination of brown and white sugar is generally what you'll find in chocolate chip cookies.
A Martha Stewart article states the following, "Keep in mind when baking that brown sugar helps to promote a dense, chewy texture thanks to the moisture content in the molasses. Think: chewy brownies or soft, dense chocolate chip cookies. On the other hand, white sugar helps to create crispy, crunchy cookies that have a drier texture. Many baking recipes use white and brown sugars to get the best aspects of both."
The traditional toll house recipe calls for ¾ cup brown sugar and ¾ cup white sugar. So 1 ½ cups of sugar. I changed it to 1 ¼ cups of brown sugar and ¼ cup of white sugar. Still 1 ½ cups with an emphasis on brown sugar. Brown sugar has more moisture in it, and I'm not sure of the science behind it, but it seems to make the cookies even chewier on the second day.
*Almost* Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients
Butter: I bake exclusively with salted butter, but you can use unsalted. If using unsalted, add an additional ½ teaspoon of salt to the recipe.
Brown and White Sugar: the combination of both sugars gives the cookies great texture and sweetness.
Eggs: for richness and texture.
Vanilla extract: have you tried making your own vanilla extract? It's easy!
Baking soda and salt: for leavening and flavor.
All-purpose flour: I typically bake with all-purpose flour, but you can also use bread flour.
Chocolate Chips: my favorite is a combination of semisweet and milk chocolate chips, but you can use whatever you'd like.
How To Make Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line light-colored baking sheets* with parchment paper (optional)
- Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add baking soda and salt, then mix in flour (slowly).
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Portion dough into golf-ball-sized balls (2 Tbsp. of cookie dough), 6 per cookie sheet.
- Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes or until light golden. (I find the sweet spot for my oven to be 10 ½ minutes)
- Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. (Most of the time I just let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet unless I need to use the cookie sheet to bake up more cookies.)
*Light-colored baking sheets are what I use for all of my cookies. Lighter metal bakes more evenly than dark and doesn't brown the bottoms of the cookies too quickly. If using a dark metal baking sheet, adjust the baking time and watch the cookies to prevent burning.
*Almost* Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
*Almost* Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ⅔ cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat, if desired.
- Cream butter and sugars together with an electric mixer. Add eggs then vanilla extract.
- Mix in baking soda, salt and flour (until just combined)Stir in chocolate chips.
- Use a cookie scoop (2 Tbsp. size) to scoop dough or use your hands to form dough balls. Place 6-8 balls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until lightly golden.
- Cool 2-3 minutes on a cookie sheet and transfer to wire racks.
Notes
Nutrition
Looking for tips on freezing cookies? Make a giant batch and save half for another day! Here are our best tips for freezing cookies and cookie dough.
Valerie says
My favorite cookie recipe so far. Much better than Toll House which is my go to. Made these last night and our family loved them!!!
Thank you for sharing. The title was a perfect way to find you.
Brandy says
Valerie, this made my day. I’m so glad you liked my version!
Laura Hagerman says
These are LEGIT better then Toll House and I'm a Baker! I think its because more brown sugar then white is tastier I'm almost anything you can bake. These will NOT DISAPPOINT but they WILL DISAPPEAR!!
Brandy says
Thank you, Laura! I'm definitely a fan of using more brown sugar than white in all of my cookie recipes except snickerdoodles and sugar cookies!
Wayne Thomason says
I've used this Toll House cookie modification several times since I found this recipe and I'm amazed at how the cookies are even moister on day-2 than they were the day they were baked.
My first couple of batches were soft right up to the last cookie, about 4-5 days after baking. Putting one in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds results in a cookie so soft it almost falls apart in your hand.
The changes from the original Toll House cookie recipe are simple (although I prefer to keep the flour at 2 1/4 cups instead of reducing it to 2 cups, however I had one ounce or 1/8 cup of water due to the extra flour). Basically this is the Toll House recipe, but with only 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, substituting 1/4 cup of corn syrup for the missing half-cup of sugar), double the vanilla (2 tsp), half the eggs (1 instead of 2), and use half baking soda and half baking powder (1/2 tsp each) instead of the one tsp of baking soda.
Great modifications on the original recipe and the resulting cookies are soft for days. One word of advice though, due to the added moisture retention, it's advisable not to stack the cookies on top of one another as they will stick together after a few hours (or a day). I place them on their sides, stacked sideways like poker chips in a tray.
Brandy says
Great tips, thank you!!