Our 21 Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

We’ve published many takes on the classic treat over the years, but these are the ones our readers return to again and again.

It’s a matter of great debate among chocolate chip cookie lovers: Chewy and gooey? Cakelike and tender? Crisp and crunchy? (Or maybe you’re one of those people who likes to eat just the dough? We see you.) Whatever your preference, we’ve got a recipe you’re bound to adore. Here are 21 of our readers’ most-loved chocolate chip cookie recipes.

1. Jacques Torres’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

“OMG these cookies are as good as buying them at the bakery!”

This is what people are talking about when they refer to “The New York Times’s chocolate chip cookie recipe.” The cookbook author and writer David Leite adapted it from Jacques Torres to accompany a 2008 article about the science of making a perfect chocolate chip cookie. It’s a tad fussy: You need bread flour and cake flour, and 36 hours to chill the dough for the best texture and flavor. But when we say the results are worth it, we mean it. (One food editor we know — ahem — baked 10 batches to give out as wedding favors.)

Recipe: Jacques Torres’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

2. Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

“These cookies are always a huge hit EVERY time I make them, which has been at least 2 dozen times.”

Impossibly tender and savory-sweet, these cookies were adapted from the chef Danielle Oron, a New Jersey native with Israeli roots who grew up drizzling her bowls of vanilla ice cream with lightly nutty tahini.

Recipe: Salted Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

3. Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

“This is it. The only chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need.”

Legend has it that Ruth Wakefield accidentally invented the chocolate chip cookie at the Toll House Inn, her popular restaurant in eastern Massachusetts. She was experimenting with making a chocolate drop cookie, but, in a rush, skipped melting the semisweet chocolate. Instead, she broke it apart with an ice pick and added it to butterscotch cookie dough. This version is very close to the original — Wakefield’s called for a teaspoon of hot water and ½-teaspoon-size cookies — and it’s the one you will still find on the back of every yellow bag of Nestlé chocolate chips. It never disappoints.

Recipe: Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

4. Piloncillo Chocolate Chip Cookies

“Just made these again, got several ‘best chocolate cookie chip cookie I have ever had.’”

Known as piloncillo, chancaca or panela, unrefined whole-cane sugar could be the ingredient your cookies have been missing. In this brilliant recipe from Rick Martínez, piloncillo’s caramel notes are balanced with bittersweet chocolate. An expert tip from our readers: Microwave the piloncillo before grating or slicing to make it much easier to handle.

Recipe: Piloncillo Chocolate Chip Cookies

5. Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

“Much better than any mall cake. It was a hit!”

Yossy Arefi’s adaptation of this nostalgic mall treat is as classic as it gets. If you don’t have a cookie cake pan, don’t fret, you can bake this in a 10-inch round cake pan lined with parchment paper.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

6. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

“Definitely in my top five favorite cookie recipes.”

Leave your fancy electric mixer in the cabinet. Genevieve Ko calls for mixing the dough by hand, yielding cookies that are crisp at the edges and tender at the centers. One reader had the brilliant idea of adding dark chocolate Raisinets to the batter, and we’re kind of bummed we didn’t think of it first.

Recipe: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

7. Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies

“Cookies the size of your face, and they’re perfect.”

This recipe from the baker and blogger Sarah Kieffer features a clever technique: banging the pan on the counter a couple of times during baking. That simple trick creates crinkly, crackly edges and a soft, gooey center.

Recipe: Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies

8. Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies

“THEEESE!! Gluten-free game changer.”

It’s hard to believe that these cookies, made without any butter, flour or leaveners, can be good, and ready in under 30 minutes. But if the comments are to be believed, Ali Slagle’s recipe (which has only six ingredients!) is pure magic, and needs to be enthusiastically introduced to all gluten-free bakers in your life.

Recipe: Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies

9. Edible Cookie Dough

“As a cookie dough lover undergoing chemo, thank you for making my food craving dreams come true!”

It may not yield an actual cookie, but this recipe from Melissa Knific delivers everyone’s favorite part of the cookie-making process: the raw dough. Since it features no eggs and the flour is heated to a bacteria-free temperature, lick the spoon as much as you want. You can even eat it by the handful.

Recipe: Edible Cookie Dough

10. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

“These were soooo good! Even my husband, who is not a vegan, said they were delicious.”

Erin Jeanne McDowell baked more than 50 batches of cookies in her quest to develop a worthy vegan version of the famous Jacques Torres chocolate chip cookie. She used a combination of vegan butter, flaxseed meal, cane sugar and coconut sugar for a superb cookie that will make everyone happy.

Recipe: Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

11. Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

“The BEST cookies I’ve ever made! The brown butter truly makes them!”

Millie Peartree’s recipe delivers the platonic ideal of the gooey, crisp chocolate chip cookie, but the special additions of nutty brown butter, brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon makes them superior to any other you’ve had.

Recipe: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

12. Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

“These cookies are nothing short of sensational!!! Every time I make them, gone within 1 day.”

Samantha Seneviratne nestles chocolate chips into a fudgy, cocoa-rich batter for a cookie that begs to be eaten with a cold glass of milk. Plan ahead: You’ll want to chill the dough for 24 to 36 hours, so it has plenty of time to hydrate for tender cookies with crisp edges. Delayed gratification means greater satisfaction.

Recipe: Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

13. Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies

“I am seriously in love with these cookies.”

The internet went wild for these chocolate chip shortbread cookies from Alison Roman when they were first published in her 2017 cookbook, “Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes.” They are rich, crispy, crumbly and tender all at the same time, and the dough freezes like a dream. (Hot tip: There is no egg in the dough, so eat as many raw spoonfuls as you like.)

Recipe: Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies

14. The $250 Cookie Recipe

“In our home, this is the cookie by which all other cookies are judged i.e. ‘This other cookie is good, but not as good as the $250 cookie. Maybe $225 good.’”

This oatmeal-chocolate chip cookie recipe was born of an urban myth about a woman lunching at the Neiman Marcus Cafe in Dallas. She enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies so much, the story goes, that she asked for the recipe. “Two-fifty,” the waitress said. Just $2.50! When the credit card bill arrived, she’d been charged $250. The story was later debunked, but in 1997, Neiman Marcus developed a recipe anyway and gave it away for free. It’s a special cookie, rich with grated milk chocolate, semisweet chocolate chips, ground oats and chopped nuts.

Recipe: The $250 Cookie Recipe

15. Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

“Lost count of how many times I’ve made these, always to rave reviews.”

Almond flour is the only special ingredient required to make this gluten-free version of the Jacques Torres recipe. For even more flavor, toast the almond flour in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until golden and fragrant, then let cool before using.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

16. Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

“Delicious, easy and cooked perfectly in our cast iron skillet.”

Save this 45-minute-top-to-bottom recipe from Samantha Seneviratne for when you need a cookie, fast. The batter comes together in one bowl and it’s baked in a skillet, so you can save precious eating time instead of portioning out individual scoops of dough.

Recipe: Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie

17. Quintessential Chocolate Chip Cookies

“Didn’t think I would ever need another chocolate chip cookie recipe, but this one really takes the cake!”

This easy, foolproof chocolate chip cookie recipe from Sherry Yard, the former executive pastry chef at Spago, has almost 6,000 ratings. Using chopped chocolate bars instead of chips means you get a lovely smattering of small shards and large chunks distributed throughout the cookie. Serving with cold milk is a no-brainer.

Recipe: Quintessential Chocolate Chip Cookies

18. Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

“This is a fantastic cookie. The texture was wonderful — slightly crisp on the edges and chewy on the inside.”

For domed cookies ideal for gifting, try this recipe from Ravneet Gill. Rolling the dough into balls before chilling for at least 12 hours yields uniform circles with soft, chocolaty centers.

Recipe: Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

19. Vegan Banana Everything Cookies

“I’ve made this recipe four times in the past month!”

Adapted from the cookbook “Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero, this recipe is here to make use of that single, sad banana on your countertop. These dairy-free cookies are chunky and packed with rolled oats, chocolate chips and walnuts.

Recipe: Vegan Banana Everything Cookies

20. Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookies

“These are my go-to chocolate chip cookies now. My grandkids love them (as does everyone else).”

For a treat that hits sweet, salty, sour and umami at the same time, look no further than these cookies from Abi Balingit’s “Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed,” adapted by Genevieve Ko. Bay leaves, soy sauce and vinegar sound like they may not belong in dessert, but these Filipino flavors play together beautifully with the vanilla, brown butter and dark chocolate.

Recipe: Adobo Chocolate Chip Cookies

21. Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

“These are my ‘drop the mic’ cookies — amazingly good.”

This elevated version of the classic cookie comes from Moko Hirayama by way of Dorie Greenspan. It’s slightly tender from the rye flour, with dried cranberries, poppy seeds and chunks of bittersweet chocolate (not store-bought chips) — an utterly sophisticated, delicious bite.

Recipe: Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

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