This is the recipe on the back of Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip packages. However, if you're like my mom and the cookies never turn out the same each time you bake them, read through the tips I'm about to share with you (in bold).

​

P.S. The DoubleTree Hilton cookies are going viral, but they're almost the same exact recipe as these, with a few additions (lemon juice, oats, cinnamon, extra chocolate and nuts and sugar). Master these and you can make any drop cookie you want!

​​

​

Educational Recipe:

​

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs, room temperature

• 2 cups chocolate chips

• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional) 
   

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
   An oven thermometer helps, especially if your oven is old or doesn't work well. Some ovens will tell you they're 375°F, but they're not calibrated. This can result in poorly or inconsistently baked cookies.

2. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until light, fluffy, and creamy. 
   When you cream something, you're not only smoothing the mixture to combine more easily with other ingredients; you're also incorporating air. The sugar being whipped into the butter will create small air pockets within the butter. This results in a cookie that will rise and spread better due to the air pockets expanding with heat. If you under-cream, your cookie may be dense or too cakey/tall. If you over-cream, your cookie may spread too much and become flat. Having softened butter will make this process easier and faster. Cream until the mixture lightens in color and texture and appears "fluffy" like a buttercream frosting.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then mix in the vanilla.
   In this step, you're emulsifying the eggs into the butter mixture. This means combining two ingredients that normally wouldn't mix (water and fat--from the eggs and butter, respectively. Think of mayonnaise, which is made from oil and eggs). If you add all the eggs at once or if the eggs are too cold, you may "break" or curdle your mixture. The emulsion won't be together. All that creaming you did will turn into seized grains of butter floating amongst beaten eggs. The texture of the cookie will change and not be consistent from batch to batch. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until the egg is completely emulsified into the butter mixture before adding the next one. The end mixture should look like smooth, creamy buttercream.
   If for some reason the mixture breaks anyway, you can carefully warm your mixture over a double boiler for a few seconds then continue beating. Make sure the butter doesn't melt and the eggs don't cook. You can also just continue mixing for a long amount of time, as the frictional heat from the mixture will help the butter and eggs come back together.

4. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. 
   This evenly distributes the salt for flavor and the leavener (baking soda) so each cookie bakes up the same. Imagine all the salt or baking soda mixes well in half the dough, but not the other half. Your batches of cookies will bake and taste differently.

5. Gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
   It's important--if you're using a flour that contains gluten--not to overmix in these steps. Wheat flour contains the proteins glutenin and gliadin, which when combined with liquid turn into gluten. And gluten continues to develop with agitation.
   Gluten gives structure, elasticity, and chew to your food (think of bread, as bread flour is high in protein -- the dough is kneaded a lot to develop gluten to create chewiness). However, in excess amounts, it can make your food tough when you don't want it to be. For something like chocolate chip cookies, you don't want to overdevelop the gluten by mixing too much. JUST mix until combined.

6. Drop by rounded Tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets. Roll to fix shape.
   I prefer parchment paper when baking cookies. They create a nicer shape too.
   Even before this step, I would refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or up to 1-2 days. Chilling the dough for a short time will help the cookies not spread too much, but chilling it for long periods of time actually allows the dough's flavor to mature and develop better. The flour hydrates from the liquid in the dough when resting.

7. BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
   Rotate your cookies halfway through baking to promote even baking, especially if your oven tends to cook unevenly.
   The center of your cookie, when baked, should be soft (not overbaked) but set (not overcooked). You can gently touch the center/thickest part of a cookie to test doneness, but the checking-for-golden-brown-color method works too.

8. Store in an airtight container if not eating immediately.
   If your cookies start to go stale, you can add a slice of bread in the container to add some more moisture or recycle the cookies into another dessert, like an ice cream topping or a cheesecake crust.