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I recently put my foot in my mouth, again. Speaking at a writer’s conference and rambling on at the podium, as usual, I offered up that I don’t think of cooking or baking as love. It’s cooking and baking. Maybe because I was a restaurant cook for so long and spent decades pumping out food (which would have been a lot of love-making), I think of food as, well…food.

Of course, right after my talk and I left the podium, the screen behind me flashed in large letters: “Food As Love,” announcing the next topic, followed by a group of food writers coming onto the same stage to talk about how food was love.

Oops.

I do, however, love bakers. One happens to be baker Joanne Chang, who has a new book out called Pastry Love: A Baker’s Journal of Favorite Recipes. That’s certainly fitting for Joanne, since she is, indeed, a lovely person, and if you meet her (or eat any of her treats)  you’ll love her. I’m not sure that description applies to me (just ask the people that went on the panel after I spoke at that conference…) but I do love chocolate chip cookies. So don’t hate me.

I remember when I spent a week baking at Spago in Los Angeles back in the ’90s, so I could work with Nancy Silverton. During staff meal, somehow the talk turned to chocolate chip cookies, and Wolfgang Puck announced in his thick Austrian accent, “I don’t like soft chocolate chip cookies. I like my chocolate chip cookies crisp.”

And he’s not alone. I’ve noticed that people love those Tate’s chocolate chip cookies, which are crisp, not chewy. I was skeptical when I saw those bags of thin, crisp chocolate chip cookies in a U.S. supermarket. But when someone brought me a bag to try, I found them compelling (i.e.; irresistible) and had no trouble polishing off the sack.

So I was delighted to see a recipe in Pastry Love for thin, crisp chocolate chip cookies. I got an advance PDF copy of the book before it was published, and the internet is great for a lot of things, but I still like to bake from an actual cookbook, so I anxiously awaited the cookbook to be published.

Since receiving it, I haven’t gotten to the seed-filled Breakfast Cookie recipe yet, but the Flower Power Date Bars tastes like what you wish an energy bar tasted like, and they’re vegan, gluten-free, and without any refined sugar.  While some people don’t (or can’t) love butter, gluten, or sugar, I loved those bars.

Somehow, Joanne managed to practically reinvent baking with this book and it’s one of those rare cookbooks where I really do want to make everything in it. The recipes are do-able and each one is photographed, so you know what you’re getting into. There are Spelt Croissants, Vegan Chocolate-Banana Muffins, and Apple Cider Sticky Buns (and Sticky Bun Kouings Amanns, too) as well as a Double Lemon Tart, Dulce de Leche Brioche buns, colorful Peppermint Meringues and Double Chocolate Rye Cookies, which are next on my baking roster.

But for now, yes, many chocolate chip cookies were consumed in the making of this post. The original recipe produced thin chocolate chip cookies that had some heft to them. They were excellent but I wanted them even thinner, and more caramelized. So I took out a little of the flour, which worked perfectly, and I got that crispy-thin texture that I was looking for, which I love.

Thin, Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Pastry Love: A Baker's Journal of Favorite Recipes by Joanne Chang I found the original recipe yielded a nice cookie but they were a little thicker than I was expecting and while delicious, the cookies weren't entirely crisp. If you want to stick to the original recipe, use 2 cups (280g) of flour. You do want to make sure you bake these cookies on the upper rack of the oven, so they don't get too dark on the bottoms before the tops are browned. And be sure to watch them like a hawk during the last few minutes of baking; the baking times are guidelines so check the cookies a few minutes before the listed baking times and remove the cookies from the oven at the moment when they're gently browned all the way across the top. You can either buy superfine sugar (which is sometimes called Baker's sugar) or in French, it's sucre en poudre, or make it yourself by pulsing granulated sugar in a blender or food processor until the crystals are very fine, about half the size they originally were. For best results, use good-quality chocolate chips. In the U.S., the extra-dark Guittard chips work well. In France (and in Europe), Cacao-Barry makes chocolate chips, although they're smaller than the larger American chips. (They're available at G. Detou in Paris.) Supermarket-style chocolate chips are formulated not to melt when baked, so they may be of interest to you if you like those slightly toothsome chunks of chips in your cookies, but you can use hand-chopped chocolate chunks, in place of them.
  • 8 ounces (225g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup (200g) superfine sugar, (see headnote)
  • 1/2 cup (100g) firmly-packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg, at room temperature
  • 3 tablespoons (45g) water
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups (245g) flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt or kosher salt, (if using Morton's kosher salt, use 3/4 teaspoon)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups (280g, 10 ounces) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
  • In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula in a bowl, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until light and creamy, about 5 minutes.
  • Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, reaching down to the bottom of the mixer bowl. Beat in the egg, WATER, and vanilla.
  • In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the chocolate chips, and toss in the flour mixture. With the mixer on low speed, stir in the flour and chocolate chip mixture until thoroughly combined. Cover the bowl (or transfer to a smaller container, and cover) and refrigerate the dough at least 3 to 4 hours, or overnight.
  • To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line two baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange the dough, formed in 1 1/4-inch (1/4 cup, 45g) balls on the baking sheet, spaced at least 3-inches (8cm) apart. (They will spread, so expect to get 5 or 6 on a standard baking sheet.) Press the cookies down slightly with your hand and bake until the cookies have spread and just until there are no light patches across the center, rotating the baking sheet(s) midway during baking so they bake evenly. They'll take about 13-14 minutes, but best to check the cookies a few minutes before and use the visual clues, rather than adhere to strict baking time, to get them just right.
  • Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool completely.

Notes

Storage: The dough can be refrigerated up to four days, or frozen for up to three months. The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to three days but are best the day they are baked.

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99 comments

    • Mary Loring

    My husband’s family has been making flat and crispy chocolate chip cookies for years! Try subbing 1Tablespoon molasses for some of the water. It enhances the brown sugar!

      • I. Roll

      Thanks for your two cents Mary

    • Ms. Mousie

    To get the thin, crispy chocolate chip cookies I like, I’ve been using David’s Swedish Chocolate-Oatmeal Cookie recipe from L’Appart, but adding small bits of chocolate and not dipping in chocolate or filling with chocolate for sandwich cookies. Delicious!

    • jennifer

    my favorite type! my recipe is identical but I use 2c flour, I’m definitely trying this reduction.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      The original recipe had 2 cups for flour but I found that 1 3/4 cups yielded the results I liked (the original recipe also had an extra 1 teaspoon of water) – I made them three times using the 1 3/4 cups flour and liked it but if you try it, let me know how you like them : )

    • Marcia

    Oh yes! This is way choc chip cookies should be. Crisp, and buttery and caramelly. Oops to your blooper but, who knew? I’m sure they forgave you!!

    • Bill McKiinley

    hi David,

    Looks like a great recipe for delicious cookies.

    Hate to be the English major, but in step 4 of the instructions your spell check has put “evening” “for evenly”

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Oops, thanks! I typed this on my little Mac Air with the tiny screen, so thanks for letting me know about the goof – fixed! -dl

      • Guy

      In the ingredients… 1.5 cups / 230g / 10 Oz… 230g =8oz

        • David
        David Lebovitz

        I used the conversion from the book (I’m thinking of doing only one system of measurement from now on in recipes on the blog, to make things easier ) but will let publisher know. Thanks.

          • Victoria

          If you do, I hope you use metric. I’m in the US, but I use my scale, and I find with metric baking is fool-proof. I won’t buy baking books that don’t have weights anymore.

    • Deborah A Jones

    Alice Medrich’s Ultrathin Chocolate Chunk cookies !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • Nat

    We Bostonians love Joanne Chang’s Flour Bakery: not only for the cookies but also her Kougin Amann, sticky bun, and particularly her coconut cream pie! And for so much more.

    • Cindy

    I’m curious – what does the superfine sugar contributes versus using regular granulated? I haven’t seen that in many cookie recipes before. Thanks!

      • claire silvers

      It changes the texture, makes it smoother. If you have a cuisinart or any kind of grinder-thing, you can zap granulated briefly–too long & you’ll have confectioner’s sugar.

        • susan eastman

        not. confectioners sugar contains cornstarch

    • Debby

    I’ve been trying since girlhood to Perfect myself away from this result. That dang Gooey Chocolate telephone line as you pull apart a freshly baked soft hot cookie haunts me. Looking into the window of a hot oven as you see the cookies puff and fall… wait, I’m confusing the commercial with pop ‘n fresh dough. Argh! These American commercials of impressionable youth!!! I Have enjoyed crispy chocolate chip cookies. Maybe this posting will heal my holy grail haunt from achieving the impossible perfect commercial Nestle Toll House Cookie!!! What’s a Toll House anyway?

      • heidi husnak

      Toll House Inn was where the cookie was invented per legend. It was in Massachusetts USA and was “invented” in 1936 with Nestle chocolate.

    • g

    Would love to see videos of you making wonderful recipes like these! Technique is important as the recipe! Thanks!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I’ve wanted to make videos of making the recipes, and of Paris (in response to Sandra, below) but I don’t have anyone to shoot and edit them, which is quite specialized work. I loved doing the previous videos and would really enjoy doing more, but someone would have to shoot & edit ’em.

        • Gavrielle

        These look delicious! Good for you for being a countervailing voice to the whole food is love thing. It can be an expression of love, but sometimes it’s just dinner. And contrary to contemporary wisdom, it doesn’t have to be “made with love” to taste good either!. Thrown together with half an eye on the clock is usually quite sufficient.

    • Liz O

    Re: Storage
    What chocolate chips cookie ISN’T best on the day it’s baked!!

    • Sandra

    David, please make some youtube videos cooking or introducing new places (markets or cafes) in Paris- it was my favourite thing… u know youtube is an excellent marketing tool

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I know people do very well in Youtube, although I sort of like to have my content here. When you publish things on a platform you don’t own, like Youtube, they can remove it or do whatever they want, whenever they want. So I like to have things here, where I can keep tabs on them :)

        • jane

        So, have a video tab here and post whenever you feel like it! ; ). I love watching you on video because your personality is so distinctly you.

          • jane

          distinctly you meaning, so friendly and natural – as well as polite.

    • Sarah N-J

    Oops. Never mind. It makes a fun story.

    I third the request for youtube videos of you baking. Would love to watch.

    I prefer thin cookies so will definitely try this recipe.

    • Laurie

    A toll house is a building on a road or bridge where a fare is collected before you can travel any further.
    I’m sure there is a sweet story, lost in time, or not, as to the origins of the Toll House Cookie…

      • Valerie

      Ever since I discovered Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies in David’s book, “My Sweet Life in Paris” it has been my favorite cookie recipe.

        • David
        David Lebovitz

        Glad you like that recipe! It’s in The Great Book of Chocolate ;)

      • K

      I think the story is on the nestle chocolate chip bag…! ;-)
      But here’s the Wikipedia page, named for the Toll House Restaurant, 1938
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_chip_cookie
      We’re all thankful to Ruth for creating our favorite cookie!

    • Peter Felker

    Hello David
    Just curious if there are any new developments on the mesquite chocolate chip cookies. I’d be happy to share another sample. Jane on Fillmore in San Francisco is doing a lovely gluten free one

    • Cyndy

    I don’t know what to attribute it to, but when I made chocolate chip cookies in my oven in France last summer, they all came out like this–when I was aiming for a chewier, softer cookie! I was using the T flour (T65?) closest to American, Arm & Hammer baking soda, French sugar and eggs, American brown sugar, Nestle chocolate chips, and French butter. I even chilled the dough. I was also following the Toll House recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. They were flat as a pancake and too greasy for my liking.

    Do you think it was the butter? French butter has more butterfat than American. The egg was probably bigger…?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      It was likely a combination of the butter and flour. French butter has a little higher butterfat and the flour has different protein content. French supermarket flour is always very finely milled and is more powdery than American flour. (I use T65 too.) But sometimes you should just reduce the butter a little, and add an extra spoonful of flour…but there’s no hard and fast rule. Sometimes I just eyeball it! : )

      • Judith Lehman

      I tried high gluten flour and it makes a lovely, chewy cookie. I weigh the flour the same as I usually would but it absorbs more of the very little liquid and gives the cookie wonderful “chew”.

    • Kim

    I’ve never seen water in cookie dough. I sometimes add a T of milk. Does water vs milk here help with the crispness? I do love a crisp cookie.

    • Carol Gillott

    I love the rippled crispy border on these. Maury Rubin of the sadly demised CITY BAKERY NY said his secret was letting his chocolate chip dough rest for 36 hours. I don’t think the French rest their dough at all – so soft and almost mushy. Awful. Any thoughts on the resting period?

    • Guy

    I always thought American superfine sugar was icing sugar. From your comments it isn’t. Is superfine sugar the same as caster sugar?

      • Andrew B

      Australian here. I was just about to ask the same question. I’d normally use caster sugar here, not icing sugar.

        • David
        David Lebovitz

        I’m not sure what icing sugar is in Australia. But superfine sugar is granulated sugar that’s pulverized so the crystals are roughly half the size of granulated sugar, but not ground until they are powdered. (That’s called powdered sugar in the U.S., or confectioners’ sugar.)

          • Andrew

          Thanks David. Icing sugar is powdered sugar, and superfine sugar definitely sounds like caster sugar! Australia uses the same terms as the UK.

      • Carolyn Z

      Yes, caster sugar is the same as superfine sugar. You would whir regular granulated sugar in a food processor or blender for a short time until the grain is approximately half. Then measure and add to the recipe.

      • Victoria

      I would say yes. American superfine sugar is caster sugar. English icing sugar is confectioner’s (or powdered) sugar over here. And, of course, British self-raising flour is not the same as American self-rising flour as ours has salt added to it.

    • Marie K.

    David, do you think they will work with less sugar? Not that I am unwilling to follow the recipe step by step, but 300g sugar in total is a way too much for my taste, but probably it will impact the texture? Anyway, they are on the list, and I’m sure they will be delicious.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I haven’t tried it with less sugar. I wrote about the role of sugar in baking, and what can happen when you reduce it here: Baking Ingredients and Substitutions. (Joanne wrote a book, Baking With Less Sugar.) If you do try them with a smaller amount of sugar, let us know how they turn out!

      • Christina L

      Marie – I also thought 300g of sugar was too much for me, but worried about affecting the texture if I decreased it too much. I used 180g of baker’s sugar and 90g of light brown sugar (to keep the ratio 2:1), and took out a pat of butter (last minute paranoia on my part), and the cookies came out with a great crispy texture! It’s still too sweet for me, so I will experiment with less sugar next time. I want to add that the first 12 balls of dough I baked I followed the weight per the recipe (45g, which is 20g less than 1/4 cup), and they came out floppy, not crispy, and super oily, pretty disgusting actually. The second bake I used 25g balls of dough, and those came out just right.

    • Susan L

    Wouldn’t melting the butter and stirring in the sugar give you a crisper cookie, as well? Like another commenter, I spent years hunting for that thick, chewy nirvana (less chocolatey and more cookie, though) until I became intrigued by Cookie brittle, with its press in the pan process and shard like shapes of broken cookie. Then Tates came along and I’m sooo fickle..I want it all! (and I want it now!)

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Not necessarily. Sometimes one melts the butter so it saturates the flour, which results in a softer cookie. I looked up cookie brittle recipes and it looks like they omit the egg(s) and brown sugar, both of which provide moisture. But the two recipes I looked at use softened butter. Have you made it? It sounds interesting!

        • Susan

        I have made the cookie brittle, several times. It is one of those things that takes a batch worth of tasting to get you wanting more..if you know what I mean! You’re right, it does call for only white sugar, 2 tsp Vanilla and no eggs and no leavening. It was very good, nice and crispy. Baking for 23-25 at minutes at 350 allowed the butter to brown and the sugar to caramelize somewhat and that is what gave it it’s flavor. I do like the butterscotch flavor that the brown sugar lends traditional cc cookies, but the brittle was not too far off those flavors (isn’t brown sugar just white sugar with added molassas, which is caramelized white sugar, right?)

          • David
          David Lebovitz

          Thanks for the info! Brown sugar is available in two ways; either as unrefined sugar with the natural molasses still on it, or granulated (white) sugar that’s had the molasses added back. One way to get that brown sugar flavor, but without the molasses “stickiness” is to use a granulated brown sugar, which is free-flowing. I know in the U.S. Domino makes it and in France, one can by granulated cassonade sugar in the grocery store (although the granules are pretty large).

    • Lisa

    Thank you so much, David! This recipe is very much like Marion Cunningham’s, the one I’ve made for ages. Much prefer this style of choc chip cookie over a dense one. The other thing I’ve done in recent years is to pay more attention to the quality of the ingredients. Truly makes a difference. Again, thank you.

    • Bruce Taylor

    Hey, David, did you ever work with Joanne Weir. Just curious because I watch her t.v. program and she occasionally mentions working at Chez Panisse.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      We worked together for several years at Chez Panisse. She mentioned me a few times in her book Kitchen Gypsy, which I profiled here. We had a lot of fun together and still keep in touch!

      • Michelle

      Has anyone tried adding walnuts?
      Did this require less/more of any other ingredient?

    • Sue A

    Many thanks for this recipe. I live very close to Gail’s bakery in my area of London, Queen’s Park. They make 3 different kinds of chocolate chip cookies but they aren’t crispy so will be try your version. By they way for your many UK fans, baker’s sugar is equivalent to our caster sugar is it not? I generally use caster sugar for all my baking.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Yes, it is similar to caster sugar. (There’s a more comprehensive guide to French sugars here.) Enjoy the cookies!

      • Sandra

      gail’s doesnt do good cookies – bena cookies are much better with that said neither are crispy

    • Sam Gardiner

    Please can you tell me if this book has metric weights printed along with the American cups etc or do you have to convert it yourself

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Yes, the recipes are all in both measurements.

        • Sam Gardiner

        Yippee – I’m going to buy this book – I love all the Alice Medrich books but it was a bit tricky converting them initially – just me being lazy! – thank you for your lovely blog – I live in Scotland but visit Paris and France often – you are one very lucky creature and not a bad baker
        Sam

          • Victoria

          I believe all Alice Medrich’s newest books have the weights in metric. I especially love her Double Oatmeal Cookies and Classic Ginger Cookies in Flavor Flours, both recipes followed exactly. I also love her Whole Wheat Sable in Pure Dessert, but the measurements there are in ounces, not grams. I have made these Chocolate Chip Cookies here, and I think they are fantastic!

    • Annette

    Thanks for the info on where to buy chocolate bars and chips in Paris! Could you help us source another baking item in Paris? The almond paste for your almond cake.
    I can find only marzipan in French stores!
    (I didn’t know about G. Detou when I was hunting for almond paste last October; maybe they have it?)
    Or perhaps there’s an internet vendor that delivers almond paste in France?
    I’m in the States at the moment, heading back to Paris in April. Although I can buy almond paste at home and bring it with me, I’d love to know where to buy it in France.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      You can find almond paste in some stores (like G. Detou, in the supermarket baking aisle or in markets that sell Middle Eastern ingredients) but it’s often tinted red or green since it’s used for decoration. I find, in general, the almond paste to have little almond flavor so I add a little almond extract to it. I often bring over almond paste from Love’n Bake (which seems to be hard to find – it looks like the company may have been sold to Barry-Callebaut?) although the American brands, like Solo and Odense, tend to have more almond flavor than what I find in France.

    • Alan Beall

    David, my Mom always dropped the pan of hot cookies on the counter from a foot away to make them thin, chewy, and crisp. She called that “slapping them down.”

    • Alice Aymerich

    Thank you David for this new recipe, i’m sharing with my friends on facebook! Today i baked the first batch of these amazing crispy cookies and i’m so pleased by the results, sadly i cant’ show you a pic here in the comment. Next weekend i’ll try to substitute half flour with almond flour.

    • jeyaj

    I live very close to Gail’s bakery in my area of London, Queen’s Park. They make 3 different kinds of chocolate chip cookies but they aren’t crispy so will be try your version. By they way for your many UK fans, baker’s sugar is equivalent to our caster sugar is it not? I generally use caster sugar for all my baking.

    • London Amanda

    I’m British based in UK. I’ve noticed that American dessert, cake and biscuit recipes tend to use more sugar than British recipes. Could I cut down on the sugar without compromising the crispiness of these delicious looking biscuits?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I haven’t tried them with less sugar. I wrote about the role of sugar in baking, and what can happen when you reduce it here: Baking Ingredients and Substitutions. If you do try them with a smaller amount of sugar, let us know how they turn out!

    • Elizabeth

    Have you ever tried substituting honey or maple syrup for sugar in these cookies and if so what was the result? Many thanks in advance for your response (and your excellent work!)

    • elizabeth

    Please accept my apologies. I just read your lengthy post on substitutions. I will try honey and experiment with it. I recently used honey in a vanilla ice cream and the creamy quality of the result was perfect. ( However, added tapioca because I used whole milk and no cream, hoping the tapioca would thicken the ice cream and ensure it would “jell”. The tapioca didn’t disolve and I didn’t care for the bits I could taste. I’ll continue to experiment. I’m after a heart healthy ice cream

      • Judith Lehman

      I tried high gluten flour and it makes a lovely, chewy cookie. I weigh the flour the same as I usually would but it absorbs more of the very little liquid and gives the cookie wonderful “chew”.

      • jane

      heart healthy ice cream = frozen bananas and any other flavor mixed in: berries/cocoa powder/caramel syrup/chopped nuts or coconut flakes etc. No need for any dairy at all. I love to add matcha to frozen bananas – that’s it. So good.

        • elizabeth

        Thank Jane. So you don’t use an ice cream maker. You just freeze and mash the frozen fruits? (I love to freeze banana sections and eat them as a frozen treat)

    • suyin

    baked yesterday and today – an excellent recipe!

    • Karura

    This blog recommends so many great recipe books – my Amazon wishlist has really grown while I figure out how to add more shelf space for them all (I too prefer a physical recipe book).

    • Harry

    I had to bend this recipe a little (didn’t blend the white sugar and I had to sub 50% whole wheat flour) and they came out amazingly!

    My former chocolate chip cookie recipe doesn’t have any water at all. What does adding water to a baked good do to the texture, or why is it added here? Thanks!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      It helps them spread, which helps them in the “crispy” department.

    • Victoria

    I made these cookies following the recipe instructions exactly, and they are wonderful – and look exactly like yours. I usually have India Tree Caster Sugar on hand but did not have enough so I put regular granulated sugar in my Vitamix. Warning – I ended up with powdered sugar. To anyone using a Vitamix to do this, the way it worked for me was to put it on Number 3 and pulse it, checking often, until the crystals were superfine before they turned into powder. It didn’t take long, and it worked well. No harm done; I will use the powdered sugar for the delicious Financiers in My Paris Kitchen! They are on regular rotation around here.

    • jane

    I prefer my chocolate chip cookies to resemble shar pei puppies, as these do, lol. I’m also into the hybrid version of crispy edges and flat but chewy centers.

    • Kimberly

    As for food is love…ask 10 people and/or 10 chefs and you will get 10 different answers.
    It’s your opinion and you can have one. ;) But i will say this, you write with passion and for me, that’s why I keep reading your blog and buy your books.

    • Tara

    I made these cookies yesterday and they are incredible… definitely my new favourite! Thank you so much for the recipe.

    • Stephanie Dore

    All my adult life I’ve been searching for THE cookie recipe. This is it. A perfect recipe.

      • Stephanie Bell

      That’s exactly what I think. This is the recipe I’ve been looking for for years! They are sensational!

      -(also) Stephanie

    • Taipan Lalo

    I have tried this recipe a couple of times now. To get the intended crispiness, turn off the oven and leave the cookies inside the oven with the oven door a couple of inches ajar to cool down. Remove when the oven has cool down completely.

      • D.Hannon

      Thank you for your excellent suggestion. It makes all the difference in the world. Doing this final step exactly as you’ve written gives the super crisp cookie I’ve long been looking for.

    • Susan

    I made these cookies and they are delicious. My first sheet pan were still a little soft in the center so I placed the next pan full on the very top rack and the risen heat seemed to take care of that.
    I have a gripe about chocolate chips that has been brewing for the past 10 years, or thereabout. They are too hard! They are fine when warm from the oven and the next few hours, but then they become chocolate pellets that crisp as the cookie softens! What is going on? I know they need to be a little firmer to hold their shape, but IMO..they should be able to melt on the tongue when bitten into in order to meld with the cookie base. Is this not possible?

      • Susan

      btw..I have tried every brand of choc chips and many brands of bar chocolate, too. My only success (and it could be a fluke of the weather) has been with a Cadbury Milk Chocolate bar. It’s texture was okay, but I don’t always want to use milk chocolate..I personally like the more bitter dark chocolate better.

    • Catrinka

    These cookies are fantastic and met with instant fanfare and raves. Thank you for another keeper recipe, David!
    I froze some I had left over and surprisingly they are even better after being frozen for a few days. They come back to room temp quickly for serving. While still crisp, they’re slightly chewier, the caramel flavor is more pronounced and the chocolate chips seem more flavorful than before freezing them.
    Wondering if this is my imagination? I live in the tropics so maybe that’s part of it. Anyone else tried this?

    • Monique

    Hi David! These cookies came out perfect! My new go to chocolate chip cookie recipe. Thank you :)

    • Nick

    I was in Halifax Nova Scotia last summer and had the most beautiful, wafer thin chocolate chip cookies that were packed with a ton of toasted sesame seeds. It was a match made in heaven. This looks to be the base for that recipe

    • Monica and Dani

    Just made these cookies with my daughter. The best cookies I’ve ever baked. I couldn’t find the fine sugar so I just used regular granulated sugar and they still came out perfect; chewy inside and crisp outside with those beautiful rings at the edge.
    A keeper!
    Thanks so much for the recipe!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Glad you liked them and thanks for letting us know that regular (non-superfine) works, too : )

    • Stephanie Chapman

    Well, if we’re talking Food as Love, chocolate chip cookies (thin ones) would be precisely in that category for me. My grandmother’s large tins of chocolate chip cookies are thin and crispy and the family joke is that she doesn’t really tell us the truth of how she does it. She swears it is just the recipe exactly as written on the Nestle TollHouse chocolate chips bag, but when I try to make them they only turn out soft and “normal.” So yes, it was an act of love when I went through several different pans, made sure I had normal butter and white sugar, etc. to try and duplicate her thin cookies only by using the exact recipe. I succeeded, by the way, with using the cheapest ingredients I could find, and a very thin, cheap cookie pan. And I loved them.

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      One of the challenges of writing recipes and including things like baking times, etc, is that all ovens are different, ingredients vary, and even the material of baking sheets can change the baking time, and texture of the cookies. Your grandmother (mine too) are from a time when people didn’t rely so heavily on recipes, and cooked and baked by intuition, rather than a fixed set of rules (and numbers). Am glad that you were able to create exactly the cookies that you wanted…she would be proud :)

    • Jessica

    Trying these tonight.

    If you ever find yourself across the channel, Sally Clarke’s chocolate chip cookies (they sell little bags of them in the shop) are the best I’ve ever had.

    • Katie

    My husband claims these are the best cookies he has ever tasted. (We are currently living abroad in Vietnam, so there is an element of memory lapse/nostalgic-craving working in my favor here). I didn’t have superfine sugar, so actually ended up grinding some regular granulated white sugar in a mortar and pestle. It was time consuming but it worked! I initially tried the sugar in a blender, but found it turned to powder way too quickly. With the mortar and pestle, I could control the results much better. Highly recommend this recipe. I plan on baking a second batch this afternoon to give to friends. No time like now to spread some kindness in the form of cookies out into the world…

    • Jan

    David, I am new to your work. I just threw out every recipe I have ever had for chocolate chip cookies. These are incredible. They are the perfect thin, crispy cookie, while at the same time chewy and heavenly.
    Thank you and I will be checking your recipes out regularly. Fantastic

    Your best new fan, Jan

    • jhon

    I don’t know to attribute it to, but when I made chocolate chip cookies in my oven in France last summer, they all came out like this–when I was aiming for a chewier, softer cookie! I was using the T flour (T65?) closest to American, Arm & Hammer baking soda, French sugar and eggs, American brown sugar, Nestle chocolate chips, and French butter. I even chilled the dough. I was also following the Toll House recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag.

    • Karen Yip

    I made these and was so happy they turned out crisp all the way through. Mine did not wrinkle around the edges but had an overall brown color vs browner around the edges. Everyone loved them so I am making them again.

A

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