Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe By Weight

Mexican food is at a premium here. Good luck acquiring jalapeño peppers with the kind of consistent heat of the chilies sold in the USA. Bagels are just better on the East Coast, especially in New York. While we can find all of those things, there’s one childhood item that’s surprisingly difficult to find in Europe.

That hard-to-find item is a good Chocolate Chip Cookie.

We also agreed that other expats must feel the same way. Fast forward a few weeks and we’ve now constructed a version of the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that lists every ingredient, except for the eggs, in grams.

And the best part? Not only does this recipe makes baking easier, but the by weight approach also creates consistently great cookies whether you’re in Europe or America.

Our recipe is so easy to follow.

You don’t have to worry about measuring the flour with a measuring cup. You don’t have to wonder if you’ve properly packed the brown sugar. All you have to do is weigh the ingredients.

And, so long as you use a fine salt like Morton’s and don’t forget to take the cookies out of the oven, you should achieve ideal results every time you follow it. Hooray!

The list of necessary ingredients is super simple if you’re baking Chocolate Chip Cookies. Here’s the full list:

If you’re an expat, you may need to make some extra efforts since some of the ingredients, namely dark brown sugar and chocolate chips, aren’t always easy to find. Surprisingly bags of Nestle’s Semi-Sweet Toll House Morsels aren’t commonly sold in European grocery stores.

Pro Tip
If you can’t find brown sugar or semi-sweet chocolate chips at an international grocery store, you should be able to order them from an internet shopping site like Amazon.

As we noted above, Nestle’s Semi-Sweet Toll House Morsels are not a common grocery store item in Europes since European supermarkets more typically sell dark chocolate chips. Unless you want to use dark chocolate chips, the better move is to buy semi-sweet chocolate chips at an American expat store.

Another option is to chop chocolate chunks but be aware that the chunks need to be small enough to mix in the dense cookie dough. Also be aware that this option creates extra work.

Any American all-purpose flour will work in this recipe. Stay away from bread flour since the higher protein content in these flours will cause your cookies to become too chewy.

Since we live in Lisbon, we typically use a common flour labeled 55 non self rising for bolos (i.e. cakes in Portuguese). It’s similar to the flour classification system found in France. This flour type works great.

Finding the right butter to use seems difficult but it should be fairly simple. You can buy a tub or package of good quality butter and then weigh it.

We’ve found 227 grams of butter to be ideal in this recipe. Also, we consider salted butter to be a ‘better butter’ for this recipe. We love salt and the flavor that it adds to our cookies.

Pro Tips
Make sure your butter is softened to a moderate room temperature of around 70°f / 21°c before using it. Also, make sure not to over mix your butter or your cookies will spread and flatten.

Granulated sugar is readily available throughout most of the world. If you can’t find white granulated sugar, you could use a course sugar. However, you would need to grind it in a food processor.

Pro Tip
Don’t use powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar as it’s commonly called around the world.

While we’ve noticed that large eggs are a few grams heavier in Europe than in the United States, we’ve noticed no material impact in this recipe. In other words, our recipe calls for two large eggs. Period.

In our experience, the precise size of the eggs makes a nominal difference in the finished product. Let us know if you find otherwise.

Baking soda or Sodium Bicarbonate, as it’s known around the world, adds rise to the cookies.

We simply weighed a teaspoon of baking soda and it measured 5 grams. You could add an extra gram if you want fluffier cookies. However, 5 grams of baking soda works just fine in this recipe.

We also use 5 grams Vanilla Extract in this recipe.

Five grams doesn’t seem like a lot but it’s just the right amount. This recipe is proof that a little bit of Vanilla Extract goes a long way.

As we noted above, we love salt for the zing that it brings to Chocolate Chip Cookies. Whether or not you love salt too, this ingredient is essential.

Fun Fact
Some chefs we know add a layer of flake salt to their finished cookies for even more zing.

Note that we place our cookie mixture in the fridge overnight before baking our cookies.

While you could bake your cookies immediately after making your dough, we encourage you to give your cookie mixture some time to rest in the refrigerator. We recommend chilling the dough for at least 2 hours or overnight (maximum 24 hours). This extra step improves the flavor and texture of the cookies.

Okay, now it’s time to preheat your oven to 375°f / 190°c. and bake the cookies!

The first step is to place the flour, baking soda and salt in a small mixing bowl and whisk these dry ingredients.

Next, place the brown and white sugars along with the butter into a large high-sided mixing bowl.

Use an electric mixer to mix the sugars and butter until these ingredients are just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix.

Use a tablespoon to ‘drop’ the cookies on a baking sheet.

Oven sizes vary so the amount of cookies you’ll be able to bake on each sheet will vary too. In the USA, you may be able to fit 12 cookies (or more) on a half sheet pan but baking sheets are smaller in Europe.

Pro Tip
Placing a sheet of parchment paper on the pan is not necessary but it makes the pan easier to clean.

Bake the cookies in your pre-heated oven for 8 to 12 minutes until the cookies are browned to your liking. We know that may seem like a large spread of time, but every oven varies. We have a convection oven which tends to bake the cookies faster.

In other words, KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR COOKIES!

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