America’s Test Kitchen Chocolate Chip CookiesABy Ashton · Updated July 14, 20264.646 reviews·Serves 2 dozenJump to Recipe Save Pin Add to Google posted by Ashton on July 14, 2026 With the craziness of the holiday season, I definitely dropped the ball on The Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment for a few weeks — but dry your tears, because I’m back and bringing you the America’s Test Kitchen chocolate chip cookies recipe today! 🍪 Be still my heart. Just a reminder — I’m attempting to find 52 different chocolate chips cookie recipes (theoretically, a year’s worth of recipes if I did one per week) and test them all out to find the absolute favorite, best chocolate chip cookie recipe already in existence, OR to use all this testing recipes experience to build one super cookie. Good progress so far, you guys! Why the America’s Test Kitchen Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Is So Special Today’s test subject: the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe straight from Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen. The unique thing here is brown butter — and I mean seriously unique. You melt tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, swirling until you get that gorgeous nutty aroma and dark golden brown color. The nonstick skillet works fine, though worth mentioning the dark color of the nonstick coating can make it tricky to judge doneness. That hot butter then goes straight into a large bowl with the dark brown sugar and a little extra butter to create the most dreamy toffee-like flavor. I literally can’t even. The Science Behind the Brown Butter Magic So what makes the browned butter flavor so insane? When you brown butter, you’re basically cooking off the water and toasting the milk solids — hello, deep notes of toffee and nutty flavor that a traditional recipe just can’t touch. Longtime ATK author and Cook’s Illustrated contributor explains it beautifully in terms of weeknight cooking inspiration: the process of resting the cookie dough after you whisk flour and dry ingredients together lets the moist brown sugar and sugar dissolve fully into the melted butter, giving you that richer flavor and chewy texture. You also use less protein from the flour mixture — purpose flour measured carefully — which means less structure and a more chewy chocolate chip cookie situation. Also! The egg yolk goes in separately from the egg whites, which is a classic ATK move for chewy centers. 🙌 Common Tricks and Techniques Worth Knowing There are a few common tricks in this recipe that set it apart from a toll house recipe or the original Ruth Wakefield toll house cookies. You’ll use 1½ tablespoons of whole milk stirred in with vanilla extract to hydrate the dough balls just right. Parchment paper on your baking sheets is non-negotiable — it helps the large cookies develop those crisp edges without overbaking. Place your oven rack in the middle position, and don’t skip the vegetable oil spray under the parchment if your baking sheets are older. The amount of butter and cup of sugar ratios here are very specific, so don’t eyeball it! This is repeat testing-level precision, friends. If you love that deep caramel flavor, knowing your winning brand of chocolate chips also matters — I’m partial to dark chocolate chips for that extra cacao bean richness. 😍 My Honest Thoughts on Texture — Chewy vs. Crispy Okay, full transparency — the only drawback for ME was texture. My cookies came out a little cake-y, thick and puffy rather than spread-out and wrinkly the way I love. No crispy chocolate chip cookies here! The ATK book photos show crispier cookies with crisp edges and more spreading — more of a middle ground between chewy cookies and crispy cookies — but mine stayed fat. Worth mentioning: I only made one batch, so no repeat testing to confirm I nailed it. The cookie sheet placement and oven temp (make sure it’s actually at high temperature!) could make a big difference. If a chewy, cakey kind of cookie is your jam, this is your perfect cookie. If you want crispy chocolate chip cookies with chewy centers, you might want to flatten those dough balls a little more before you bake cookies. If you’re on a chocolate kick, also check out these chewy chocolate chip cookies and these incredible caramel brownies — both absolute favorites around here! 💕 Final Verdict on These CC Cookies At the end of the day, the brown sugar cookies flavor and browned butter aroma in this favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe are next-level — honestly, the best smelling cookies I’ve made so far in this whole experiment. The deep brown sugar flavor, that nutty aroma, the cream butter-versus-melted butter debate — brown sugar cookies made with browned butter WIN on flavor every single time. Even if I was a little at my wit’s end last night trying to get them to spread, I’d 100% make this next recipe again just to sniff the kitchen. 😂 That’s it for recipe #10! If you want more chocolate-y goodness, my chocolate trifle and these red velvet cookies are calling your name — go make them all! America's Test Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookies Yield: 2 dozen Save this recipe for later: Save Pin Add to Google The unique thing about these cookies is the use of browned butter. Browning the butter creates a deep, toffee-like flavor that I really liked and definitely sets these apart from other CC cookies I've tried. Print Ingredients 14 tablespoons butter, divided 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon salt 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 1/4 cup chocolate chips Instructions Preheat oven to 375ºF. Prepare to baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Melt 10 tablespoons over medium-high heat in a 10-inch skillet. Stir continually until butter is dark golden brown and the aroma has become toffee-like. Transfer browned butter to a mixing bowl. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and stir until melted. Whisk in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt until incorporated. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk, for about 30 seconds, until smooth. Let rest for 3 minutes Whisk mixture again for 30 seconds. Then repeat the process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick and smooth. Use a rubber spatula to stir in the flour and baking soda, just until dough forms. Fold in the chocolate chips. Working with 3 tabelspoons of dough at a time, roll into balls and space 2 inches apart on the prepared sheets. Bake for 9-10 minutes until edges are golden brown. Cool on wire racks.
Love the idea of this experiment Ashton, and it’ll be interesting to see the results when you’re finished. But for these cookies, I tend to like the fat puffy cookies since they tend to be more chewy. Mine always tend to spread more so though (despite having an oven thermometer and chilling), so interesting to see yours didn’t. And I L.O.V.E. brown butter in chocolate chip cookies. Reply
I’ve made this recipe years ago. Actually in about 2012 or so, I made it quite a bit…or almost this recipe! See I would doctor it up and throw in a handful of oats or bit of PB (a 1/2 cup or so)…and my cookies would spread and flatten out but I always was tweaking and never following it down to the letter 🙂 Your cookies look wonderful to me and love this series! Reply
I’m with you on this one…a little crisper and less cakey is what I like. The photos look beautiful though. I WANT those napkins you have in the very first photo. They look gorgeous! Reply
So glad you posted these for today. On Monday I made the Martha Stewart recipe you had posted a good while back. I made the cookies in balls and froze them so I could cook a few whenever I wanted too. Last night I cooked 4 of them and 3 from another recipe I had made and froze also yesterday from another blog. They both spread thin and was nothing like the picture.I like a thicker chewy cookie. I used convection on my oven so not sure if that was it. I pulled up several reasons why cookies could spread. I never have that much of a problem when I make them with whole wheat flour. Strange!!! I like the looks of these cookies. Reply
Hmm, so weird! That Martha Stewart one is still my favorite so far! I will agree with you though– my stuff always comes out weird when I bake in my mom’s convection oven. I need to figure out adjustments for people who bake with convection… Reply
This are my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe in all the land! I’ve been making it for several years and people just go gaga for them. Yours look amazing but you’re right they do look different from ATK’s picture and from the results I always get. They flatten out really nicely but remain slightly thick with crisp edges and ultra chewy centers. The flavor has undertones of salted toffee that beats any CC cookie out there. I highly suggest you don’t give up on them and try them again, maybe this time weigh the ingredients; results will be more accurate. You’re gonna change your mind about the texture and they’ll most probably become your favorite too:) Reply
I’m definitely planning on trying these again- they come too highly recommended to give up on them just yet 🙂 Reply
I’ve been following your cookie experiment – love it! I was wondering if you’d be posting these. They’re my absolute favorite! They remind me of some I used to get at a little coffee shop that’s closed now. I’m surprised yours were cakey, though, as mine usually do flatten out some like it shows in ATK pictures, and have a crisp edge, but are soft and chewy on the inside. Either way, yours look great, too! Reply
I’m not convinced mine turned out quite right, although I’m not sure where I could have gone wrong! I may have to re-try these. The smell was too good to be disappointed by the texture! 🙂 Reply
I am a huge fan of their chocolate chip, oatmeal, dried cherry cookies (although I leave the dried fruit out and substitute with more chocolate!) I’m not a fan of this traditional recipe either… Reply
That is a lot of cookies! Yowsas. I usually love America’s Test Kitchen but I like mine more wrinkly and buttery and less cakey. I usually think it’s a flour thing. Though…too little flower and then you are up a creek again. I’m curious to see what your favorite cookies are at the end! Reply
These cookies are the ultimate chocolate chip cookie perfection! So delicious and easy to make. Thanks for sharing. Reply
