Alton Brown’s Secret to the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve baked a lot of things in my life: Warm bread kneaded by hand and braided into hearty loaves; Spongy vanilla cupcakes with meticulously-piped pink buttercream frosting; Pavlovas topped with homemade whipped cream and drizzled with citrus berry jam.

While my taste-testers are always excited to eat whatever I make, nothing beats the joy on their faces when I tell them I’ve made a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies. This American dessert is a classic for a reason. I recently tried Alton Brown’s chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe, which may take the prize for best of all. 

How To Make Alton Brown’s Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Alton Brown named these cookies “The Chewy,” and I’m sure you can guess why. Unlike other cookies that are crisp and flat, Alton’s are dense and chewy. The hefty and rotund cookies have the slightest crunch when enjoyed straight from the oven. Inside, they’re marvelously soft, filled with gooey, rich chocolate in every bite. 

The cookies’ unique texture is thanks to a secret ingredient: Alton uses bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. Bread flour contains more protein than all-purpose flour, which causes higher levels of gluten development. This increased gluten makes the cookies chewier and gives them a better rise. 

According to his website, Alton’s cookies are an adaptation of the classic back-of-the-bag Nestlé Toll House recipe. In addition to substituting bread flour, Alton also increases the chewiness by changing the recipe’s brown-to-white sugar ratio and uses an egg yolk and milk instead of an entire second egg. Alton also uses melted butter instead of softened. 

The cookies are extra chocolatey, calling for 12 ounces (2 cups) of semi-sweet chocolate chips, the same quantity used in the original Nestlé recipe. I assume this is because Nestlé wanted customers to use up their entire 12-ounce bag of chocolate. The abundance of gooey chocolate inside each cookie is a delightful surprise. 

Tips for Making Alton Brown’s Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Alton warns against halving the recipe, which makes sense—splitting a single egg yolk would be impractical. Instead, he recommends forming all the cookie dough into balls and freezing any you don’t want to bake right away. And if you don’t like the idea of an extra chocolatey cookie, cut the chocolate chips down by a quarter—there’ll still be enough. 

Since cookies generally burn easily, I recommend keeping a close eye on the oven as they bake. Remove them when they’re a deep golden brown. They will continue to cook for a couple of minutes outside the oven. 

Eat these cookies warm from the oven or reheat them to enjoy the gooey pull of chocolate. Serve with a glass of milk, coffee, or vanilla ice cream.