If you love a thin, crisp chocolate chip cookie, this is the one. Buttery, golden, and packed with toffee-like flavor, these Tate’s-style cookies bake up with that satisfying snap that gets rave reviews.
If you love Tate’s thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies, you’re absolutely going to flip for this recipe. The cookies bake up super crisp and buttery, and taste even better than the store-bought ones!
What readers are saying about these thin and crispy cookies
➡ Ummm, okay — this recipe is from heaven. Thank you!
➡ Sue. I just deleted every other chocolate chip cookie from my Pinterest! This recipe is the best I’ve ever made.
➡ I’ve been searching for a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe for YEARS…this is it!
➡ These are PERFECT! They’re actually better than Tate’s.
What’s your chocolate chip cookie style? Soft and plush, classic, or thin and crisp? If most of us are honest, we’ll take a chocolate chip cookie any way we can get it ~ but thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies have been on my radar ever since I grabbed a bag of Tate’s at the supermarket. They’re light, snappy, buttery, and dangerously easy to keep eating. I’m so glad I nailed this recipe because mine have that same delicate crunch, with even better homemade flavor.
The secrets to a truly thin and crispy chocolate chip cookie
Most of the time I’m aiming for a nice chewy cookie, like my Favorite Chewy Ginger Cookies or my Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies. But here the goal is different: crisp all the way through.
- Thin, crispy cookies usually have a higher proportion of butter and sugar, which encourages the dough to spread in the oven. As the cookies bake, that thin layer sets into a golden, crunchy texture with lots of buttery toffee flavor.
- The other key is baking them long enough for moisture to evaporate ~ pale cookies will stay bendy, while golden cookies cool into that crisp snap.
- And don’t judge them too soon ~ they’ll be soft when they first come out of the oven, then crisp up as they cool.
A few ingredient notes
The ingredient list will look familiar because it’s basically the same as most chocolate chip cookies. The difference here will be in the proportions.
- Quality counts: Use good-quality butter for baking any cookie recipe. Cheap brands add water and won’t bake up as well.
- Ditto for your vanilla extract: quality really matters here; the flavor of discount brands is flat and artificial.
- Cinnamon! A tiny amount of cinnamon adds a je ne sais quoi to my thin and crispy cookies, many readers have commented on this!
Tips for baking Tate’s-style cookies
Baking details that matter
- Be precise; don’t be tempted to mess with the ingredients or amounts.
- Line baking sheets with parchment.
- Bake one pan at a time.
- Make sure your oven temperature is accurate.
Getting the spread right
- Don’t chill the dough. Chilled dough won’t spread as well.
- Use a slightly heaped tablespoon of dough per cookie. It looks small, but the cookies spread quite a bit.
- Give them plenty of room on the baking sheet. I can only fit 5–6 cookies at a time.
- If your first tray spreads too thin or looks greasy, stir 1–2 tablespoons of flour into the remaining dough before baking the next tray.
Cooling and storing crispy cookies
- Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them. They need that time to firm up.
- Transfer them carefully to a rack and let them cool completely.
- Store loosely covered at room temperature once fully cool. A cookie tin is ideal ~ you want to protect them without trapping moisture.
- If they lose a little crunch, pop them in a 300°F oven for a few minutes, then let them cool again.
So which is better, Tate’s or my cookies?
I have the utmost respect for Tate’s, and in fact our ingredient lists are exactly the same. But if you love to bake, these homemade cookies make sense on a few different levels.
They’re cheaper! You could spend up to $18 buying the same amount of cookies.
Homemade cookies can use higher quality ingredients (butter, chocolate) than commercial recipes baked at scale.
The flavor of homemade cookies always trumps store-bought, no matter how good the store-bought ones are.
And once you’ve mastered this thin and crispy chocolate chip cookie, you can have them anytime you want, and you can customize them in all sorts of ways. I’m planning to tackle Tate’s coconut crisps next 🙂
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Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Video
Equipment
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature and soft but not melted
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, measured carefully: fluff, spoon into the cup, and level off. Too much flour will make chewier cookies.
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Note: the parchment paper is important for preventing sticking, and getting the right texture in these cookies. Don't substitute silicone mats.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or with electric beaters, cream together the butter and sugars until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
- Add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture, and mix until well combined.
- Add the flour mixture to the bowl in two batches, mixing after each addition just until everything is combined. Add the chocolate chips, and mix briefly once more to incorporate them evenly.
- Scoop the dough into portions a little larger than 1 tablespoon, then roll into balls. Space them evenly on your baking sheet, leaving about 2-3 inches between each cookie to allow for spreading in the oven.
- Bake for about 14-15 minutes until the cookies are a rich golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. They will be very soft when they come out of the oven but will crisp up as they cool. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store loosely covered at room temperature once completely cool.
Notes
Nutrition
More thin and crispy cookie recipes
Double Chocolate Thin and Crispy Cookies
Double chocolate thin and crispy cookies are just like the Tate’s cookies you love (but hate to pay for!)
Thin and Crispy White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Thin & Crispy White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies have the perfect balance of sweet, tart, and CRUNCH!
Thin and Crispy Sugar Cookies
Thin and Crispy Sugar Cookies are a Tate's style crunchy cookie that are deliciously easy (it's a no-chill no-roll drop cookie dough.)
These were delicious and beautiful. The only changes I made was to reduce chips to 1 cup (I don’t like them loaded) and added 3/4 cup chopped pecans. I flattened them lightly with a spatula when they came out of the oven and dusted them with salt. This is the only recipe I’ll use from now on.
The ingredients are NOT the same as Tate’s. You added cinnamon. I find no cinnamon on the Tate’s ingredient list, and it gives the cookies an odd taste
Yes, we did sneak in a pinch of cinnamon, we think it brings out the flavors nicely…but feel free to omit next time. These are pretty spot on, otherwise!
Hi!
I made these today and they were just wrong. The taste is amazing Sue, but they were kind of really crispy and really greasy. I don’t know what I did wrong. Did I do something wrong? Thanks
Hi Sue!
Trying to make my husband these cookies but he has always said he would like to find the perfect chocolate chipless thin cookies. He loves Tate’s but wishes they didn’t have chips.
How long would you recommend baking these if the chips are removed?
Still a little over a spoonful of batter or will that change?
Thank you!
I don’t think you’d need to make any changes to leave out the chips, just do a test cookie or two to see. Hope your husband likes them!
Made these and they’re perfect. Better than Tate’s which I can’t eat because they’re made in a plant that processes tree nuts, also. My husband said these are his all time favorites. And he was a big Tate’s fan. Thanks for creating this recipe!
I’m thrilled! We just bought Tate’s the other day and I wondered why I didn’t just bake up another batch of these!
I made these for my husband because he loves thin and crispy cookies and they were a hit with everyone. I love the hint of cinnamon.
That cinnamon is always a surprise!
Made these ahead for Thanksgiving. They are just as you described. Mine aren’t as flat as yours but damn are they delicious. I froze them and just tried one. They freeze beautifully! I will make again. A nice change from my Mrs Fields copycat recipe that I’ve been making for over 20 years.
Thanks so much Su ~ if you want yours even flatter maybe try a little less flour? And sometimes different cookie sheets make a difference.
These cookies are great! Thank you for the recipe!
Please do the gluten free Tates next! They just use rice flour!
I’ll give it a test Kei!
OK. So I couldn’t wait. Just made these and OMG, they taste just as good if not better than Tate’s and look exactly as in your photos Sue! I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way these cookies turned out! I used plant based “butter” and used about a 1/4 tsp butter extract, but other than that, stuck to the recipe. Baked 15 minutes in my oven. They are PERFECTION! Thank you so, so much, Sue!!
I’m SO happy to hear this Rose, I was so excited to share this recipe 🙂 Can you share what brand of plant based butter you used?
Yes, of course, Sue. I used Becel brand. Worked a treat! SOOOOOO happy!!!
Omg! Omg! Omg! Sue – I’ve been waiting for someone to come up with a Tate’s thin chocolate chip copycat cookie recipe! I am SO excited! Can’t wait to give it a try and I’ll rate and comment when I do. Omg – thank you!
Tate published its recipe…almost identical to the Toll House recipe, but slightly less flour, a little bit of extra water, and uses Silpats rather than parchment.
Sounds. Perfect. Any attempt with gluten free?
I haven’t tried but if you want to, I’d try a good quality gf baking mix like King Arthur Flour, or Bob’s Red Mill.