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
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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.)
I wish l could say this recipe worked. 14-15 minutes cooking!? They came out so dark. 9 minutes was better. Ended up adding a bit more flour to the remaining dough and they started to look like the ones pictured. Smelled delicious.. were crunchy but were kind of greasy( l used unsalted butter.
Sorry these didn’t work out for you, I always recommend doing a test cookie to see how your oven and baking pan work with my recipe. I’m glad you were able to settle on 9 minutes.
This recipe is just like Tates! I love them too and live near the East Moriches plant But can only smell them baking There’s nothing like hot out of the oven!
Good, except for the cinnamon. 1/4 teaspoon is overpowering.
As a crunchy cookie fan, I must say that these were truly amazing. Garnered rave reviews from all who tried them as well. Definitely my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe from now on. Thank you!!
Favorite cookies ever. Gone in a day!
These cookies were ok. The dough itself tasted flavorful. I was hoping for a Tates like cookie, but I found that 14 minutes was way too much time. The cookies were dark golden brown but were almost at the burnt consistency and overcooked. I would experiment and not cook too many at one time. I left the second batch of 6 in the oven 11 minutes and it seemed a bit better. The cookies spread as expected and came out more like Tates. I’ll have to experiment some more with the time to get it right. My oven it heating at the proper temperature of 350 using parchment paper.
These cookies are incredible. My teenager loves Tate’s so I made these for his birthday. Huge hit with the entire family. The browning of butter and sugars in the oven resulted in cookies that were gorgeous in appearance and flavor. Cookies are still crispy the next day. They may not last beyond that. I have a family full of chocoholics so I threw in an extra handful of chocolate chips, but to me the cookie part is the shining star with that caramelization and hint of cinnamon. I also used a tad under a tablespoon for each cookie and baked for about a minute or so less time. Thank you!
I veganised this recipe and it still came out great! Nice, thin, crispy and even chewy, my family and friends love them! Thanks so much for this recipe Bec I’ve finally found and settled on a chocolate chip recipe that I love!!
That’s great Robin, if you get a chance can you share the products you used?
For sure^^ I used the Country Crock Plant butter(the one with avocado oil). I didn’t have it unsalted so I just adjusted the salt levels in the recipe a bit, and then instead of using an egg, I made a flax egg, 3 tbsps of water to one tbsp of ground flaxseeds, it has to sit for about 5-10 mins. Then for the chocolate chips I just used plant based chips, they’re easy to find but unfortunately more expensive. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure the recipe would still work for me bc I changed the major ingredients so I was very pleasantly surprised that it did : ) I did keep the measurements and everything the same (minus the salt adjustment) just in case anyone else was wondering^^
Easy to prep, easy to bake, and absolutely delicious! My favorite chocolate chip recipe to date.
Yay ~ so happy you loved them, thanks for the review!
I live at 5000 ft and got perfect cookies by increasing oven temp to 360, decreasing baking soda to 1 tsp. And decreasing cooking time to 13 minutes. Yum!