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.)
Made these cookies tonight; so good. I read the other comments beforehand and also sprinkled sea salt on the cookies while they were still warm, I did not have unsalted butter so I left the tsp of salt out of the receipe. Cookies and milk good combo!
We ate the first batch for Christmas already. I baked them and put them in the freezer- not a good hiding place because my husband would just take one out and microwave for 12 seconds. Second batch this morning. Perfect thin, crisp and buttery! I always follow the recipe exactly. Love your recipes and your blog- such helpful hints. Just made the buckwheat for the gf crowd.
Sheesh ~ the freezer is never a good hiding place…I tried that this week with my peanut butter truffles…:/
Can this dough be made ahead and frozen?
Yes, that’s fine.
I made these yesterday, with 2 changes. Because I didn’t have unsalted butter, I didn’t add any salt to the dough, but sprinkled a very slight pinch of sea salt on each cookie when I took them out of the oven.
The second change was that I replaced the cinnamon with 1/4 tsp of fine instant coffee powder. Mainly because I planned on making Snickerdoodles today, which feature cinnamon. Also because I had recently read an article that recommended using just a touch of coffee to cookies that use chocolate to make the flavor a bit deeper.
It is an interesting flavor addition.
Thanks for figuring out the thinand crispy chocolate chip recipe for me! I usually follow the Toll House recipe and it always seems to turn out different. I don’t like a soft, fluffy chocolate chip cookie, so you’ve saved me from them for life! The flavor is amazing and buttery, too
Made these cookies today. Tastes absolutely delish but mine didn’t flatten in the oven . It’s like done shaped cookies . Where could I have gone wrong ?
It’s possible you had a bit too much flour. Make sure to measure it with the ‘fluff-scoop-and level’ method for accuracy.
I haven’t made yet but I have a question
do they freeze? well? thank you
Sure, they’ll freeze well, just be sure to pack them carefully so they don’t break.
Is 1 teaspoon of salt correct? I like a hint of salt in my sweets but these were very salty.
It is correct, but you may prefer less. It’s also possible that the salt didn’t get thoroughly mixed into your dough, that sometimes happens to me and I get uneven saltiness in cookies.
Perfectly crisp, thin cookie! And it works every time I use this recipe- follow amounts! And they taste buttery!
Thanks Lynn!
Thank you thank you thank you. These are delicious, the flavor is amazing. they’re so thin and crispy. Better than Tates!
OMG – Thank you, these make the house smell absolutely HEAVENLY & they taste Heavenly too. Could barely wait for them to cool so I could sneak a taste. Absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing your recipe. It’s a keeper. Plan to make some with coconut & other options. Yum! Made mine with macadamia nuts & pecans this morning.
Had planned to buy some Tates & they had none on the shelves in our grocery store. Unbelievable, however now I’m glad they didn’t because I love these.