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.)
Perfect recipe with a few tweaks @5000 ft. Reduce 1 T for both brown and white sugars, reduce baking soda by 1/4 tsp and reduce flour by 1 T. Bake @325 for 15 mins., rotating pans mid-bake.
This is my favorite choc chip recipe! I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect!
I have made this recipe soooo many times since I discovered it around Christmas time last year. These cookies are perfect for the thin and crispy cookie lover — and way better than Tate’s for sure! I tried a bag of theirs after making these and they taste dry and stale compared to these. A few times I drizzled a little molasses in the dough when creaming the sugars together which definitely adds an even richer taste. I don’t always do that, just when I feel like it.
The other variation I came up with is to make these into a Matcha/white chip cookie. So simply adding 15-20g of matcha powder and using white chocolate instead. They turn out fantastic and have been a big hit with my friends who like matcha. Just an idea I wanted to share!
Thanks for such a fantastic recipe that I’ll be making forever and will probably be an important core memory for my kids lol.
I can’t wait to try your matcha variation April, I have everything in my pantry right now, thanks!
I have tried a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes searching for the ultimate cookie and this is the best by far! I was skeptical about the cinnamon but added it anyway and it really does add something special… its just a hint, not cinnaminy at all. so good, thank you !!!!!
These are GREAT! Have been searching for a recipe like back in the day, that is toffee like, chewy and crispy all at the same time. This is it!
Thank you somuch for the recipe! I have been searching for the longest time for a thin and crispy choco chips cookie as my daughter and I love this kind of cookie. It is so yummy and crispy!
I used gluten free flour (King Arthur measure for measure) and kept all the other ingredients the same, and these came out perfect! I only needed to cook them for 9 minutes. Once they cooled, they had the perfect texture of a thin and crispy cookie. Thank you for the recipe!
Wow, that’s great news, it’s a rare gluten free cookie that’s crispy!
Would making these with sugar substitute work? I have made some sugar free cookies and they we not good. Thanks
I haven’t tried that so not sure, Lynda, maybe another reader can answer that one.
How would I change this recipe to bake them at high altitude?
General tips include: reduce the amount of baking powder or baking soda by about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon for every teaspoon called for in the original recipe.
Decrease sugar by around 1 to 2 tablespoons per cup of sugar used in the recipe.
Adjust baking temperature slightly (around 15-25 degrees Fahrenheit) to help the cookies set faster and prevent excessive spreading.
Increase baking time slightly. Keep a close eye on the cookies and bake them until they are golden brown around the edges and set in the center.
I highly recommend doing a few test cookies to adjust specifically for this recipe and your altitude.
love this recipe,I have made it and added chopped pecans .It’s the best and so easy alos banging the cookie sheet on the oven rack durring the last couple of minutes ensures flat cookies