[1] Generally, the recipe starts with a dough composed of flour, butter, both brown and white sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips, eggs, and vanilla.

The most notable chocolate chip cookie recipe was invented by American chef Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1938.

Wakefield gave Nestle the recipe for her cookies and was paid with a lifetime supply of chocolate from the company.

Hundreds of soldiers wrote home asking their families to send them Toll House cookies, and Wakefield received letters from around the world requesting her recipe,[9][10] helping spread their popularity beyond the east coast.

[12] Sue Brides, a baker who worked with Ruth Graves Wakefield at the Toll House Inn, passed down the original recipe to her daughter, Peg, who shared it in a 2017 interview:[3] Chocolate chip cookies are commonly made with white sugar; brown sugar; flour; salt; eggs; a leavening agent such as baking soda; a fat, typically butter or shortening; vanilla extract; and chocolate pieces.

[13] Regardless of ingredients, the procedure for making the cookie is fairly consistent in all recipes: First, the sugars and fat are creamed, usually with a wooden spoon or electric mixer.

[14] There are at least three national (U.S./North America) chains that sell freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in shopping malls and standalone retail locations.