How Valerie Bertinelli Amps Up Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's hard to find a bad chocolate chip cookie. While some might be chewier or crunchier, or have a different ratio of chips to batter, they're always going to be pretty good. However, the fact that in their basic form chocolate chip cookies are already good doesn't mean you shouldn't try to make them amazing. And there are some surprisingly simple changes you can make that will take your cookies in a whole new direction. The best upgrade to your chocolate chip cookies is going to depend on your own tastes, but if you like a crunchy cookie, then Valerie Bertinelli's personal trick will be the perfect hack.

Food Network's Valerie Bertinelli likes to add a little something extra along with the chocolate chips in her cookies: Toffee bits. It's a shockingly easy addition as they come in the same sort of bag as chocolate chips and can be added at the same step in the recipe. Bertinelli explains that they're a natural addition to a sugary, buttery cookie mix: "Toffee is basically butter and sugar that's been cooked down...So when these go into the cookie, you're just adding more butter and more sugar. What could be wrong with that?" The end result? Chocolate chip cookies that have "this beautiful crackle" as you eat them.

Valerie Bertinelli notes that her take on chocolate chip cookies is an imitation of her favorite cookie shop: Famous Amos' original store, which opened on Sunset Boulevard in 1975. But with her recipe, you can create Bertinelli's cookie in your own kitchen with a standard sugar cookie recipe, some chocolate chips, some toffee bits, and some chopped walnuts.

Bertinelli measures her chocolate chips for her cookies by heart and argues that you might as well use the whole bag. After all, "Who's counting?" Added to that is half a cup of toffee bits and one cup of walnuts. She does note that the toffee bits are the key and that if there's a nut allergy then leaving the walnuts out is just fine. Those additions need to be folded in just until they're combined,  being careful not to over-mix the dough and build up too much gluten. Then she recommends using a 1-inch cookie scoop (overflowing with dough) to shape the cookies. Throw them in the oven and they'll spread to delicious thin, crispy cookies.