DoubleTree Chocolate Chip Cookies are a signature treat for guests when they check into the Hilton hotel. Up until now, the recipe was a well guarded secret. However, on April 9, 2019, DoubleTree released the recipe for its iconic cookie. When I read about the release, I knew that I had to try the recipe. The verdict – awesome! The cookies are loaded with more chocolate chips and nuts than a traditional chocolate chip cookie.
Ingredients
What is it that makes the DoubleTree cookie stand out from an ordinary chocolate chip cookie? The answer – several things.
At the basic level, the cookie dough is pretty standard in terms of most of its ingredients – butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, salt, all-purpose flour, chocolate chips and nuts.
However, here are the differences:
- Quantity of Chocolate Chips: The traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe generally calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips. The DoubleTree recipe increases the quantity to 2 ⅔ cups. As an aside, I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips rather than semisweet chocolate chips because that’s what I had on hand.
- Quantity of Nuts: Many chocolate chip cookie recipes call for 1 cup of nuts. The DoubleTree recipe increases the quantity of nuts to 1 ¾ cups. The DoubleTree recipe called for walnuts, but I used pecans instead.
- Oats: Generally, chocolate chip cookie recipes do not call for the addition of nuts, while the DoubleTree recipe calls for the addition of ½ cup of oats.
- Cinnamon: It’s not unusual for cookie recipes to call for cinnamon. However, this is generally not the case for chocolate chip cookie recipes. The DoubleTree recipe calls for just a pinch of cinnamon – not enough to really stand out, but a very subtle undertone to the cookie.
- The “Secret” Ingredient – Lemon Juice: When I saw that the DoubleTree recipe called for ¼ teaspoon of fresh lemon juice, I scratched my head and wondered why. How could such a small amount of lemon juice do anything at all? Then, I remembered one of my “chemistry” lessons from the Master Taste Tester. Lemon juice is an acid while baking soda is a base. When lemon juice is combined with baking soda, the result is a chemical reaction that creates carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide causes the cookie to puff up! I suspect that you would get the same result if you used white vinegar in place of the lemon juice!
- Cooking Temperature: While not an ingredient, the 300°F cooking temperature of the DoubleTree cookie is much lower than the standard 350°F to 375°F temperature. Because of the lower temperature, the cooking time of the DoubleTree cookie is much longer. This enhances the flavor of the nuts and creates a more pronounced crunch around the edges.
Making the Dough for the DoubleTree Chocolate Chip Cookies
There really wasn’t anything special about making the dough for the DoubleTree Chocolate Chip Cookies. First, I beat together the butter and sugars on high speed with my electric mixer until they were well combined. This took about 2 minutes.
Next, I added the eggs (Photo 1), vanilla extract (Photo 2) and lemon juice (Photo 3) to the butter/sugar mixture. Then, I beat the mixture on high for about 2 minutes until it was light and fluffy (Photo 4).
After that, I added the salt, baking soda and cinnamon and beat the mixture for about 30 seconds until they were combined.
Then, I added the flour and oats, and beat the mixture on low speed just until the flour was combined. This took about 45 seconds.
Finally, I added the chocolate chips and nuts, and stirred the dough with a wooden spoon until everything was nicely combined.
Finishing the Cookies
I used a 1 ¾-inch ice cream scoop to portion out the cookie dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. The DoubleTree recipe called for using a larger scoop.
Being the geek that I am, I actually weighted each portion – 36 grams! The reason for weighing the dough was to ensure that each of the cookies was roughly the same size!
Once I had the dough portions, I rolled each piece into a ball, and flattened it to about ½-inch with damp fingers.
I popped the cookies into a preheated 300°F oven for about 18 minutes. After 18 minutes, the edges of the cookies were golden brown and the center was still soft.
I removed the cookies from the oven and per the DoubleTree recipe allowed them to cool on the baking sheet for about an hour. I’m not really sure that this was necessary, but oh well!
I ended up with 3 ½ dozen of amazing chocolate chip cookies. They were crispy crunchy around the edges with soft centers. Every bite was full of luscious chocolate and toasted pecans. Yum!
Chula’s Expert Tips
I recreated the DoubleTree Chocolate Chip recipe below. However, I did a few things a bit differently:
- Because I always weigh ingredients, I included the weights in the recipe in parenthesis.
- The recipe didn’t specify the type of butter. I used room temperature unsalted butter.
- I let the eggs come to room temperature before using them.
- Even though I generally use Kosher salt, I used table salt in this recipe.
- I used ⅛ teaspoon of ground cinnamon rather than a pinch as called for in the recipe
- I actually used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips as opposed to semisweet chocolate chips.
- I used toasted pecans instead of walnuts in the recipe. I toasted the pecans at 350°F for about 8 minutes until they were fragrant.
- I actually used an electric mixer rather than my stand mixer. It’s just too much trouble to lug the stand mixer out.
- I used a smaller ice cream scoop (1 ¾-inch diameter) than called for in the recipe (3 tablespoons). The reason was that I wanted smaller cookies. As a result of this, my cooking time was about 4 to 5 minutes less than called for in the recipe.
- The recipe doesn’t call for flattening the cookie dough before baking. However, a DoubleTree video showing how the cookies were made showed the chef flattening the cookie dough. This is something that I generally always do when making cookies. When I compared the cookies with and without the flattening, however, there was not any discernible difference.
- The DoubleTree recipe indicates that you can bake frozen cookie dough without thawing. I tried this and the result was a very fat and somewhat undercooked cookie. Therefore, I would suggest that if you freeze the cookies, either allow them to thaw before baking or thaw in the microwave for about 4 minutes on Power Level 1 before baking.
- The DoubleTree recipe indicates that it makes 26 cookies. However because I used a smaller ice cream scoop to portion the dough, I ended up with 3 ½ dozen cookies.
Other Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
If you like chocolate chip cookies, you should also try these amazing recipes:
- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies are the perfect marriage between two favorite cookies – chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies. They have the perfect texture of oatmeal cookies and are loaded with yummy chocolate chips and toasted pecan pieces.
- Tate’s Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies: Tate’s Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies are thin and crispy, and absolutely delicious. Even if you prefer soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, you’ll find it hard to resist these buttery cookies filled with yummy chocolate chips and toasted pecans.
- Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies: Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies have the quintessential buttery shortbread taste and texture with just a hint of coffee flavor to enhance the chocolate and the perfect amount of sweetness. They are super easy to make and are sure to impress!
- Chocolate Oatmeal Pecan Cookies: Chocolate Oatmeal Pecan Cookies are chocked full of gooey chocolate and toasted pecans. Their crispy edges and soft center make them the quintessential cookie.
- Neiman Marcus Cookies: These are the legendary $250 Neiman Marcus Cookies. Legend has it that Neiman Marcus charged a customer $250 for the recipe for these amazing cookies. It turns out that this is indeed a legend. Legend or not, the cookies are awesome.
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DoubleTree Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ pound butter (2 sticks, 8 ounces) (See Tip 2)
- ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (5.69 ounces)
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar (5.625 ounces)
- 2 large eggs (See Tip 3)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 ¼ cups flour (11.25 ounces)
- ½ cup rolled oats (2 ounces old-fashioned oats)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt (See Tip 4)
- Pinch cinnamon (See Tip 5)
- 2 ⅔ cups Nestle tollhouse semisweet chocolate chips (See Tip 6)
- 1 ¾ cups chopped walnuts (See Tip 7)
Instructions
- Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar in bowl of stand mixer on medium speed for about 2 minutes. (See Tip 8)
- Add eggs, vanilla and lemon juice with mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Then medium speed for about 2 minutes or until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl.
- With mixer on low speed, add flour, oats, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, blending for about 45 seconds. Do not overmix.
- Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Portion dough with a scoop (about 3 tablespoons) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart. (See Tips 9 and 10)
- Preheat oven to 300°F. Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and center is still soft.
- Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for about 1 hour.
- You can freeze unbaked cookies, and there’s no need to thaw. Preheat oven to 300°F and place frozen cookies on parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden brown and center is still soft. (See Tip 11)
- Yield: 26 cookies. (See Tip 12)
Chula's Expert Tips
- Because I always weigh ingredients, I included the weights in parenthesis.
- The recipe didn't specify the type of butter. I used room temperature unsalted butter.
- I let the eggs come to room temperature before using them.
- Even though I generally use Kosher salt, I used table salt in this recipe.
- I used ⅛ teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
- I actually used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips.
- I used toasted pecans instead of walnuts. I toasted the pecans at 350°F for about 8 minutes until they were fragrant.
- I actually used an electric mixer rather than my stand mixer. It's just too much trouble to lug the stand mixer out.
- I used a smaller ice cream scoop (1 ¾-inch diameter) because I wanted smaller cookies. As a result of this, my cooking time was about 4 to 5 minutes less than called for in the recipe.
- The recipe doesn't call for flattening the cookie dough before baking. However, a DoubleTree video showing how the cookies were made showed the chef flattening the cookie dough.
- The DoubleTree recipe indicates that it makes 26 cookies. However because I used a smaller ice cream scoop to partition the dough, I ended up with 3 ½ dozen cookies.
- I tried baking frozen cookies per the recipe. The resultant cookies came out very thick and a bit undercooked as this picture indicates. Then, I tried first thawing the frozen cookies in the microwave for about 4 minutes on Power Level 1 and then baking them. It really didn't seem to make much difference as to whether I flattened them before baking or not. Either way, they were perfect!
Granddaughter and I made these tonight. Came out wonderful
She and I weigh all things as described.
Good Granddad and Granddaughter night.
Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Marshall,
I’m so pleased that the cookie recipe worked for you and your granddaughter. I suspect she’ll remember the special time you had with her!
Chula