Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies are easy to bake for an everyday treat. This chocolate chip cookie recipe makes 24 cookies.
Make them to eat right away, or make the cookie dough batter to freeze and bake up just a few at a time.
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts
If you're a home baker, chances are you've probably made chocolate chip cookies before. They're a classic for a reason! We also love oatmeal raisin cookies, white chocolate chip pumpkin cookies and carrot cake cookies.
But have you ever tried making chocolate chip walnut cookies? They're SO good. I'm not exaggerating when I say that these cookies are some of the best I've ever had.
Trust me, you need to try them for yourself!
We all love old fashioned chocolate chip cookie recipes and this chocolate chip cookie recipe will take your cookies up a notch!
I love how the walnuts add a richness and extra crunch without making the cookies overly sweet.
Why you'll love these cookies
- Taste: These cookies are sweet like a chocolate chip cookie should be, paired with the crunch of chopped walnuts, which are barely noticeable but tone down the sweetness of the baked cookies just a bit.
- Texture: I’m totally on team chewy cookies. These will bake up as soft, chewy and somewhat thick cookies. Take care not to over baked them! I’ll take a just barely baked cookie over an over baked cookie any day of the week. Why do you think we eat raw cookie dough??!?
- Ease: Since these are a drop cookie, this is a great easy recipe for seasoned home cookie and junior cooks alike. Our kids love helping me make these cookies.
- Special Techniques: There’s really none required which is why I love this recipe! The only super easy trick is how to not eat the whole batch of cookie dough!
Ingredients
The full printable recipe is below, but I’ll walk you though some of the steps beforehand.
- vegetable shortening and butter: for richness and to add the fat we need. Make sure your butter is at room temperature
- sugar: we’re using one cup white sugar and one cup light brown sugar
- eggs: your eggs should be at room temperature before baking. If you forgot to pull your eggs from the refrigerator, you can add them to a cup of lukewarm water for about ten minutes
- vanilla extract: for flavor
- dry ingredients: all purpose flour, a teaspoon baking soda, and salt
- add ins: semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, and chopped walnuts.
How to make chocolate chip walnut cookies
Step 1: Cream the shortening and butter in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, then add the regular sugar and light brown sugar until the mixture is creamy. We’re talking a minute or two here, so don’t skimp on the mixing time.
Add the eggs and vanilla and you have your wet ingredients ready to go.
Then we add the dry ingredients. Now, I’ll give you a tip here. Bonus for you if you’re still reading!
Many, many baking recipes have you combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix before adding. For this cookie recipe (and actually quite a few), I can save you a step!
Call me crazy, but you can add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt right to the wet ingredients.
I promise, I’ve tried it. A lot. All in the name of taste testing chocolate chip walnut cookies for you.
You're welcome.
Step 2: Then, add in your chocolate chips, dark chocolate and walnuts.
We're going to fold them into the mixture. This just means you simply use a spatula to scrape the bottom of the bowl and bring the ingredients to the top, gently incorporating the extra ingredients.
If you use your mixer paddle, it'll chop up the ingredients more than we want.
Step 3: This is my trick to making large cookies that bake evenly. If you’ve been to see me at our local farmer’s market, you know how big my cookies are! These aren’t quite that big, but they’re perfect sized.
You’ll use a large tablespoon, or my personal preference, a large cookie scoop.
Scoop the dough onto your baking sheets, leaving room for expansion – about an inch or two.
Then, use the heel of your clean hand or the bottom of a clean glass to gently press the dough down, just a little bit.
Helping the cookies with a head start will ensure they bake evenly while still being decently sized big cookies.
Step 4: Step 3: Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the inside is cooked through.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Variations
- Use pecans or your favorite nut in place of the walnuts.
- Switch out the chocolate chips for peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips or even mint chocolate chips.
- For a fun twist on these cookies, try making cream cheese chocolate chip cookies!
How to freeze cookie dough for later
And one of my favorite things to do is to freeze cookie dough balls to bake just a few at a time. It’s great to have a dessert ready to go when company stops by or when you just want to bake a few cookies.
Let’s say you don’t want to bake 24 cookies right now. I don’t know why you’d want to do that but here we are.
You can 100% make this cookie dough and save it for later by freezing it.
You could freeze your desired portion of dough in an airtight freezer container but it’s not my favorite way to freeze cookie dough.
Why, you ask?
Well, if you freeze the cookie dough in one big “chunk”, so to speak, you’ll have to thaw all the dough to bake at once. That means no baking up two, three or four cookies at a time.
Freezing cookie dough this way also takes longer to thaw before baking.
But if you follow the instructions right up to baking and roll each cookie into a ball, you’re heading in the right direction.
Portion out all the cookies and lay on a waxed paper or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Pop in the freezer for 30 minutes or so until they’ve begun to harden.
Then, transfer the cookie dough balls into a freezer bag or other container. When it comes time to bake cookies you can pull as few (or as many!) as you’d like!
I think we can agree there's not much better than a warm chocolate chip cookie right outta a hot oven. Doubletree Hotel knows what they're doing when they put a cookie on your pillow.
How to serve these cookies
I love eating these cookies with a big glass of milk or a bowl of vanilla bean ice cream!
Other cookie recipes you'll love
- Amaretto Chocolate Chip Cookies
- No Roll Sugar Cookies
- Sprinkle Cookies
- Pumpkin Pie Spice Cake Mix Cookies
If you make these easy chocolate chip walnut cookies, leave a recipe review or comment below. I'd love to hear from you!
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 3 ounces dark chocolate bar chopped into pieces
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and softened butter. Add regular sugar and brown sugar and beat until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla and blend, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix to combine.
- Using a spatula, fold in the chocolate chips, dark chocolate and walnuts until combined. (You can use the mixer, too but it may break apart the ingredients a bit)
- Using a large tablespoon or large cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto your cookie sheet, leaving an inch or two between each ball. Use the heel of your clean hand or the bottom of a glass to slightly spread the cookie. This is my tip for making large cookies that bake evenly!
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the inside is cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Notes
Portion out all the cookies and lay on a waxed paper or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Pop in the freezer for 30 minutes or so until they’ve begun to harden. Then, transfer the cookie dough balls into a freezer bag or other container. When it comes time to bake cookies you can pull as few (or as many!) as you’d like. If the dough is still frozen, add 3-4 minutes to the baking time.
Nutrition
This Farm Girl Cooks is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.
