Many years ago, my husband Jack had a friend who once worked for Entenmann’s – the company that sells their popular baked goods at supermarkets across the United States. One day, she handed Jack a hand-written recipe for the famous Entenmann’s chocolate chip cookies! The recipe was written to make an industrial-size batch of 1,320 one-ounce cookies. Jack placed the recipe in a folder of various, saved recipes from his food-service days – never tested and pretty much forgotten about – until now!
A few weeks ago, Jack was looking through his old recipe folder and rediscovered that hand-written recipe. After reading through the recipe, Jack decided to try it out – converting it to a smaller yield better suited for a home cook. Converting a recipe that uses ten pounds of sugar, four dozen eggs and eight pounds of butter is not as easy as you would think – but with a little trial and error, Jack was able to reduce it down to make 5 ½ dozen, one-ounce cookies.
We made two test batches (the first was a little too salty and over-cooked) but the second – we think we’ve got it right! A combination of two different sugars (granulated white sugar and brown sugar), plus molasses, as well as a short bake time seem to be the key to making these copycat Entenmann’s chocolate chip cookies super soft and moist – just like the Entenmann’s version you can buy at the supermarket. (I’ll even go so far to say that these cookies taste better!)
We’re not 100% certain that hand-written recipe given to Jack all those years ago was the REAL recipe from Entenmann’s – but they sure taste like it! In fact, when I brought some of these copycat Entenmann’s chocolate chip cookies to share at my daughter’s dance class this past week, one of the moms commented that they reminded her of Entenmann’s (without knowing that these were supposed to be a copycat version)! As soon as she said that – I knew we had a winning recipe. Enjoy!
Copycat Entenmann’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 7 mins
- Total Time: 17 minutes
- Yield: 5 1/2 dozen one-ounce cookies 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 10 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses
- 2 cups flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix two sugars until combined. Add eggs and beat until pale in color, about one minute. Add butter, vanilla and molasses and blend about 30 more seconds.
- In a small bowl, sift flour, salt and baking soda and add half to the wet mixture. Mix well and add second half of flour mixture. Mix again. Add chocolate chips and mix just long enough to incorporate chips into mixture.
- On parchment-lined cookie sheets, drop one ounce spoonful’s of batter leaving a few inches between drops.
- Bake for about 6 ½ minutes (give or take depending on your oven). When you remove them, they will not look completely cooked so don’t be tempted to cook them longer. (The Entenmann’s cookie is a soft cookie.) Also, only bake one pan at a time in the center of your oven.
- Slide parchment off pan and let cookies cool on the parchment on your counter until completely cool. Don’t be tempted to remove them or touch them until they have cooled completely.
- Once cool, using a sharp edged spatula, gently pry them from the paper. Remember, they will be soft but if cooled properly, be firm enough to handle.
You may also enjoy:
Chocolate Chip Caramel Crumble Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars
My cookies were consistently overcooked on the edges and undercooked in the middle according to this recipe. I had much more success baking for 10-11min at 325º. Fantastic cookie once I made that adjustment!
Thanks Kim – every oven is different…glad you were able to adjust!
There is no way to describe how excited I was to find this Entenmann’s cookie recipe. They were so delicious when I made them Please keep recipes like this coming for all to enjoy.
So glad you found us Rochelle!
Interested to try these. I have the Entenmann’s Big Book of Baking, and the recipe in there varies from this in a few ways. Will report back after comparisons.
Looking forward to your report back Diane!
Hi I was wondering if you could swap All Purpose Flour for Gluten Free Flour? Or that is going mess up the recipe?
Sorry Mary Su – We’ve never tried it with this recipe, so I can’t say for sure how it will change the outcome. Generally speaking, we find that the one to one gluten free flours work well, but yield a softer cookie than all-purpose flour…this cookie is softer to start with so it may make them even softer. Hope that helps you decide!
The cookies are tasty however, they do not resemble the infamous Entenmanns cookies. They have more of a cake like texture and taste. I would have used less chocolate chips as well. But not bad at all for homemade cookies. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for your feedback Bel!
I don’t know why this recipe doesn’t have a million 5-star reviews! It has been my go-to ccc recipe for years and it never fails me! They are even more delicious the next day, when they’ve softened up. I make a big batch, portion the dough, then freeze the portions until I’m ready to bake more. This will forever be my favorite ccc recipe!
Wow – Thank you Christy! So glad you enjoy the cookies!
I made these today and I’ll make them again. I only got 4 dozen even after weighing the first one so next time I’ll adjust them a bit smaller. I used to buy Freihofer cookies which are also similar to Wegmans brand. But now I don’t buy any baked goods because of the palm oil and preservatives in them. I always wanted to find a recipe like the store bought ones, thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed the cookies Sheila.
I don’t have a paddle attachment. Would an electric hand mixer work or would it be better to use a wooden spoon? And do you think I could half the recipe? Thank you. My son is almost addicted to Entenmanns and they don’t sell them near where we are.
Yes to both questions-a hand mixer is fine and you can easily make half a recipe.
Can this dough be frozen and the bake when needed.
Yes – you can do that. I’d suggest scooping the dough into portion-sized rounds and freeze on a baking sheet until firm. Then, you can move the individual dough balls to a bag for easier storage.
About to embark on this recipe. Any chance I can get the full 1,320 count recipe?…you know, in case they come out as good as the ORIGINAL Entenmann’s. I will want to make them for others.
Hi Michael – Jack probably still has it someplace in his files! Lol – hope you enjoy the cookies!