Ina Garten's Go-To Chocolate Chips Brand Is So Relatable

Ina Garten, the beloved Barefoot Contessa, has educated a generation of aspiring culinary artists with her approachable yet always-sophisticated canon of cooking tips that home chefs should know. Thanks to Garten, we learned to cook hash browns in the waffle iron, not to bother attempting meringues when it's raining, and that you can never — ever! — have too many sheet pans. When Garten speaks, we listen. That's why it felt like a warm hug when we learned that Garten's favorite brand of chocolate chips is a grocery store standard that we've often picked up ourselves: Nestlé Toll House.

On the "Ina's World" Q&A section of the Barefoot Contessa website, Garten endorsed Nestlé Toll House's chocolate chunks for her celebrated Chocolate Chunk Cookie recipe. Interesting, because there's a long list of chocolate types out there and Garten certainly has the means to ball out and go with a premium French or Swiss variety for her baking. Yet Garten is, as ever, a woman of the people. 

The Toll House chunks — which are distinguished from ordinary chocolate chips by their bulky cubic shape that ensures a rich explosion of cocoa goodness when eaten — can be found right now at practically any U.S. supermarket and at a price that won't break the bank.

Looking at the list of ingredients in the Barefoot Contessa's Chocolate Chunk Cookies, you'll see a lot of familiar suspects. White and brown sugar (Garten's formula is heavy on the latter), flour, eggs, unsalted butter, and baking soda are all featured. Unsurprisingly, Garten sneaks in a teaspoon of kosher salt, which is a go-to in almost all her recipes. She recommends that you splurge on pure vanilla extract, which is worth the few extra dollars for the complex, smoky savor it gives to your baked goods. And, of course, the chocolate element: the Nestlé Toll House chunks.

There are a few interesting twists to Garten's method. First of all, the butter and eggs are both incorporated at room temperature. This is something she always recommends when baking since it makes creaming the ingredients easier. In addition to the hefty chocolate chunks, her cookies are also studded with chopped walnuts for a textural wow factor that really elevates the end product. The instructions are a lesson in carryover cooking, too: Garten notes that the cookies will seem underdone when they emerge from the oven but will firm up as they cool on the pan for a few minutes. Thanks to the simple chunks of chocolate, you get a more gooey, rich chocolate taste in every bite.