When it comes to things I take entirely too seriously—far more so than any rational person should—chocolate chip cookies are near the top of my list. It’s my go-to dessert, snack or keto-unfriendly breakfast, served alongside a half-gallon of cold brew. I’ve planned entire vacations around noteworthy bakeries; I’ve tested so many cookie recipes I dare say I’m getting close to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule of mastery (at least I hope). I understand this obsession is unhealthy, but it’s also put me in possession of a very particular set of skills that make me distinctly qualified for PureWow100’s latest test: store-bought chocolate chip cookie dough.
What’s the Best Store-Bought Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough? I've Tested 17 Brands to Bring You the Top 8
Whether you're into chewy, gooey or crisp cookies
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Published Dec 13, 2024
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Candace Davison
What Makes a Great Chocolate Chip Cookie?
Rating the flavor of a cookie comes down to a few key factors:
- Texture (crisp edges and a chewy center? Yes, please)
- Caramelization (If the dough tastes like a sugar cookie, it’s gotta go)
- The chocolate-chip-to-dough ratio (more is always better)
- The quality of the chocolate (gritty chocolate has no place here)
- The sweetness level (it should be rich, not sugary)
While I’m all for baking chocolate chip cookies from scratch, sometimes you just need to cut yourself some slack and take a shortcut, courtesy of the grocery store’s refrigerated section. I’ve tried a ton of pre-made dough over the years—from mixes to tubes of dough to break-and-bake bars—but these nine have been the most noteworthy.
How I Tested Store-Bought Chocolate Chip Cookie Doughs & Mixes
CANDACE DAVISON
I baked at least five cookies from each brand, all on the same brand of nonstick baking sheets (making sure the sheets were room temperature between batches). I followed each package’s instructions exactly, letting the cookies cool for two minutes before placing them on wire racks, unless otherwise noted. From there, taste tests ensued, a gallon of milk was depleted and mild stomachaches were had by all.
Each year, the top contenders are revisited and new brands and baked and considered. For 2025, three new mixes were baked—only one scored high enough to make this list (hello, Dolly!).
The Best Store-Bought Chocolate Chip Cookie Doughs & Mixes
1. Toll House Chocolate Chip Lovers Cookie Dough
Best Overall Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Value: 20/20
- Quality: 19/20
- Ease of Instructions: 19/20
- Taste: 19/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 18/20
TOTAL: 95/100
How do you improve upon a classic? More chocolate, always. While I may not be totally satisfied until there’s a store-bought dough that piles on Gideon’s Bakehouse-caliber chocolate chips—as in, you can barely see the dough amid all of the cocoa—Toll House Chocolate Chip Lovers Cookie Dough comes pretty close to perfection. The treats are bigger than the classic break and bakes, but the dough is every bit as brown sugar-laced and pillowy.
Cravings/Candace Davison
2. Cravings by Chrissy Teigen The Perfect Chocolate Chunk Cookie Mix
Most Gourmet-Tasting Cookie Dough
- Value: 19/20
- Quality: 19/20
- Ease of Instructions: 19/20
- Taste: 19/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 19/20
TOTAL: 95/100
It’s a bold claim to declare your cookie mix “perfect,” but dammit, Christine Teigen, these cookies come pretty freakin’ close. They require more effort than any other dough on this list—in addition to mixing in your own egg and butter, they need to be chilled for two hours before baking—but it’s so worth it. The dough is deeply caramelized and slightly salty, with ribbons of chocolate in every bite. Each cookie gets a slightly crinkled, chewy exterior like the famous pan-banging treats of 2020, yet they’re relatively gooey inside.
CANDACE DAVISON
3. Trader Joe’s Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Best Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough
- Value: 19/20
- Quality: 19/20
- Ease of Instructions: 20/20
- Taste: 18/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 17/20
TOTAL: 93/100
Admittedly, I went into this one with a bit of an eye-roll: Trader Joe’s fans tend to really love all things Trader Joe’s, so I wasn’t sure if these cookies could deliver on the hype. Spoiler: They did. These treats are darker and denser than your typical chocolate chip cookie, giving them a more gourmet-look, but they also have the sophisticated flavor profile to match. The dough itself is less sweet than its competitors, with a richer flavor, thanks to a combo of wheat flour, brown sugar and molasses, all balanced out with a hit of sea salt. And those chocolate chunks! It’s hard to wait for the two-minute cool time before digging in. (Note: Trader Joe's doesn't sell its products online, so you'll have to head to your nearest store to pick up a package.)
4. Duncan Hines Dolly Parton's Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Best Caramelization
- Value: 19/20
- Quality: 18/20
- Ease of Instructions: 20/20
- Taste: 18/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 17/20
TOTAL: 92/100
Is there anything Dolly Parton can't do? I was skeptical about another celebrity food line, but the "Jolene" singer makes an impressive array of baking mixes (with a little help from Duncan Hines). There's an almost malted quality to the dough, giving it a more sophisticated depth of flavor than your typical store-bought mix, with a solid speckling of chocolate chips. While both batches of cookies tested turned out darker than the pictures—even at the minimum time suggested—they were crisp, not crunchy, with no signs of burning. The end result is a snappy, well-caramelized cookie that seems made for dunking.
5. Great Value Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Best Bang for Your Buck
- Value: 19/20
- Quality: 17/20
- Ease of Instructions: 20/20
- Taste: 17/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 17/20
TOTAL: 90/100
While many break-and-bake cookie doughs promise 12 to 16 cookies, Walmart’s in-house brand is an overachiever, bringing you 24. These were the smallest cookies of the bunch, but that doesn’t mean they were lacking in flavor. The dough had rich, caramel notes and was denser than some of the other brands—without tasting dry, either.
6. Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Value: 18/20
- Quality: 18/20
- Ease of Instructions: 17/20
- Taste: 18/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 17/20
TOTAL: 88/100
Pillsbury jumped on the edible cookie dough train, and I’m not mad about it one bit. The latest iteration of its chocolate chip cookie dough is labeled “safe to eat raw,” and you better believe I dug in. Raw or baked, the dough tastes the same as it’s always been—a little heavier on the granulated sugar and vanilla flavor than, say, Toll House, but there’s no gritty texture or strange aftertaste that some safe-to-eat doughs have. If you like Entenmann’s soft-baked cookies, you’ll love these.
7. Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
Most Homemade-Tasting Cookie Mix
- Value: 20/20
- Quality: 17/20
- Ease of Instructions: 17/20
- Taste: 18/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 16/20
TOTAL: 87/100
If you want to go the semi-homemade route—but net full-homemade flavor—Betty Crocker’s the way to go. You’ll need to provide your own egg and a stick of butter (and remember to leave them out long enough to bring them to room temp), but the results are worth it. The cookie is soft, a little buttery, with a stronger vanilla flavor and a decent number of chocolate chips. But, if you’re already putting in the effort to mix up a batch, you might as well toss an extra half cup of semisweet chips in there. Just saying.
8. Sweet Loren’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Value: 18/20
- Quality: 20/20
- Ease of Instructions: 20/20
- Taste: 16/20
- Chocolate-to-Dough Ratio: 13/20
TOTAL: 87/100
Gluten-free cookie dough has a reputation for being gritty, mealy…and so dry it makes you reach for a glass of water the second you take a bite. Sweet Loren’s flips the table on those stereotypes with a cookie that’s hearty, yes, but far from sawdust-y. That’s all thanks to the brand’s g-free flour blend, a mix of potato starch and oat and tapioca flours. The ingredients are non-GMO, sustainably sourced and vegan, too. But even if you didn’t know any of those things, you’d be sold at first bite: These cookies have rich chocolate and caramel flavors, though they’re worth storing in an airtight container right away, as they tend to harden quickly. (P.S.—You can eat the dough unbaked, though admittedly, it has a sandy aftertaste.)
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the number one chocolate chip cookie dough brand?
Based on my current tests, Toll House is the number one chocolate chip cookie dough brand. It's a title they should fight to hold down, given Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House restaurant is credited with inventing the cookie! And after three years of pitting the brand against every other one on the market, I can say their lineup is consistently strong, with the Chocolate Chip Lovers variety the best of the collection.
Cravings by Chrissy Teigen's chocolate chip cookie mix scored just as high, but given the price point and its more limited availability, Toll House edges it out. But watch the throne, TH.
What's better: Toll House or Pillsbury?
For overall flavor, I'd have to crown Toll House the best. However, if you like to sneak bites of cookie dough, choose Pillsbury—look for the tubes marked "safe to eat raw." Then try not to eat half the tube, leaving less than a dozen baked treats, as I tend to do.
How do you make chocolate chip cookie dough taste better?
If it's premade, refrigerated or frozen dough, your best bet is to thaw the dough, then add a mix-in, like stuffing it with a mini Reese's cup or stirring in crushed pretzels (for crunch). Alternatively, you can't go wrong topping it with a few extra chocolate chips and, once out of the oven, sprinkling a little flaky sea salt on top. That salty note will bring out the richness of the cocoa and add extra depth of flavor.
What cookie dough brands have you tested?
I have tried several varieties of cookie dough from brands big and small, including:
- Betty Crocker
- Chip City (which is no longer sold)
- Cravings by Chrissy Teigen
- Duncan Hines
- Home Dough
- Immaculate
- Milk Bar
- Miss Chocolate
- Miss Jones Baking Co.
- PB2 Pantry
- Pillsbury
- Puff Cookies
- Sweet Loren's
- Toll House
- Trader Joe's
- Walmart
- XO Baking Co.
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