The best chocolate cookie dough at the grocery store really should eliminate the temptation to slave over cookies made from scratch. Listen. I get it. The holidays are coming. You have at least six cookie swaps to attend and you want to impress everyone with your Alton Brown-esque baking prowess. You’re gonna be so, so tempted to bust out the flour, baking soda, and stand mixer. But here’s a fact: Everyone loves cookies made with Toll House cookie dough, even if that cookie dough is place-and-bake cookie dough you grabbed at the grocery store. The cookies you make with premade cookie dough are still freshly baked cookies! They count! So save yourself some time and buy the best premade cookie dough instead (gluten free chocolate cookie dough and vegan chocolate chip cookie dough, too).
- Immaculate Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk
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Gluten free cookies made with the best gluten free chocolate chip cookie dough don’t have to get all weird and grainy in your mouth as you eat them—this Immaculate Gluten Free Chocolate Chunk cookie dough is proof. This stuff is so good! This dough puffs up quite a bit in the oven, resulting in sort of tall cookies, but don’t let that turn you off. They’re moist and chewy and absolutely packed with chocolate chips. It’s not only the best GF cookie dough we tried, it’s also some of the best chocolate chip cookie dough, period.
Credit: Merc / Immaculate
- Simple Truth Plant Based Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
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If the test of good vegan chocolate chip cookie dough is that it could easily pass for non-vegan chocolate chip cookie dough, this is the stuff. Kroger’s Simple Truth Plant Based Cookie Dough comes in pre-measured little squares that you just plop on a baking sheet. They come out of the oven chewy, but crisp up around the edges a bit as they cool, which makes them seem buttery even though they obviously aren’t made with dairy butter. The vegan dark chocolate chips are flavorful but not overpowering—you can still taste the dough itself. This is the best chocolate chip cookie dough if you don’t eat eggs or butter, but I think everyone will like it. An absolutely stellar vegan product.
Credit: Merc / Ralphs
- Private Selection Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough
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This premade cookie dough from Private Selection (another proprietary brand sold at Kroger-owned grocery stores) isn’t the best chocolate chip cookie dough simply because it’s not straight-up premade chocolate chip cookie dough, but I gotta say, this was my personal favorite. If you want chocolate chip cookies with a little extra decadence, you have to try this stuff. When the pre-measured dough morsels are cooking in the oven, you can see caramel start to create gooey pools atop and beneath the cookies. It’s downright pornographic. Once they’re done baking, the cookies have excellent chew, as does the caramel—and there’s a lot of caramel. You won’t have to search for the caramel, that’s for sure. That said, these are definitely still chocolate chip cookies. There’s plenty of chocolate chunks—not chips, CHUNKS, i.e. rectangular morsels rather than little kisses. This is the best cookie dough to buy for the cookie swap. Truly, no one will care that you used premade cookie dough.
Credit: Merc / Ralphs
- Great Value Ready to Bake Cookie Dough
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If you’re like me and you’d rather eat five little cookies than one big cookie, you’re going to love this chocolate chip cookie dough from Walmart. Great Value doesn’t advertise these as miniature cookies, but they’re much smaller than most place and bake cookies (the package of dough makes 24 cookies rather than a dozen). I tasted these head to head with Toll House cookie dough intended to make mini cookies and I liked these just a touch better (plus, this cookie dough is from Walmart, so it’s cheap). You can actually taste a little bit of salt in the dough, which I love. If you want to go the small cookie route, this is the best chocolate chip cookie dough to buy.
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Lovers
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Nestlé Toll House cookie dough is a classic for a reason. If you are buying chocolate chip cookie dough because you want a lot of chocolate chips, this is the way to go. Honestly, Toll House cookie dough has too many chocolate chips for my taste, but I have super strong suspicion that I’m in the minority on that front. The best thing about this place and bake cookie dough? It doesn’t have that unpleasant, unnatural preservative flavor you’ll find in a lot of other premade cookie dough. Cookies made with this premade cookie dough bake up chewy and gooey and, as I said, absolutely stacked with chocolate chips. This is the best chocolate chip cookie dough for real chocolate chip cookie fans.
Credit: Merc / Target
Best Gluten Free
Best Vegan
Best with Caramel
Best Two Bite
Best of the Best
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!