You will LOVE this quick and easy Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. These cookies bake up with crisp, buttery edges, soft centers, and lots of chocolate chips. Six cookies, made in one bowl, no mixer, no chill time. The perfect treat for those times that a cookie craving hits!
There are few things that are as satisfying as a fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie. For those times that you need a cookie IMMEDIATELY, but don’t want the temptation of several dozen cookies sitting around, you can reach for this recipe. It makes six perfect chocolate chip cookies in less than 30 minutes.
Some of our most popular recipes are small batch recipes. Single Serve Chocolate Chip Cookie, Small Batch Cupcakes, Small Chocolate Cake, and Brownie in a Mug. Small batch recipes are perfect for quickly satisfying your sweet tooth or baking for a small group. Sweet, chocolate-filled cookies, with crisp buttery edges and soft centers – HEAVEN!
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Ingredients needed
Start by gathering the following ingredients:
- Unsalted butter: Melted and cooled just a bit.
- Granulated sugar and brown sugar: Using a combination of both creates the best cookie texture.
- Baking soda: For the perfect lift.
- Salt: Just a couple pinches to balance the sweetness.
- Vanilla extract: Use pure vanilla, not imitation.
- Large egg yolk: Since this is a small batch recipe we only need the yolk, no white.
- All purpose flour: You’ll need at least ½ cup, plus a bit more, if needed (more on this below).
- Chocolate chips: Use any kind of chocolate chips that you like. Tip: chop a tablespoon of your chocolate chips so that you have tiny chocolate shards running all throughout the cookies along with the larger chips.
Recipe overview
Whisk melted butter with granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add an egg yolk and vanilla extract.
Sprinkle in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir until well combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop the dough, place on a baking sheet and bake!
Cookie sizing
I make 5-6 fairly large cookies with this recipe by scooping the dough into 2-tablespoon portions. If you’d like to stretch this recipe, you could get 7-8 cookies by making the dough balls a little smaller (if so, reduce the cook time by 1-2 minutes).
Tips for small batch chocolate chip cookies
- Ingredients: It is super important to be precise when making small batch recipes. Since you’re using such a small quantity of ingredients a little more or less of one thing or another can make a huge difference.
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper: This will help the cookies from spreading too much. Bonus: It makes clean up a breeze!
- Measure flour properly: Fluff the flour with your measuring cup, measure a heaping portion, then level it off with the back of a knife.
- Light brown sugar vs. dark brown sugar: You can use either for this recipe. I have noticed that the extra moisture in dark brown sugar makes the cookies spread a bit more than the light brown sugar, but they’re equally delicious either way.
- Adding extra flour: This recipe gives the option of adding up to 2 additional tablespoons of flour. This will create a thicker cookie.
- Don’t overbake: Pull these cookies from the oven before they are baked all the way through. The edges should be set, but the center should still be slightly underdone. They should be so soft that they would fall apart if you tried to pick them up straight from the oven (pssst, don’t do that). Once they cool on the baking sheet they will firm up. Underbaking slightly ensures a soft and tender cookie.
- Use your favorite “chips”: I most often make these cookies with chocolate chips/chocolate chunks, but I have also made them with white chocolate, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips and walnuts (like a Kitchen Sink cookie). Use your favorite mix-ins.
I can’t leave you without sharing our family’s favorite way of enjoying these cookies. We each get a warm cookie and place it in a bowl next to a fat scoop of vanilla ice cream (Tillamook is our fave!). The warm cookie and cold ice cream create a swoon-worthy combo. Enjoy!
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Recipe
Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, still warm, but not hot
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar (light or dark), packed
- 1 large egg yolk
- ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup chocolate chips, plus extra for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk butter and both sugars until well combined (at least 1 full minute). Add the egg yolk and vanilla, whisking until combined. Remove the whisk, but first, tap it on the side of the bowl to allow any excess to drip into the bowl.
- Measure out ½ cup of flour by fluffing the flour with your measuring cup, scooping a heaping portion and leveling it off with the back of a knife. Sprinkle the ½ cup flour over the top of the wet ingredients, sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the flour. Using a rubber spatula, stir until combined. If the dough seems really wet you can stir in 1-2 additional tablespoons of flour until it reaches a cookie dough consistency. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop the dough into 2 tablespoon mounds. Place on the baking sheet a few inches apart (you should have 6 dough balls). If desired, press some additional chocolate chips onto the tops. Make sure the dough balls are mounded higher rather than wider to ensure they won't spread too thin. Bake for about 9-12 minutes*, until the edges are set and the centers still slightly under baked. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and let the cookies cool and firm up.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Lauren Sparkes
Fabulous! Left them in for 2 more minutes. Also, I was a little leary bc the dough was a bit thin, but they baked up beautifully!
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Laura C
Really great! I like making bar cookies and everyone gobbled them up. I used regular size chips and saw no problems from this change.
Celebrating Sweets
I’m so happy to hear that. Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Aria
This recipe is perfect!! Absolutely love it and will always be using it, it’s so easy to make within a short period of time! I totally recommend this recipe, makes a good amount! The only thing is I left them in for two more minutes and they were yummy!
Celebrating Sweets
Thanks for the review, I’m glad you enjoyed them!
G Smith
I followed all of the directions using top quality ingredients but unfortunately the cookies taste like flour. I am not sure why. I will try again because I love the portion size.
Celebrating Sweets
I haven’t heard that complaint before. Are you sure you measured the flour and melted butter correctly? Did your dough look similar in consistency to mine (see the 4th photo)?
M
Hey! I loved the small batch chocolate recipe and its been a family favourite so i decided to give this one a try too. I was wondering can i use vegetable oil instead of butter?
Celebrating Sweets
I don’t think that will work. Butter solidifies when it cools which helps the cookies hold their shape. The vegetable oil will likely make the cookies flat. If you decide to try it you might need to add a bit more flour and sugar.
Melissa
Loved these. My boys wanted cookies and I didnt want to have the hassle of making a huge batch of cookies. This was perfect to give them the sweet treat they wanted.
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed them! Thanks for taking the time to comment. 🙂
Devon
These were amazing!! I needed a small batch cookie to whip up for tree decorating and they were perfectly simple yet delicious. I subbed gluten free flour and used mini Christmas m&m’s to make them festive, and the whole family gave them rave reviews!
Can you triple or quadruple the recipe and get the same results? Now I want this in a large batch for our annual Christmas cookie baking!!
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed them! I have not tried multiplying the recipe. I think double should be fine, but I’m not sure about more than that. If I play around with it, I will let you know. Thanks for stopping by!
Trish
Tried this recipe a couple of weeks ago and loved them so much I had to come back and make them again! Just right!
Celebrating Sweets
I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Lindsay
Hi there,
I was just curious but my dough didn’t hold together very well. is it possible I didn’t use a large enough egg yolk? I also only used the yolk.! Also I wanted to know if it is 180k calories per cookie or the batch of 6 cookies?
Celebrating Sweets
Hi! The nutrition facts are per cookie. This is a very wet dough (see the 4th photo in the post), so it definitely should have held together. Perhaps you over measured your dry ingredients? Or under measured the melted butter? The measurements for small batch recipes need to be really precise, because there is such a small amount that you are working with.
Lindsay
Thank you! I’ll try it again. I ate all 6 cookies ? they turned out really small because of the way they cooked so now I feel terrible for eating them all a lot of calories ??♀️
Ben
Well so I decided to cook these because I wanted cookies and I put some peanut butter chips in for my wife, it took me 45mins to mix and get the cookies on the tray ?
Then the cookies were taking way longer than 9mins to cook and I discovered I put 1/4 of a cup of baking soda… I’m waiting now to see if they’re OK ??
They’re not ok ??? lol
Celebrating Sweets
Oh no! I can’t even imagine what that looked and tasted like. Haha! Better luck next time.