Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
These small batch chocolate chip cookies are perfect for when you’re craving a cookie, but don’t want to make a full batch. This simple recipe yields just 8 to 10 cookies and includes several recipe variations too!
Do you ever find yourself craving a chocolate chip cookie, but not wanting to make a full batch? If so, I think you’re going to love this small batch chocolate chip cookie recipe!
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and it quickly became a reader favorite and one of mine too. Over the past few months I’ve been working on a cookie cookbook (yes, a cookbook is finally happening!) and I knew that this is one recipe that needed to be included in it. So today I wanted to update this recipe to make it even better and and share it with you again.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Requires only one bowl
- Makes just 8 to 10 cookies
- The cookies turn out super soft and chewy
- Just 10 minutes of dough chilling time
This recipe also makes a fantastic base for other cookies, so I’ve included instructions for how to make these cookies 4 different ways!
Recipe Ingredients
These easy small batch chocolate chip cookies use similar ingredients to my regular chocolate chip cookies with a few minor adjustments. Here’s what you will be using:
- Unsalted Butter: I highly recommend sticking with unsalted butter in this recipe. Since it makes such a small amount of cookies, this will allow you to control the amount of salt going into them.
- Sugar: You’ll be using a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar. The brown sugar adds moisture and creates a chewy cookie while the granulated sugar helps them spread.
- Egg Yolk: Since this recipe doesn’t make too many cookies, a whole egg is far too much. An egg yolk is the perfect amount to bind the dough together and add some moisture to it too. You can use the leftover egg white in another recipe like my candied pecans.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: For a little extra flavor.
- All-Purpose Flour: This provides the structure for your cookies so that they don’t fall apart when you pick them up. I found that 1/2 cup of flour wasn’t quite enough and 2/3 cup was just a bit too much, so this recipe calls for 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon of flour.
- Baking Soda & Salt: The baking soda helps lift the cookies and the salt enhances the flavors.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: When I originally posted this recipe, I only used 1/3 cup of chocolate chips. I’ve increased the amount to 1/2 cup so that you get some chocolate chips in every single bite!
How To Make A Small Batch Of Chocolate Chip Cookies
Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, it’s time to prepare the cookies. To start, preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set the baking sheet aside and prepare your cookie dough.
To make the cookie dough, you’ll beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for a minute or two or until they’re well combined. You can also skip the mixer and just cream the butter and sugars together with a fork, so feel free to do whatever is easiest for you! Next, mix in the egg yolk and pure vanilla extract.
Once the wet ingredients are thoroughly combined, add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix them in until just combined. Then, add the semi-sweet chocolate chips (or your favorite mix-ins) and fold them into the cookie dough. At this point, you want to cover the cookie dough tightly and place it in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes.
After the 10 minutes, remove the cookie dough from the freezer and use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough onto your baking sheet. You should get about 8 to 10 cookies depending on how small or large you scoop them, but I usually get about 10.
Then, just bake the cookies for 10 t0 12 minutes or until they’re lightly browned around the edges and the tops are set. I suggest letting them cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes, but they’re delicious right out of the oven too!
Recipe Variations
Want to try these cookies another way? You can leave out the 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and mix in the following ingredients for each type of cookie:
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut: Add 1/3 cup white chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of chopped macadamia nuts
- Chocolate M&M: Add 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of mini M&M’s
- Funfetti: Add 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips and 1 tablespoon of sprinkles
Baking Tips
- When measuring your flour, make sure to use the spoon and level method. Too much flour can lead to cookies that don’t spread very much in the oven.
- Feel free to use milk chocolate or dark chocolate chips in place of the semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- Don’t skip chilling the cookie dough in the freezer for 10 minutes. This will help ensure that the cookies don’t spread too much in the oven.
More Small Batch Recipes To Try!
- Chocolate Mug Cake
- Apple Crisp For Two
- Small Batch Peanut Butter Cookies
- Single Serving Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes For Two
Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (60 grams) unsalted butter softened
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) light brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (70 grams) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (90 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for 1 to 2 minutes or until well combined.
- Mix in the egg yolk and vanilla extract until fully combined, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined. Then, mix in the semi-sweet chocolate chips on low-speed until fully incorporated into the cookie dough.
- Cover tightly and transfer to the freezer to chill for 10 minutes.
- Using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet, making sure to leave a little room between each one.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly golden brown and the tops are set.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
I’ve made cookies my entire life, and this is by far, the best recipe ever! I’ve never had my cookies turn out so picturesque, and DELICIOUS! I’d show you, but they didn’t last long enough for a picture. ?
Made exactly as written. Fabulous recipe. The cookies were incredibly tasty.
Yum! This was so easy and it made 7 cookies. This recipe is perfect for a late night cookie hankering without having to make several dozen. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Hello, I made this tonight but for some reason the cookies didn’t flatten out. I did the 10-min freeze, but it still stayed small and round. Any suggestions?
Did you make sure to spoon and level your flour too? If there was too much flour in the cookie dough that may be why they didn’t spread.
I love your cookie recipes! These turned out not as great as the other ones I’ve made in the past. They got incredibly flat and spread out a bunch. I chilled them in the freezer for almost 25 minutes because they took forever to get cold- but less than that the dough was still sticky. Any thoughts? I’ve always had success using your recipes- so I’m sure I’ve done something wrong here! Thank you!
Hi, Kelly! They cookies will spread some, but they shouldn’t be super flat. Did you double check the measurements, specifically the butter and flour? If so, you could try adding an additional 1 tablespoon (8 grams) of flour and see if that helps.
I enjoyed these cookies! I was too impatient to refrigerate but I still loved the way they turned out. A slight crisp around the edge and soft in the middle. Thanks for the recipe! yum
Super good and better than anything store bought! I accidentally put the whole egg in the batter instead of just the yolk but t still came out good!
These were EXACTLY what I needed. They took fifteen minutes start to finish and I only dirtied one bowl and one fork. Soft and buttery and perfect for an after-dinner sweet craving that you didn’t plan on.
This recipe is so good they were the best non oatmeal chocolate chip cookies i have ever tried I sometimes use this recipe to make slutty brownie and it tastes really good
It was good af. They didn’t look like the picture but it was Hudson on my momma
Bussin*
The recipe was soo good and the cookies came out gooey and buttery, when I was mixing it a came out a little crumbly so I had to chill it, but it still came out great (:
I am actually getting ready to try your recipe. I am a extreme novice so this may be a silly question.
My husband is the cc cookie lover, but he wants nuts. Thought I’d try to reduce amount of chocolate chips and add some pecans, similar to white chocolate macadamia version?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks, Lisa
Hi, Lisa! That would be fine. You can use 1/3 cup of chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of chopped pecans.
Tried out this recipe and omg it’s changed my life. Unfortunately my cookies came out puffy and didn’t not at all come out looking like the photo. I followed the recipe to a T, do you know what I did to cause it? I read a few different answers online like over mixing the butter and sugar?
Hi, Gaby! Over mixing the butter and sugar can incorporate more air, which can cause them to be puffy/cakey. Another reason could be that there was too much flour in your cookie dough. Did you make sure to spoon & level your flour?
Can I use dark brown sugar ?
Yes, that would be fine.
This is a great recipe!
I just substitute cannabutter instead of regular butter, for some delicious chocolate chip cookies that put a smile on my face after every cookie.
OMG! These cookies were the best thing ever! I wanted some cookies but not like a whole batch so I decided to try these and that was one of the best choices I have ever made. These are my favorite cookies of all time and I am definitely making them again!
These are the best cc cookies I’ve ever made. Thank you!
At the beginning I followed the recipe perfectly but the dough was so crumbly I don’t know if that’s normal but they came out fine! And were good
Great recipe! I really appreciate the ingredients having grams listed–I’m used to converting it myself. I did make a mistake and used a whole egg, not just the yoke, but the cookies still turned out delicious. Just… a little cake-like? I made about 14 cookies with a Tbsp cookie scoop. Definitely will revisit this recipe again and do it properly. Thanks so much for sharing!
These are literally THE BEST small batch choco chip cookies. I’ve made them about 3 times for my boyfriend and I. They’re just as good the next day too!! Thank you!
After makingthe dough, I was shocked by how dry it was. I have made many cookie recipes and the dough was never this sand texture. I reread the recipe over and over. What did I do wrong? I really can’t find any mistake. I ended up adding more butter just to get it to a texture I could form cookies out of before baking. In the end, they taste fine but the texture is still off and they look NOTHING like these photos.
Hi, Kate! Did you make sure to spoon and level your flour? And was your egg yolk at room temperature? That could be a couple of reasons that the dough was a strange texture. The dough should look just like regular chocolate chip cookie dough.
This recipe is so perfect…! I added 1tbsp of milk also because the dough became really hard to mix.
I followed all of the directions and ingredients – the dough was great, but when they finished baking there was this smell – like scrambled eggs – they also tasted like eggs – otherwise, I love all of the other items on this website, but this recipe was not great
Did you happen to use a whole egg? And did you double check the measurements that you used? This recipe only uses one egg yolk, so it definitely shouldn’t have smelled or tasted like that.
Great recipe!! Easy, yummy and quick! I omitted the salt because my butter was salted. Will be my new go to recipe when hubby gets a sweet tooth!
I don’t know what happened, mine came out awful. Super thin and only tasted of chocolate.
I guess I’ll try again another day
Did you make any adjustments to the recipe? And did you make sure to use butter and not margarine or a butter spread?
Mine did too. I used unsalted sweet cream butter
Made these spur of the moment last night. They came out great. I ended up getting 12 cookies out of the dough. Only slight criticism is the cookies were a tiny but too salty. Still very yummy though I would definitely make again!
These cookies were delicious and may be the best I’ve made so far. I made 8 from my batch of dough and the bake time took about 15 min at 350 in my oven (middle rack). The only thing I would change is the amount of salt. The salt definitely wasn’t overbearing but I think it’s just a personal preference to have a little less. I’ll trying lowering the salt from 1/4 to 1/8 teaspoon next time. I can’t wait to make them again.
So wonderful. This made 8 cookies, I used salted butter and didn’t add any other salt. They were chewy and fudgy and everyone loved them. Definitely a keeper.
If I double the recipe would I be able to use one whole egg?
I would actually recommend using my chocolate chip cookie recipe here and cutting that recipe in half. Hope that helps!
I was searching for a quick, small batch recipe and found this one…AND WOW! I think I just made the most perfect batch of cookies I’ve ever made. My family also loved it. Thank you for this great recipe. I’ll be saving this for the future!
do you know nutrition facts?
I’m not sure about the nutritional information, but you can plug everything into an online calculator to get an estimate.
accidentally used 1/2 cup of butter lol but came out delicious regardless! my boyfriend said “hmm i want chocolate chip cookies” and i was like omg i’m ON IT! it felt soooo quick and easy to make i know i’m going to be coming back to this recipe ?
this recipe tasted super good and it was super soft! 😉 but the dough got really crumbly when i started to mix in the flour, i also replaced the butter with oil so i dont know if thats the case lol. Also, when i started to form the cookie balls,** i didnt have a scooper so i just used my hands** the cookie dough wouldnt form together and i was panicking so i just made it into a flat surface and just cut it to eat. Overall, the taste is rlly nice! i personally recommend to not put too many chocolate chips if u dont have much batter tho 🙂
Omg thank you!!! I like baking cookies but don’t really enjoy making 12 or more cookies especially with my kids this recipe was so wonderful and easy to do seriously thank you
Great recipe! Cookies came out so well and were quick to make!