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 baked these cookies many times before and everyone including me loved them but for Christmas I’m made them for a bunch of people so I tripled the recipe and everyone adored them, I’m 13 by the way?
I’m so glad to hear that everyone loved the cookies, Celine!
These were so good and so easy I love them
I’m glad you liked the cookies, Sophia!
i was just wondering, can u make these cookies with brown sugar and no granulated sugar? will there be any effect on the taste?
They’ll be slightly chewier and may spread a little less, but I think it would be fine!
ok thank you so much
Ah-mazing recipe!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️? Perfect for when you want a quick, homemade cookie! I jazzed it up with pecans and unsweetened coconut!
Pecans and coconut sound wonderful, Damaris!
Im sorry to say it didn’t work out for me at all… 🙁 I followed the recipe exactly and got totally flat cookies. They seem like they needed more flour and substance. Sadly, I waisted all the ingredients and time on these 🙁
Sorry to hear that, Nichole. Did you make sure to chill the cookie dough?
I didn’t chill the dough and they turned out divine
I’m glad to hear the cookies turned out great for you without the dough chilling, Celine! 🙂
Delicious cookies! I may have baked them a bit too long but they were not burnt in any way, just a little overdone for my own personal taste. My bad! But still delicious. To those who say they burnt it’s probably because you are using a gas oven and the temperature is hotter than you realize. Also, dark sheet pans are not good for chocolate chip cookies! Use silimats! Anyway, my compliments. Thanks for sharing.
i love this recipe! i was just wondering, can u make these cookies with just granulated sugar and no brown sugar? i know they will probably end up less chewy but will they still taste good? thanks so much!
Hi, Anna! You probably can, but granulated sugar makes cookies spread more so they’ll be a lot thinner.
I made these without brown sugar (didn’t have any on hand) but I compensated by adding a half tablespoon of molasses and they were perfect – not too thin either!
So glad you liked the cookies, Tara!
Had a craving for chocolate chip cookies but didn’t want to go to the trouble of making a huge batch with my regular recipe (or doing the math to convert to a small batch). Found these and whipped them up in no time — delicious!
I’m glad you liked the cookies, Rissa!
Way to long the cookies burnt, don’t use!!!?
I’ve made these cookies dozens of times in several different ovens and never had them burn. Did you scoop the correct amount of cookie dough for each cookie? If so, I would suggest checking your oven temperature with an oven thermometer to make sure it’s not baking too hot.
These turned out SOOO good. I had to make one substitution, though. I didn’t realize I had no eggs in the house, so I used a tablespoon of mayonnaise. Even with mayo, they were awesome. Right amount a softness with crunchy on the edges
I’m glad you liked the cookies, Shelley! I’ve never tried using mayo in place of the egg yolk, but I’m glad to hear it worked great.
These cookies look amazing. My husband loves chocolate chip so I am definitely going to make them. Chocolate chip cookies aren’t my favorite so I was wondering if you have a small batch recipe for Oatmeal Raisin cookies. Then we would both feel like we were in heaven!! I found the oatmeal raisin cookies that look really good, but it makes a lot of cookies. Would you just half that recipe? Since it calls for 1 large egg could you use an egg yolk or buy smaller eggs?
I have a small batch oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe here: http://www.livewellbakeoften.com/small-batch-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/. You can subtitute the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips with 1/3-1/2 cup of raisins. You can also make the regular oatmeal raisin cookie recipe and freeze part of that cookie dough too. Hope that helps!
Thank you. I’ll try making the substitution with raisins, but I’ll probably just freeze half of the oatmeal raisin recipe you have posted.
I did make the chocolate chip cookies last night and they were really good. Thank you for these small batch recipes. My husbands favorite is the Molten Lava Cake so far.
So glad you liked the cookies and lava cakes! 🙂
These cookies were amazing! Thank you soo much
I got 6 (large ones) and that’s all we needed.
they were perfect!
So glad you liked the cookies, Paula!
These are absolutely perfect! Our 8 year old son loved them!
These came out to PERFECTION!! I used Flutrn free flour instead, and just as delicious!!
**Gluten Free Flour**
So glad to hear the cookies turned out great with gluten-free flour, Jess!
Hi! Do you bake these on a convection setting or just a regular oven? Thanks!
All of my recipes are tested in a regular oven 🙂
I see, will the cookies be chewy if i max it to 12 minutes? Thanks!
It kind of depends on your oven. I find that these cookies are pretty chewy as long as you don’t overbake them. The less time you bake them the softer they will be and the longer you bake them they’ll be a little crispier.
How long can raw dough keep in the fridge?
You can store it covered tightly for up to 3 days. After that I would suggest freezing it.
Made these tonight and my husband and my boys, 6 & 4 years old, loved them! I will definitely make these again. I cooked mine for 10 minutes and they were wonderful.
So happy to hear that, Autumn!
Can I brown the butter?
Yes, but you’ll need to let the butter come back to room temperature before using it in this recipe. If the butter is melted or too soft, then the cookies will spread quite a bit in the oven.
Can you please let me know what can I substitute the brown sugar with ? I use cane sugar at home for baking n cooking, so please let me know how much cane sugar should I add for this recipe!
I would suggest sticking with brown sugar for these cookies.
Literally THE best choc chip cookies I’ve ever made. Perfect in looks, taste and consistency. THANK YOU!
Thank you, Jeannie! I’m glad you liked the cookies!
I am making these tonight with gluten-free flour, cannot wait to try them!
These are amazing! I am allergic to gluten so I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free flour instead of regular flour… worked great! They are so yummy!
So glad you liked the cookies, Ava! Happy to hear that the gluten-free flour worked great too 🙂
What can I subsidise the egg yolk with
You may be able to use a flax egg, but I’m not sure on the amount you would need to use.
This was the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever made! I’ve tried lots, but this one is perfect. I followed the recipe exactly, and we ended up with 8 perfect cookies! It was the perfect amount for my husband and I to enjoy without being tempted to overindulge.
So happy to hear that, Hannah! Thank you 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I was craving chocolate chip cookies but didn’t want to make 4 dozen for just me and my husband. I had to use dark brown sugar as I didn’t have any light. And I was too impatient to chill for the full 10 minutes in the freezer. But they still turned out amazing. These were probably the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made.
So happy to hear that, Tracy!
I used Earth Balance instead of butter, coconut sugar instead of brown sugar (all I had), and gluten-free flour from Trader Joe’s and they were still great. Perfect proportions! Thanks for the recipe, I finally have a go-to for small batch.
So glad the cookies turned out great for you, Helene!
My husband and I love this recipe!! It’s delicious and comes out with the perfect amount for the 2 of us without having a ton of extra cookie dough!
So glad you both liked the cookies, Abbey!
I was drinking with friends when we decided that we needed a cookie immediately. These were prepped, baked and enjoyed within 30 minutes. I added a sprinkling of fine coffee grounds to the dough and a pinch of salt on top of each cookie before putting them in the oven. THESE WERE AMAZING! CHEWY CENTER! CRUNCHY EDGES! 10/10 WOULD BAKE AGAIN!
So glad you liked the cookies, Jill!
Omg these are the best cookies I have ever tasted! Thank you!!
These cookies are simply amazing and everything I was looking for in a chocolate chip cookie! I will have to make a bigger batch for our next cook out, but this is perfect when I have a craving for a perfectly textured cookie!
Just made these and doubled the recipe! They were perfect! They needed 13 minutes in my gas oven.