Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies are super easy to make. Small Batch Cookies are made with brown butter and can be made by hand - no mixer required. This cookie recipe makes 12 homemade chocolate chip cookies, and can easily be doubled. This cookie dough freezes well, so that you can always have a stash of frozen cookie dough to bake as needed!
Hi hi! Just popping in to share this recipe for Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies. This recipe makes just 12 cookies, and comes together with just a whisk or an electric hand mixer - no stand mixer required! The dough is great to freeze and have on hand in the freezer for whenever you need a cookie!
I have a lot of homemade chocolate chip cookies on my site, and few brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipes - but wanted to make something that can be made by hand and doesn't make two dozen cookies.
These small batch cookies are great to whip up for a quick dessert, or to just have when you need a few cookies. Back when we used to have friends over, or if we were going somewhere for dinner, I would make cookie dough ahead of time and then pop it in the oven to bake after dinner.
Why this is (one of) my favourite recipes
There are a couple of things that make these cookies so, so good. I think I made them about 8 times while testing - playing around with flour quantities, sugar ratios, leavening, chilling time, and baking time. I finally landed on what I think is the best small batch cookie dough.
- Small Batch - This recipe only makes 12 chocolate chip cookies, which is perfect if you are in a small household or have limited freezer space. You can easily double this recipe for a full 24 cookies if you need!
- Brown Butter - I love adding brown butter to recipes. It adds a depth of flavour that isn't immediately obvious what it is, but adds a complexity to the cookie.
- No Mixer Chocolate Chip Cookies - I made these using just a bowl, a whisk, and a spatula! You can use a handheld electric mixer if you like, but a whisk works just fine.
- Easy to freeze - If you don't want to bake all of this small batch cookie dough off at once, you can freeze some of the dough. I'll add tips for that further down the post.
For a perfect freezer stash - make these ahead!
If you want to make this chocolate chip cookie recipe super small batch, and have six cookies now and six later, you can freeze some of the dough. Chill all the dough down. Then, place however many balls of dough you are wanting to freeze on a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Cover lightly with plastic and then freeze until solid (also known as a flash freeze) - 30 minutes to an hour. Transfer the dough to an airtight container or ziploc bag, and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
I like to label the dough with what it is and baking time - you will need to add 2-3 minutes onto the baking time when baking frozen dough. There is no need to defrost. You can bake it straight from frozen! Sometimes we will bake just two cookies off to have in the evening. I like to drop the temperature when baking to 325°f / 160°c and increase the bake time by a few minutes to account for frozen dough.
For all my best tips on freezing cookie dough and baking from frozen, check out my post: How to freeze cookie dough
How to get perfect chocolate puddles
Moisture loss when browning butter - this is important!
Ranting aside, it is particularly important that you use a scale to bake with for small batch recipes, or recipes using brown butter. Small batch recipes rely on the ratio of ingredients being correct and there is much less room for error. And the best way to get this correct is to by using a scale. Different butters will have different moisture levels, which affects the yield of brown butter. American style butter have a higher water content, so will produce less brown butter when the water is cooked off. European or New Zealand style butter, which is higher in fat than American butter, will have less water that needs cooking off, so you will end up with a higher yield of brown butter.
The quantity of the butter in the recipe is important here, so the best way to measure it is by using a scale. You start with an initial quantity of butter - in this case 120g, and then cook it down. You then re-measure the weight of the brown butter, and use 95g of that in your cookie recipe. I have accounted for the moisture loss from the initial quantity of brown butter in the recipe.
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Answers to your baking questions
Over the years, many of you have asked me questions about:
- baking in grams
- adjusting oven temperatures
- what kind of salt to use
- and many more!
I've curated and answered them all for your easy reference in this frequently asked questions post!
Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
Description
These Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies are super easy to make. They are made with brown butter and can be made by hand - no mixer required. This recipe makes 12 chocolate chip cookies, and can easily be doubled.
Ingredients
- 120g unsalted butter, cold from the fridge is fine
- 120g dark brown or light brown sugar
- 45g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 140g all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp espresso powder (optional)
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 180g chocolate from a bar, chopped (I used 100g dark and 80g milk, use what you like here), plus extra for pressing on top, if desired
Instructions
- Place the butter in a medium saucepan, and place over medium heat. Cook until the butter has melted, and then continue to cook, swirling the pan often, until the butter foams and turns golden brown and nutty - this should take 3-4 minutes.
- Measure out 95g (see Notes section below) of the brown butter into a medium or large mixing bowl, and set aside for 15-20 minutes to cool so that it doesn't scramble your eggs.
- When the butter is cool, add the brown sugar and white sugar, and whisk briefly to incorporate.
- Add the egg and whisk well for 1-2 minutes, or mix using an electric mixer, until the mixture has lightened in colour and has thickened.
- Add the vanilla and mix well.
- Add the flour, salt, espresso powder if using, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix to combine with a rubber spatula until there are some flour streaks remaining - this is to ensure you do not over work the dough.
- Add the chopped chocolate and mix with a spatula to incorporate and finish incorporating the flour.
- Line a quarter sheet pan or other container with parchment paper. Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough (approx 55g) , arranging them on the parchment (they can be touching). Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. See "how to freeze cookie dough" in post for tips on freezing
- 10 minutes into the chilling period, preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Arrange 6 cookie dough balls onto the pan. If desired, flatten each ball of dough, press more chocolate on the top, and roll into a ball, then space evenly on the pan.
- Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, or until set around the edges and golden brown. Bake for closer to 11 minutes for still gooey inside, or 12-13 for more set cookies.
- Remove from the oven, and if desired, use a cookie cutter slightly bigger than the cookies to 'scoot' them into a round shape.
- Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if using. Leave to cool on the pan for 10-15 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Repeat the baking process with the remaining 6 balls of dough.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
You may notice that there are two quantities of butter in the recipe - the initial quantity of butter, then a second measurement in the method which is the quantity of brown butter. The larger initial quantity is to account for water loss when browning - read more about that in my FAQ.
Please note that if you use the 2x button to double the recipe, this only doubles the ingredients list and not the quantities within the method, so you need to weigh out 190g brown butter to use in your cookies.
For notes on adding biscoff chunks please see the notes in the body of the blog post.
I like to use a little trick to get those big puddles on the tops of my chocolate chip cookies. Just before the dough goes in the oven, I take each ball of dough, and flatten it slightly. I then press chunks of chopped chocolate onto the top. You can add some of the chocolate dust from chopping too. Then I squeeze it back into a ball, and place it on the baking sheet. This means that when the cookie bakes, the chocolate will end up spread across the top of the cookie, and give you those big chocolate puddles on the tops. If you are freezing your cookie dough, do this step before they go into the freezer. You can't squish frozen dough!
Can I add Biscoff to the cookies?
I added biscoff chunks to this cookie recipe in a similar way that I did with my Nutella chocolate chip cookies. To add biscoff, pipe 170g biscoff spread (I used crunchy) into blobs on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, then freeze for at least 30 minutes until firm. Release from the paper and place back into the freezer until ready to use.
Reduce the chopped chocolate in the recipe to 110g. Add the biscoff pieces in with the chocolate, reserving a few for the tops of the cookies (place back into the freezer while the cookie dough is chilling). Scoop the cookie dough into balls, chill for the time in the recipe, then add a few of the biscoff pieces when you are adding the chocolate on the top of the cookies before baking. Bake the cookies as per the recipe - because the biscoff gets a little melty the cookies may come out a little flatter than the ones in this recipe but they are just so, so good.
I use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop - I like this 2 tablespoon cookie scoop. You can also weigh your dough balls if you don't have a scoop. Mine weighed about 55g each.
Comments
Chanel B. says
I make these once a week and keep them in the fridge/freezer for easy baking. They’re my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Sometimes I’ll swap some of the chocolate chips with pecans and they still turn out superb. Will never not bake these.
Delaney says
This is a simple and delicious cookie. Make extra brown butter so you can spread it on your toast!
Jessica says
Love this recipe so much! I made these cookies so my husband and I could have 1 cookie each for dessert… we ate the entire batch in one sitting lol 😂. I’ve made a lot of cookies over the years and these are up there with my absolute favourites! Love your work
Shannah says
This has now become my staple choc chunk cookie recipe and the standard by what all other cookies are measured by! Flaky salt always and having these in the freezer ready for whenever makes me feel nigella-esque!
Meli says
My go to chocolate chip cookie recipe. It's extremely forgiving, adaptable and delicious.
Marie Hunnenberg says
I made them a few times now and I love them, they are truely the best Chocolate Chip Cockies ever made <3 Thank you for the great and easy recipe!