One Bowl Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies

Name: One Bowl Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: ½ c plus 1 T flour; ¼ c butter, softened; ¼ c brown sugar, packed; ¼ c sugar; 1 egg yolk; 1 tsp vanilla extract; ¼ tsp baking soda; ¼ tsp salt; ⅔ c chocolate chips

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These Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies are so easy and done start to finish in 30 minutes. This recipe makes the best chewy and soft chocolate chip cookies that are loaded with rich chocolate chips and with little clean up! Win!

Chocolate Chip Cookies on cooling rack with a bite out of one cookie.

This post was originally posted April 2019. Post was updated February 2020 to add how to photos and update recipe slightly based on feedback.

When I want chocolate chip cookies and I want them NOW, one bowl, small batch chocolate chip cookies are ALWAYS the answer.

Just enough cookies to satisfy the sweet tooth and done in under 30 minutes so it's a quick in and quick out sort of deal. One bowl means not much mess!

What more could you ask for?!

A glass of milk, perhaps?

Why this recipe works:

Just a handful of cookies. Depending on the size you make these small batch cookies, you will get anywhere from 8-12. Not too much, not too few--just the right amount for now and a little more later.
Kid friendly baking. For the times when you want to bake with the kiddos and know they don't have the patience bake more than just one sheet of cookies.
Less mess to clean up! You hate doing extra dishes--so one bowl sounds like a dream.
Time is on your side. Done in less than 30 minutes. Can't beat that!

This simple, one bowl cookie recipe is a go to in our house for these reasons and more.

What you will need:

egg yolk: this is one of the biggest differences between a small batch and a full batch. A large egg yolk is all you will need for the small batch recipe.
baking soda: I will say this til I am blue in the face--make sure it is fresh and not expired or close to expiration. This ruins more cookies than ever necessary!
salt: I use pink sea salt. I have a huge container of it that should last me a few years, so it's what is happening! I prefer sea salt in general in my cookie recipes.

Ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies.

How to make this recipe:

Cream the butter and sugars. You will find that creaming such a small amount of butter and sugar can be a bit challenging as there isn't as much to work with. Use a deep bowl to help contain anything that may fly up at first. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.Make sure to cream for several minutes to really get it nice and fluffy. (steps 1 and 2)
Add in the egg and vanilla and beat to incorporate. Once you are done creaming the sugar and butter, there is no need to excessiblef beat any other ingredients. You can simply mix until the ingredients are fully incorporated. (steps 3 and 4)

Process shots for making chocolate chip cookies.

Even though these small batch chocolate chip cookies are a one bowl recipe, you still want to incorporate the flour, sea salt and baking soda together before mixing it with the wet ingredients. I pour all three to the side of the dry ingredients and then gently whisk them together. Then slowly nudge a bit of the dry mix in with the wet at a time. (step 5)
Mix in all the dry ingredients until incorporated. The dough may seem slightly crumbly (photo 6) but that is ok. In step 8 you will pull it all together!

Chocolate chips and other ingredients in mixing bowl.

Fold in the chocolate chips. I often use dark chocolate chips and most of them are larger than milk or semi-sweet morsels. I have still make these with regular and they have been fine. If you really love chips in every bite, you can toss in a few extra for sure! (step 7)
Pull all the dough together if there are any stray crumbles and then scoop the dough onto your baking sheet if you don't play to chill them at all. (step 8)

Notes:

Butter: Make sure the butter is softened and not melted. This will make or break these cookies. You want this dough to be at room temperature before baking. If the butter is too warm, the cookies may come out flat and hard. If yours is too warm, return the dough to the fridge to allow it to chill for a few minutes.
Don't over bake these cookies! Unless that is your preference. But if you want gooey and chewy cookies, do not overtake them. When you see the edges start to brown a bit, you should be all set.
No chilling is required for these Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies, but you can chill for a bit if you need to cook them at a later time. Just allow them to return to room temperature before baking.
This makes about 8 medium/large sized cookies. Mine were about 3 inches or so in diameter.
All the chips! I went with 2/3 cup chocolate chips but honestly, you do you--add more if you would like.I used larger dark chocolate morsels because I like the way dark chocolate tends to photograph. The morsels were larger than your average sized chip. Switch up the flavor chips, chop up some chocolate as well or use chunks. The world is your chocolate chip cookie!

FAQs and Troubleshooting:

Chocolate Chip Cookies laying on parchment.

Can you over mix the dough?

Yes. And if you do, this can cause them to flatten. After you cream the butter and sugar and beat the egg in, stir in the dry ingredients just until they are fully incorporated. That should help keep them nice and soft and full

My Cookies are flat: what happened?

There are a few things that may have gone wrong here for your small batch chocolate chip cookies:
-You could have over mixed your dough.
-Your baking soda is not fresh and has expired.
-There is not enough flour or flour was improperly measured.
-You used a warm pan--this can cause the cookies to start baking before they even hit the oven and spread thin.

My Cookies are spreading out and are very thin, what can I do?

This typically can mean that the dough is warmer than room temperature. If the dough is too warm, it will spread out quickly in the oven.

Pop your dough in the fridge for about 15-30 minutes or until the dough is cool and sturdy. You should be able to easily roll into balls or your scoop will form cookies that stay in form when you place them onto the baking pan.

If your dough seems very thin and runny after chilling, you still may need to add a touch more flour.

My cookies are cake like: what happened?

This could also be from several different things:

You added too much flour.

The dough is too cold. If you chill your dough, allow it to sit for a bit to come to approximate room temperature before baking.

Why aren't my cookies soft and chewy?

A big reason here is typically the fact that they are over baked. I wait until the edges just barely start to turn brown and then remove them. They may even look undercooked when I pull them from the oven, but they will be ok. Allowing them to sit for a bit helps. This should help keep them soft and chewy, as long as all ingredients were measured properly.

To chill or not to chill the dough?

Comparison of cookies based on chill time.

I recently tested out chilling the dough versus not for these small batch chocolate chip cookies. I popped the chocolate chip cookies in not chilled, chilled for 30 minutes and chilled for an hour.

If you do chill, you want to let them sit out for a minute or so before popping them in the oven. The biggest difference is how big the cookies got based on the length of time chilled.

The cookies I did not chill spread the most and the cookies chilled the longest spread the least. I still found all three cookies amazing and it's really your preference. If you find your cookies are spreading a lot more, definitely chill them!

Overhead shot of chocolate chip cookies on cooling rack.

Want to freeze this dough?

No problem! I scoop them into individual cookies and pop them in a freezer safe container. They can go straight from the freezer to the oven.

Bake frozen cookie dough for about 12-14 minutes at 350°F.

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I recently updated this recipe to add an extra tablespoon of flour to help the cookies rise a bit more. If your cookies still seem to be coming out flat, add another tablespoon.