I accidentally went down a rabbit hole a few weeks back. One afternoon, in a sweet tooth induced mania, I made a small batch of truly giant chocolate chip cookies. The cookie dough came together in a small saucepan, the chocolate almost too melty, and the cookies about the size of my literal face. They were truly unhinged for small batch baking so, of course, I must now share these cookies with all of you. Here is the small batch chocolate chip cookie, the afternoon pick-me-up, the midnight snack, the stress bake of the year. You’ll want to commit this recipe to memory. With cookies this good, the recipe list will be engraved in your mind in no time.
Catch me and my small batch recipes on Instagram: making two (and just two) giant cookies, making one single cinnamon roll, and making two (and just two) lemon poppy seed muffins.
What’s next in Small Batch Land, friends? Do we need a single scone recipe? Do we need a double chocolate muffin recipe? Oh wait – a single pop tart? A single crostata? I’ll never stop – this is just too good.
Okay, first things first – GET THIS COOKIE.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this small batch chocolate chip cookie recipe:
• half a stick of unsalted butter (4 tablespoons), melted
• brown sugar
• powdered sugar
• one large egg yolk
• vanilla extract
• all-purpose flour
• baking soda
• kosher salt or sea salt to finish the cookies if you have it!
• chocolate chips or big chocolate chunks
• optitonal: nuts, M&M candies, walnuts, white chocolate chips, toasted pecans, macadamia nuts, peanut butter cups.
Choose your vessel. You can make this easy cookie dough in a small bowl, melting the butter in the microwave, or in a small saucepan, melting the butter over the stovetop. I chose a small saucepan because my microwave is notorious for exploding butter but that’s more of a personal problem than anything.
Whisk brown sugar and powdered sugar into the melted butter. This might feel grainy and like the fat is separating from the sugar, but just keep whisking. I like to use powdered sugar as opposed to granulated sugar for this recipe to create a crackled cookie top and chewy edges.
Once the butter and sugar mixture is cool to the touch, whisk in the egg yolk and vanilla extract. If your butter and sugar mixture was at all grainy, the egg yolk should help emulsify the mixture to glossy and smooth.
Stir in the dry ingredients until well combined, making sure no dry patches have stuck to the bottom or sides of the pan. Use a rubber spatula to fold chocolate chunks into the batter. If the saucepan is a touch warm, the chocolate pieces might melt into streaks, but the cookies will be just as tasty as ever.
Because this is a cookie emergency, there’s no chill time required for this recipe. We’re scooping straight from pot to pan!
Spoon the soft cookie dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. It’s okay if the dough sags a bit – it’ll all get a good spread. Top with extra chocolate chips and a good sprinkle of sea salt.
Bake in the upper third of the oven until golden brown around the edges. You’ll gasp when you open the oven door. You’ll think you could have made four reasonably sized cookies instead of two giant cookies, but what fun would that be?
This is taking a cookie craving all the way home. I fully expect you to wait three minutes before eating an entire cookie off the sheet pan. That would be doing it right.
If you like this small batch chocolate chip cookie you’ll also love:
• Dad’s Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – they are perfect and make over a dozen cookies. They’re lovely to share but the cookie dough balls hold up well in the freezer for after dinner munchies.
• A Single Molten Chocolate Cake – it’s hot lava inside. Hot chocolate lava.
Print
A Recipe For Just Two Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 2 big cookies 1x
- Category: dessert
Description
You’ll want to commit this recipe to memory stat – gooey in the center, crisp around the edges, melty chocolate and a salty top. Go from zero to GIANT COOKIES with one pot in 20 minutes flat.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar*
- 1 large egg yolk
- Splash of vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- A handful of chocolate chips + more to smash on top
Instructions
- Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it to the side.
- In a small saucepan, melt butter until bubbling. Remove from the heat and whisk in the brown sugar until it feels like the sugar has started to dissolve in the butter. If it feels like the butter is separating from the sugar, that’s ok – keep going. Whisk in the powdered sugar. This might feel like a clumpy mess, but I promise the lumps will whisk out.
- Whisk in the egg yolk and splash of vanilla until emulsified, smooth and glossy.
- Add flour, salt, and baking soda and stir with a spatula until no dry bits remain. Add the chocolate pieces and work quickly, because the chocolate will start to melt in the warm pan but honestly that’s alright because the melted chocolate makes for chocolate striped cookies. Fold the chocolate pieces throughout the dough and quickly dollop in two globs (of course you could do three or four globs) on the prepared baking sheet. Dot with a few more chocolate pieces and sprinkle with extra sea salt if you’re into that sort of thing. No need to chill in the fridge – that would defeat the purpose of having cookies right the heck NOW.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes until golden around the edges and still slightly soft in the center. Remove from the oven and see how long you can let them cook before eating them straight off the baking sheet. Enjoy now and do it again tomorrow! Xo
Notes
*powdered sugar gives these cookies a crackly top and chewy edges. If you don’t have any on hand, you can substitute with granulated sugar or brown sugar in the same amount.
Sam
I’ve made this recipe over 10 times now and it comes out amazing every single time! Sometimes I’m a little chaotic with my measuring and I find this recipe very forgiving. Thank you for the incredible recipe, Joy!
★★★★★
Julia W
These are so great for a controlled cookie craving! I browned the butter and they were top notch!! Thanks Joy!!
jjjaffe
Was craving chocolate chip cookies but wanted a small batch. Found your Web site and recipe for 2 large cookies. Perfect! Followed the recipe to the T. Absolutely hit the spot! Easy, no piles of bowls, they came out perfectly, as pictured. Didn’t last 10 minutes. My husband and I gobbled them down.
Can’t wait to have them again tomorrow. Looking forward to more small batch baking!
★★★★★
Linda
Just made this for the first time! I had no chocolate chips available, so I substituted the last of the leftover Cocoa powder. I posted a picture on my Instagram. These really would be better with actual chocolate chips. Very easy recipe to make
★★★★
BarbE
Wow!!!
Wow!!
I doubled the recipe so I would have enough for my office mates. I’m a frequent baker but this recipe made my colleagues think I was a baking genius. It’s deceptively simple, comes together so quickly and the results are a delicious perfect chocolate chip cookie.
★★★★★
Loren Lampson
Honestly so good! A couple thing I adjusted to my on preference: only 1/8tsp baking soda and only baked for 10 minutes, I want goooooooey cookies!
Fantastic for a good sized treat that isn’t a whole batch of something!
So good warm or accidentally cooled(prefer warm but babies must be taken care of).
Also love that I can do the whole thing in one small pot with 1measuring cup and 2measuring spoons!
★★★★★
Maria
Visiting my daughter tomorrow and I always bring a sweet something something. I knew she’d be mad if I took a plate of cookies, so just two was perfect. I did have to try a piece, so maybe she’ll get 1 and 1/2 ….LOL. This recipe was fast, easy and the cookie is very tasty. I did add walnuts to one because we love nuts in our cookies. Loving your small batch recipes. Would love scones or biscuits (just a couple) as someone else mentioned in the comments. Thank you.
★★★★★
Raquel
I’ve made this twice now, and I love this recipe so much. I did learn from my mistakes the first time around and moved my oven rack and mixed it better the 2nd time and got that crackly top I was looking for. This is a must have recipe!
★★★★★
Michelle
These are perfect for that cookie craving!! Make them immediately!
★★★★★
Jenny
Any idea if gf ap flour works well in tjese ??
Suhashini
I used Bob’s Red Mill and added about 1 tbsp of milk because I have heard that gf flour needs more moisture. It worked out well for me!
I can’t give this a proper taste because we both have a bad cold, but I can say that we’re both enjoying the recipe enough to make it again when we have all our taste and smell back. The cookies spread out just as pictured, with the crackly top. I whizzed some coarse sugar in the blender to make powdered, and added walnuts as well as mini choc chips. I think chunks would be better in these. This would be great cookie to make with kids. A “different” way of making cookies than they might be used to, and they spread into giant cookies!
★★★★★
Suhashini
I meant to say Bob’sRed Mill 1 to 1 gf flour, not Bob’s AP gf.
★★★★★
JenS
Thank you for this. My hubby and I just returned home from a lovely sunny 2 week vacation to lots of grey skies and rain. We needed an ASAP baking therapy pick-me-up and these cookies were perfect! Thankful to have brown sugar on hand as I was out of traditional sugar to pair with the last 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. (Had not restocked the groceries since our trip) Mine ended up a tad puffier than yours posted. Could be as I melted the butter in microwave then stirred in the ingredients vs cooking over stovetop? Either way, still tasty and comforting for the soul.
Angela
I love chocolate cookies, but they are very high in calories, I rarely can afford it, but thanks for the recipe anyway, the kids should love it!
★★★★★
Nikki
Absolutely delicious and so easy! I loved that you can portion control these too. I can satisfy my sweet tooth without making a huge batch to torment me! ?
★★★★★
Betty
Thanks look forward to making these cookies.
Could you use black or a darker color for your text as the color used is difficult to see when printing or doing a screenshot. Especially for us older readers. Thanks!
Joy the Baker
Thank you for the feedback Betty, yes!
Jen
So fast, so great! Perfect treat to make with my 3 year old and their attention span.
★★★★★
Brittney Mo
Perfection! I put my dough in the fridge after making it in the afternoon for a pre-planned nighttime snack. They baked thicker than shown since the dough was chilled. So delicious! Thick and gooey. Super quick and easy recipe. I’d love to have a recipe for two biscuits. A single scone would be great too!
★★★★★