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. Youโll 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.
Whatโs next in Small Batch Land, friends? Do we need a single scone recipe? Do we need a double chocolate muffin recipe? Oh wait โ a single pop tart? A single crostata? Iโll never stop โ this is just too good.
Okay, first things first โ GET THIS COOKIE.
Here are the ingredients youโll need for this small batch chocolate chip cookie recipe:
โข half a stick of unsalted butter (4 tablespoons), melted
โข brown sugar
โข powdered sugar
โข one large egg yolk
โข vanilla extract
โข all-purpose flour
โข baking soda
โข kosher salt or sea salt to finish the cookies if you have it!
โข chocolate chips or big chocolate chunks
โข 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 thatโs 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, thereโs no chill time required for this recipe. Weโre scooping straight from pot to pan!
Spoon the soft cookie dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Itโs okay if the dough sags a bit โ itโll 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. Youโll gasp when you open the oven door. Youโll 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 youโll also love:
โข Dadโs Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies โ they are perfect and make over a dozen cookies. Theyโre lovely to share but the cookie dough balls hold up well in the freezer for after dinner munchies.
โข A Single Molten Chocolate Cake โ itโs 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
Youโll want to commit this recipe to memory stat โ 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, thatโs ok โ 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 thatโs 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 youโre into that sort of thing. No need to chill in the fridge โ 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 donโt have any on hand, you can substitute with granulated sugar or brown sugar in the same amount.
57 Responses
arriving so late, but not too late, to this cookie party, joy. these two cookies are brilliant. i nearly browned the butter and used milk chocolate chips, as thatโs what was in my pantry. the sea salt on top was indeed perfection, as others have said. i ate them both! yup! i did. many thanks.
Yum! My husband said I never make him chocolate chip cookies anymore (how I won his heart), so he got these for our 30th anniversary. So simple and so good! Although we are cutting back on sugar, he will now get an occasional treat!
Iโve made these 3 times now! Very nice to have a recipe for a small batch of cookies! I made 15 small cookies instead of 2 big ones.
So there I was. 11 PM at night and 6 months pregnant. I was craving cookies but lacking the energy to do a full batch bake. Then I stumbled on this recipe. And it baked perfectly. Thank you for so easily fulfilling my (near) midnight cravings
I (un)fortunately stumbled upon this recipe a couple of weeks ago and Iโve now memorized it as recommended. We really can make all our dreams come true!
Perfect! I was craving a cookie. Whipped these up easily as written.
These are AMAZING. Breakfast craving thoroughly satisfied thanks to this recipe and I had quite a laugh reading the instructionsโฆ thank youu <3
Breakfast, yes!
Incredible!!! On my third or fourth go around I wanted to make them monster style, so I added 2T or so of peanut butter (and then realized I was out of oats :( ). Threw in chocolate chips and Reeceโs pieces and they are incredible as always. Looking forward to trying with oats too!
Joy is absolutely correct โ you must memorize this recipe immediately! These cookies are ready so fast that it truly feels like a magic trick, and boy are they delicious.
These cookies are absolutely perfect. I added nuts to mine and I was in heaven!
These cookies were AMAZING. I made 4 beautiful chocolate stripe cookies. The perfect mix of crispy chewy.
Definitely needed them as a reward for parenting a 3 month old and a 3 year old.
Another amazing recipe! We donโt deserve you Joy ?
Brilliant treat! We loved them and it was nice to just make a couple! Thank you!
Those chocolate chip cookies look irresistible even if they are large. I just made chocolate chip cookies and they didnโt last even a day. I added an extra ingredient as cinnamon to change the taste a bit. Still chocolate goodness though. Thank you for this recipe.
This was the late night indulgence I needed after a ridiculous day at work. So simple and quick to whip up! And the sprinkle of sea salt before baking was *chefโs kiss*.
As always, thank you for sharing genius with the rest of us!! ?
Any substitutions if you canโt use eggs?
Iโve made this recipe over 10 times now and it comes out amazing every single time! Sometimes Iโm a little chaotic with my measuring and I find this recipe very forgiving. Thank you for the incredible recipe, Joy!
These are so great for a controlled cookie craving! I browned the butter and they were top notch!! Thanks Joy!!
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. Didnโt last 10 minutes. My husband and I gobbled them down.
Canโt wait to have them again tomorrow. Looking forward to more small batch baking!
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
Wow!!!
Wow!!
I doubled the recipe so I would have enough for my office mates. Iโm a frequent baker but this recipe made my colleagues think I was a baking genius. Itโs deceptively simple, comes together so quickly and the results are a delicious perfect chocolate chip cookie.
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 isnโt 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!
Visiting my daughter tomorrow and I always bring a sweet something something. I knew sheโd be mad if I took a plate of cookies, so just two was perfect. I did have to try a piece, so maybe sheโll get 1 and 1/2 โฆ.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.
Iโve 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!
These are perfect for that cookie craving!! Make them immediately!
Any idea if gf ap flour works well in tjese ??
I used Bobโs 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 canโt give this a proper taste because we both have a bad cold, but I can say that weโre 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 โdifferentโ way of making cookies than they might be used to, and they spread into giant cookies!
I meant to say BobโsRed Mill 1 to 1 gf flour, not Bobโs AP gf.
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.
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!
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! ?
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!
Thank you for the feedback Betty, yes!
So fast, so great! Perfect treat to make with my 3 year old and their attention span.
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. Iโd love to have a recipe for two biscuits. A single scone would be great too!
Absolutely delicious and itโs no lie that these are done in 20 mins! I actually made one giant cookie, by putting all the dough in a small/medium glass bowl and baking. Took closer to 20 mins in the oven, but it is perfect. Crackly top, gooey inside.
Swapped AP Flour for King Arthur GF Measure for Measure Flour, kept everything the sameโand can confirm, this recipe makes two delicious, giant GF cookies.
Joy. Gahhh. Also: thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks for letting us know.
who needs this recipe? everyone needs this recipe. egg white goes to whichever dog is having a lucky day. thanks for another keeper, JTB!
I cannot wait to try these! Itโs just me and my husband, so Iโm loving these tiny recipes! On my Tiny wishlist โ a quiche for just two people! Maybe Iโm in the minority, but leftover quiche makes me sad.
Mine just came out of the oven. I had some tiny amounts of white chocolate chips and heath bar bits so used a combo. Will be enjoying in 5 minutes. Loved the tiny recipe!
These were so good! I only used milk chocolate chips, but Iโll definitely add some dark chocolate in next time. The melted chocolate in the cookie was perfection. My fiancรฉ is already asking for another.
I love these small bake recipes. There are only 2 of us in my household and I canโt commit to a full batch (and no room in my tiny British freezer for the rest). I once tried a single person chocolate cake in a mug recipe that was so sad. This looks so much better โ canโt wait to try it!
Taking a mental health day today. After a long walk, I came home, cleaned up, and made these. Currently enjoying with some almond milk. They are ridiculously large and so delicious!
I would love to see a section in Recipes just for your tiny bakesโฆmaybe call it Little Bakes or Tiny Bakes. I just checked the single cinnamon roll on Instagram and it is missing some of the directions. I guess I am supposed to wing it, based on making a regular batch of cinnamaon rolls but I do best with specific instructons to follow.
That said, I would love to see a โscone for twoโ recipeโฆbasic scone with options for add-ins.
Thanks!!
For simplicity and no-waste sake, how do I adjust the recipe when using an entire egg? Thank you.
A whole egg would be a different recipe. I used the egg white the next day in scrambled eggs so no waste!
Beat the leftover egg white and add it to some applesauce. My mom made this when I was a kid and she called it โapple fluffโ. Top with a dash of cinnamon.
Loved it then and still do.
Made these and they were so good. I was craving something sweet and this hit the spot. Thanks for a great recipe Joy.
Oh I canโt wait to make these!
What about a single batch of something I can make with just one overripe banana? Or two? I keep having one or two extra, donโt drink smoothies, and donโt want to commit to an entire loaf of banana bread or pan of banana muffins.
How about these banana bread cookies I make with almond flour? https://joythebaker.com/2021/02/the-almond-flour-banana-bread-cookies-i-always-have-in-the-fridge/
I am totally down for the single (or 2) scone or biscuitโฆ
Love your books and blog
However when i print a recipe it always have a fuzzy strip that runs through it for several lines. It is the ad at the bottom of page and i cannot get it off for printing.
Please advise.
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I would definitely want that recipe for the single double chocolate muffin!
Recently got a range cooker with multiple ovens, and the smaller one will be perfect for this!
Always loved your single lady pancakes, so I am HERE for more small-batch bakes! Canโt wait to try them all.
Yesssss! We love the single lady pancake recipe in my house, too.