Chewy Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies

We ALL love chocolate chip cookies. Am I right? And sometimes we want just enough for two people so that we can eat them all while they are fresh and before they lose their peak deliciousness. Also, because I love chocolate chip cookies SO much, I can easily eat 5 or 6 in one sitting and therefore having them linger around the house is just torture. I can't have cookies in the house and not eat them, and even freezing them doesn't keep me from getting at them. These Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies have a chewy and almost fudgy texture in the middle with crisp edges and golden on the bottom with melty dark chocolate. This recipe makes 7 incredible cookies and it's perfect for any time since it is so easy to make, requires no chill time and just 1 bar of chocolate. Just grab a handful of pantry ingredients and make these delicious quick and easy cookies in under 10 minutes! If you want more than just a small batch, check out my incredible Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

• Easy to make - these chocolate chip cookies are seriously easy to make! You don't need a mixer, although I often do use my hand mixer to do it anyway.
• Simple ingredients - you just need flour, butter, sugar, chocolate and 1 egg to make this recipe. These are all staple baking ingredients, so hopefully you have them on hand!
• Chewy texture - I love how these cookies have chewy insides and tender crisp edges. The egg yolk gives them almost a shortbread like texture.
• One yolk recipe - since we're making a small batch, the whole egg would add too much liquid and make very cakey cookies. You only need 1 yolk to make this recipe.
• No chill cookie dough - you don't need to chill this cookie dough, so you can literally make these cookies in less than 20 minutes!
• Dark chocolate chips - I love using both chopped dark chocolate bar and chocolate chips for contrast in textures. The chocolate bar will melt more readily so you get nice puddles of chocolate in the middle.

WHAT DO ONE YOLK CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES TASTE LIKE?

Since this is a small batch, we only need the yolk of one egg. Save the egg white for another use. So, what do they taste like with one egg yolk? Well, they have a rich, custardy and brown sugar fudge flavor unlike any other chocolate chip cookie. They are divine!

SCIENCE BEHIND CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

You can certainly expect a few tips from me since I am a Food Scientist after all. The secret to the best chocolate chip cookies comes down to chemistry. Firstly it is about ingredient ratios. The amount of butter, sugar, flour and egg is very important.

• Ratio of Butter: Butter should be the main flavor in chocolate chip cookies since it is a simple recipe after all. Getting the right amount of butter to egg ratio is very important. Too much egg will dominate the taste and also make the texture more cakey rather than chewy.
• Liquid ratio: The moisture in egg serves to help dissolve sugar in the dough but too much will prevent the edges from becoming crisp and also delay browning. That means you will need to bake the cookies longer to develop the color, and they will often become dried out before that point.
• Flour ratio: It is so important to either weigh your ingredients using a scale, or measure your flour correctly without packing it into your measuring cup. Too much flour will lead to thick cookies, but they will be more doughy and less gooey. Too little flour will make a very soft dough that will spread too much and lead to greasy cookies.

INGREDIENTS

• All purpose flour - regular all purpose flour is perfect to make chocolate chip cookies. Use unbleached flour which will give you that nice chewy texture.
• Pure vanilla extract - vanilla is essential to the flavor of chocolate chip cookies. Do not leave it out and use a good one! I like this Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract.
• Butter - you can use unsalted or salted butter for this recipe. I often use salted butter and then I reduce the added salt in the recipe by half.
• Brown sugar - I definitely recommend dark brown sugar because it has a higher molasses content which will give the cookies a more chewy texture and also create that rich butterscotch flavor.
• Granulated sugar - simple fine white granulated sugar creates the crisp golden brown edges.
• Egg yolk - you only need the yolk for this recipe. Do not use the whole egg or there will be too much moisture. Save the egg white for another recipe.
• Dark chocolate - I like using really dark chocolate. Anything between 60 and 70% cocoa solids is nice, but you can use semi sweet chocolate if that's what you prefer. I prefer Bittersweet Chocolate and these bittersweet chocolate callets are very convenient.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

• STEP 1). Combine butter and sugar. Mix together melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla in a small bowl until smooth and creamy. I do it by hand with a spatula.
• STEP 2). Mix in egg yolk. Add the egg yolk and mix until evenly incorporated.
• STEP 3). Add dry ingredients. Sprinkle the flour, baking soda and salt over the butter mixture and stir until combined. Fold in chopped chocolate.
• STEP 4). Rest the dough. Cover the bowl and set aside while you preheat the oven.
• STEP 5). Bake! Roll dough into balls and place onto prepared baking sheet spacing them 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown and puffed. They should still be soft in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling,

EXPERT BAKING TIPS FOR SMALL BATCH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

• Cool the melted butter. This is important so that the cookie dough isn't too greasy and will lend the best texture and the right amount of spread for the cookies.
• Use dark brown sugar for even more chewiness
• Measure the flour accurately. Too much can make these cookies dry instead of chewy and too little will mean they will spread too much.
• Use baking soda, NOT baking powder: Not only is baking soda important to help the cookies spread, but it also gives them color! Baking soda is an alkaline ingredient (the opposite of an acid), and the Maillard Browning reaction is encouraged in an alkaline environment.
• Add SALT! The right amount of salt is so important. If you have salted butter then you can reduce the added salt in the recipe by half.
• Portion the dough evenly. Divide the dough into 7 equal portions so that you get even baking and the right size to give you the soft chewy insides. If you make more cookies, then they will be smaller and wont quite have the same textural differences that are so nice in chocolate chip cookies.
• Do not over-bake. These cookies should not take longer than 12 minutes. They should still be soft in the center and they will continue cooking as they rest on the baking sheet.

RECIPE FAQ

HOW TO MAKE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES WITH CHEWY TEXTURE:

• Do not overdo the creaming step. Mix the butter with sugar only until smooth and like a damp sand, but not until pale. Over-beating will make cookies that are crisp, but not as chewy.
• Use baking soda only - not baking powder. Baking soda is alkaline and promotes browning through Maillard reactions (delicious flavor reactions) to produce a nice rich flavor. Baking powder is more acidic and creates a cakier texture as well as a more pale color.
• Measure flour accurately. Too much flour will leave you with dry and more crumbly cookies that will taste more doughy than butterscotch-y and caramel-like.

When you see how perfect these cookies turn out and how simple they are, you might just make small batches all the time! They are so wonderfully crunchy around the edges with dense and chewy insides. I promise these will please everyone - well, at least it will please a small batch of 7 people 😉    

Check out my other small batch recipes:

The BEST Small Batch Chocolate Fudge Brownies Small Batch Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Easy Small Batch Lemon Curd The BEST Flourless Small Batch Brownie Cookies (Gluten-Free) Small Batch Tahini Swirl Chocolate Fudge Sheet Cake Marble Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting