Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
These mini chocolate chip cookies are a smaller version of my favorite soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. They’re made with brown butter and mostly dark brown sugar to give you a rich, butterscotch-like flavor. And they’re the perfect size when you want just a little sweet thing.
You can still always use this recipe to make regular sized cookies or freeze this drop cookie batter for chocolate chip cookies any time you want. Can’t wait one minute extra minute? Make the recipe as chocolate chip cookie bars.
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Ingredients
Butter
The original version of this chocolate chip cookie post included a blind taste test of different butters, and there was a clear difference in cookie taste and texture. I almost always use either Plugra or Tillamook Extra Creamy unsalted butter.
Please use a European-style butter whenever the butter taste is important in your recipe. Your taste buds will thank you!
Chocolate chips
For mini chocolate chip cookies, we need mini chocolate chips. By far my favorite mini chocolate chips are Ghirardelli semisweet chips.
Substitutions and variations
- Sub finely chopped chocolate for the mini chocolate chips.
- Make this recipe using a medium cookie scoop and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes. It will make about 30 cookies.
- Grease a 9 by 13 inch baking pan and bake the recipe as chocolate chip cookie bars. You’ll need to increase the baking time to about 20 to 22 minutes. They’re done when a toothpick inserted into the pan comes out clean.
Key equipment: cookie scoops
Cookie scoops are one of my most used kitchen tools, whether I’m making drop cookies or meatballs. They make these mini chocolate chip cookies easy to put together. And it means you get scoops of cookie balls that are the same size, so your cookies bake evenly.
Cookie scoops come in a range of sizes from the teeny-tiniest to huge. The imprinted numbers refer to the number of scoops in a quart of ice cream. As a result, the largest scoops have the smallest number.
There are 64 tablespoons in a quart. So a #70 scoop will make cookies that are 64 divided by 70th of a tablespoon. That’s just under one tablespoon of dough.
Recipe tips and tricks
Making brown butter
Brown butter gives cookies a rich, butterscotch-like flavor. And browning butter is not difficult. So once you start, you probably won’t stop browning butter for all your recipes!
To brown butter, start by melting the butter and continuing to cook it over low heat, stirring or swirling the pan occasionally. It will start to smell nutty, and you will hear the butter popping. When the popping stops, pour the butter into a glass measuring cup to stop the cooking. It can go from brown to burnt very quickly.
Making the cookies
These mini chocolate chip cookies are super easy to make. First combine the sugars and brown butter (Panel #1, below). Then beat in the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract (Panel #2).
Add the sifted dry ingredients (the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) and mix on low (Panel #3). Finally, add the chocolate chips by hand, reserving a few to use for your last cookies in case they are light on chocolate chips.
Let the cookie batter in chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes or so while you clean up your kitchen. If you’re making cookie bars (see variation below), you can bake them right away!
Scoop dough using a tablespoon or a #70 scoop. You can use an even smaller cookie scoop if you want tiny chocolate chip cookies – that’s one with a larger number.
Space mini cookie balls about 1.5 to 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silicone mats. I’ve never noticed a difference between the two when baking drop cookies.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 7 to 8 minutes until they are just barely starting to firm up. They’ll continue to cook after you remove them from the oven. Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack.
Storage
Store drop cookies at room temperature in an airtight container. Baked chocolate chip cookies can also be frozen, but they’ll taste better if you freeze the unbaked cookie dough and then bake cookies when you want them.
Recipe FAQs
There’s variation in the amount of salt in different salted butters. As a result, it’s always better to bake with unsalted butter so you can control the salt content. If salted butter is all you have, go ahead and use it and omit the extra salt.
Yes. I freeze drop cookies to have freshly baked cookies whenever we want. Just scoop the cookie balls onto a cookie sheet. Don’t worry about spacing as long as they aren’t touching. Freeze them overnight on the sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag for up to three to six months. Bake from frozen at the same temperature for an extra minute or two.
I’ve done a bit of work on this chocolate chip cookie recipe to get them the way we like them. It makes a soft and chewy cookie. They don’t have nuts. They do have brown butter for flavor. But there is no such thing as perfect chocolate chip cookies because there is so much variation in what people want.
Related cookie recipes
Check out all the Ugly Duckling Bakery cookie recipes like these chocolate chip marshmallow cookie bars or Nutella blondies, both of which are adapted from this recipe. Or try my house favorites like:
Are you like me and have to put chocolate chips in everything? Try my blueberry chocolate chip muffins, one bowl chocolate chip banana bread, Nutella banana bread, chocolate chip loaf cake, or chocolate chip scones!
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- #70 or smaller cookie scoop optional
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 grams or 8.8 ounces) bleached, all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 227 grams, or 8 ounces) unsalted butter
- ¼ cup (50 grams or 1.8 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (192 grams or 6.8 ounces) dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 1 bag (340 grams or 12 ounces) mini chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli semisweet)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F. Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. (See notes for suggestions if you do not own three.)
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium sized bowl.2 cups (250 grams or 8.8 ounces) bleached, all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt
- Brown the butter in a small saucepan. If you're not familiar with browning butter, check out the notes below and in the main post. Let cool slightly so it doesn't cook your eggs when you add those.1 cup (2 sticks, 227 grams, or 8 ounces) unsalted butter
- Add the sugars to a mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer and mix briefly to combine.¼ cup (50 grams or 1.8 ounces) granulated sugar, 1 cup (192 grams or 6.8 ounces) dark brown sugar
- Beat in the slightly cooled brown butter.
- Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and then the milk, beating about one minute between each addition.2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon whole milk
- Add the dry ingredients and mix only until just combined.
- Add the chocolate chips, reserving a tablespoon or so in case your last cookies are light on chips, and mix by hand.1 bag (340 grams or 12 ounces) mini chocolate chips
- Add this point you will need to refrigerate the cookie dough for a few minutes so that you can scoop it, but do not refrigerate it for more than an hour or it will be more challenging to scoop.
- Use a #70 cookie scoop or two spoons to scoop a tablespoon of batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or silicone mat. If baking immediately, leave at least one inch between cookies. If scooping to freeze, they can be placed adjacent to each other but not touching. Freeze overnight before putting into a freezer bag and squeeze out all of the air.
- When baking, preheat Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until the edges are just starting to brown. The centers will still be soft.
- Cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes and then move to a cooling rack.
Notes
- bake a batch and freeze the rest, since you can place cookie balls for the freezer spaced more closely than if you were baking, or
- bake a batch and put the remaining batter in the refrigerator. Let the first batch bake and let the pan cool completely before baking your next batch.
Nutrition
This mini chocolate chip cookie recipe was originally posted May 16, 2021 as part of the Week 20 reddit 52 week baking challenge: plating. It was last updated on May 11, 2023.
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Previous challenges:
Week 1: New Year new recipe – blueberry galette
Week 2: seasonal – Smitten Kitchen’s grapefruit pound cake
Week 3: Great British Bake Off – Kate’s sticky toffee apple caramel cake
Week 4: Australia – sausage rolls
Week 5: bite sized – bite-sized cookies
Week 6: Chinese New Year – mushroom bao
Week 7: new tool – baguette baker
Week 8: chocolate – chocolate peanut butter bonbons
Week 9: timed bake – under 1 hour! chocolate chip scones
Week 10: allergy/diet restriction – macarons
Week 11: quick breads – kale bread
Week 12: signature bake – purple cow bread
Week 13: enriched breads (kale and cheese babka fail)
Week 14: childhood favorite –fudgy triple layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting
Week 15: decorating challenge – purple velvet cake
Week 16: crispy crunchy – bacon cheddar popcorn
Week 17: p52 of a favorite cookbook, or your favorite blog – chocolate peanut butter drip cake
Week 18: pâte à choux – bacon cheese puffs
Week 19: veggies turned sweet – red velvet beet waffles
Next week: birthday party!
