Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are the perfect mini chocolate chip cookies! They are super soft, a bit chewy, and so easy and fun to make.
You might think making a bunch of mini cookies is a ton of work, but it is actually super easy (especially with the hack I’m sharing on how to portion and shape this dough into mini cookies!).
Why This Recipe Really Works
While it may seem like you should just be able to take your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, shape into smaller cookies, and woila! have miniature cookies at your beck and call, in my experience, it doesn’t actually work like that.
Making perfect mini chocolate chip cookies requires just a few tweaks to an otherwise great chocolate chip cookie recipe:
- Butter: Make sure the butter is at cool room temperature. It should be soft enough to incorporate well with the sugars but not melty or overly soft (otherwise the cookies may spread too much while baking).
- Flour: There is a slight boost in the flour amount for these mini chocolate chip cookies. It might seem like a small amount on paper, but it ensures the cookies have the perfect thickness and soft texture and don’t flatten too much in the oven.
- Chocolate Chips: Mini chocolate chips are subbed in for regular chocolate chips so that there is a perfect distribution of chocolate chips throughout the itty bitty cookies
How to Portion and Shape the Dough for Mini Cookies
Portioning and rolling the dough for 60+ cookies doesn’t have to be annoying and time consuming! Here’s how we do it for this recipe:
- Pat the cookie dough into an 8X8-inch square on a piece of lightly greased parchment paper.
- Pop the cookie dough onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes. I know the idea of chilling cookie dough can feel super lame, but that short chilling period makes it a lot easier and less messy to cut and shape these mini cookies.
- Use a bench scraper/knife (or other long knife) and cut the dough into eight strips across and eight strips down for a total of 64 small squares of cookie dough.
- Roll each square into a tiny ball. The squares may vary a tiny bit in size, and that’s ok. As long as they are fairly close to the same size, they’ll turn out great.
With a kitchen scale, each miniature cookie dough ball will be right around 11 to 12 grams. But weighing each portion is unnecessary, in my opinion. Cutting the dough into strips is quick and easy. Also, you can portion the dough into even smaller cookies, if you’d like! Simply cut the square of dough into thinner strips.
Baking Time and Temp for Mini Cookies
For this recipe, the miniature chocolate chip cookies bake at 350 degrees F for seven to eight minutes.
As with all cookie recipes that have ever lived, keep in mind the following:
- Every oven varies slightly in exact oven temperature.
- If your cookies flatten too much in the oven, increase the oven temperature by 15 to 25 degrees and/or add another tablespoon or two flour to the dough the next time you make the recipe.
- If your cookies don’t flatten enough and stay mounded while baking, decrease the oven temperature by 15 to 25 degrees and/or decrease the flour by a tablespoon or two the next time you make the recipe.
Be patient as a home baker! If a recipe doesn’t turn out perfect the first time, making a few small adjustments the next time can make all the difference.
Final Thoughts and Make-Ahead Notes
Why is everything in miniature form just so much cuter and infinitely more delicious?? We are having so much fun with this recipe!
To make these cookies ahead of time, you can refrigerate the cookie dough (shaped into a square or already rolled into tiny cookie dough balls), well-covered, for up to two days. If baking the cookie dough chilled, add additional time, if needed. The baked and cooled cookies also freeze great.
Perhaps you didn’t have “make miniature cookies” on your bingo card for this year (or your lifetime), but I promise this recipe will change your mind.
These cookies are intensely soft with the perfect amount of chewiness…and they are completely irresistible. Packaged up in a little cellophane bag with twine or piled in a jar, and you have the cutest little treat ever.
Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g) salted butter, softened to cool room temperature (see note)
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (80 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons (80 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg (50 g out of shell)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups + 1 tablespoon (222 g) all-purpose flour (see note)
- ¾ cup (135 g) mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl with a handheld electric mixer or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well-combined, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well-combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the flour and chocolate chips and stir until evenly combined and no dry streaks remain.
- Lightly grease a sheet of parchment paper with cooking spray. Scrape the cookie dough onto the parchment paper, and press the dough into an 8X8-inch square (it will be a bit less than 1/2-inch thick).
- Place the parchment paper with the cookie dough on a half sheet pan and refrigerate for 15 to 20 minutes. This helps the cookie dough firm up so that cutting and rolling the mini cookies is easier and less messy.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line three half sheet pans with parchment paper, lightly grease with cooking spray, and set aside. (If you don't have three half sheet pans, bake the cookies in batches – letting the sheet pan cool completely in between batches.)
- Out of the fridge, use a bench scraper/knife or other knife to cut the square of cookie dough into eight strips across and eight strips down (for a total of 64 squares of cookie dough).
- Roll each square into a ball. Place the mini cookie dough balls an inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. For a standard half sheet pan, I bake 24 mini cookie dough balls at a time.
- Bake for 7 to 8 minutes until the cookies are set around the edges. Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (made tweaks to this best-ever chocolate chip cookie recipe in order for it to work out perfectly as mini cookies)
Delightful little chocolate chip cookies! My friends and family loved the soft chewiness.
Have you tried freezing the dough squares and baking as you need them?
These are a delight! So delicious and I love the method!
Ah, yay! Thanks, Becky!
So basically, these are incredible. The method is straightforward and the results are very delicious. I live at a higher elevation than Mel and these came out perfectly at 4500 ft. as written with no adjustments to time or temperature. I did add an extra 1/4 t. salt the second time I made them but they were great with both amounts. I was honestly shocked at how chewy and flavorful these are because I’ve never had a delicious mini chocolate chip cookie before. My 16 year old son was in heaven; my 12 & 13 year old nieces inhaled 50 in about 3 minutes (which is why I had to make a second batch :)) and my husband loved them too. Warning: these are dangerously addicting; their cuteness and size will make you feel like you need, “just one more” until they are gone. Thanks Mel.
I loved and appreciated your comment, Alicia! Thanks for detailing your elevation and how the cookies came out. So thrilled you all loved them!
Immediately made these and wow! Sooooo good! Thank you!
Oh yay, thanks for letting me know that, Brittany!
Ok. I saw a reel of you making these and saved the recipe a few days ago. So tonight I hosted book club and decided this would be perfect for one of the snacks while we visited. 10/10 everyone LOVED them!! THE perfect little cookie! I thought having them set up in the fridge for 15 min on parchment in an 8×8 would be a pain, but doing that and using the bench scraper helped portion them out perfectly! Seriously…thank you for the cutest sweetest little cookie recipe.
Thanks for a detailed comment, Andrea! I also usually feel like chilling cookie dough is a total pain, but for these, it actually makes them easier! Glad your book club loved them!
Used 1/2c mini m&m, 1/2c mini chocolate chips. So good! Thanks, Mel!
Love the idea of mini M&Ms!! Thanks for sharing, Sara!
Made these today! I’m obsessed. 10/10 These are dangerous.
Haha, I don’t disagree!! (Thanks for making them and letting me know what you thought!)
Not sure my comment went through so trying again. I don’t use salted butter but use Diamond Crystal kosher salt or fine sea salt. What adjustment should I make to the salt given that I use unsalted butter? Thank you!
Hi Teresa, if you are using unsalted butter, increase the salt in the recipe to 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or 1 1/4 teaspoon diamond crystal kosher salt (those are both estimates as I haven’t made these cookies with unsalted butter, but that should be a good starting place).
I swear I search for a recipe for like a week, finally decide on one to try, and then check my email—and there’s your recipe. A recipe from someone who has never failed me. I can’t wait to try this one.
Brilliant! Do you think it’d work by pressing the dough into a parchment lined 8×8 baking pan instead of out onto a baking sheet? Then remove it to cut. That way I’d know the exact measurement
Yes, I think you could definitely do that! The only 8X8-inch pans I have have rounded corners and sides, so I didn’t try it that way, but if that makes it a bit easier to measure, I think it’s a great idea.
Oh no you didn’t!!! Cannot wait!!!!!
You’re a genius. Also good luck! Teens are the best!!