Small Batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies

A warm chocolate chip cookie out of the oven is delicious; butter and sugar and chocolatey goodness. I wanted to make a small batch of cookies because I didn't have enough chocolate chips for a full batch. This small-batch makes sure that every cookie has the right amount of chocolate chips if you are short of chocolate chips. Feel free to double the recipe and use an egg if you want a bigger batch.

Start by mixing up the dough. Cream together the butter with some white and brown sugar. You want to make sure the butter is completely softened before creaming or the dough might separate. Another option is to brown the butter if you forgot to soften the butter. Browning the butter is basically heating up the butter to cook the fats. Liquid butter gives a nice taste to your cookies as well, so be sure to try that out too. I added the vanilla extract once the sugars were combined. For the binding ingredient, I used flaxseed mixed with some water to act as an egg. Since this is a small batch of cookies, one full egg would've been too much for the quantity of dough. Some alternatives to flaxseed are applesauce or egg yolk. If you are doubling the recipe, I recommend using one egg instead of flaxseed. Add in the dry ingredients; flour (learn how to measure flour), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the dough together and then use a wooden spoon or spatula to fold in the chocolate chips.

The ratio of chocolate chips in your dough is up to your preference. I like to have a bunch of chocolate chips in every cookie, and for this small-batch, I chopped up the regular sized chips to make mini pieces. Once the dough is all done, you are going to want to cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator. What this does is harden the butter in the dough, and allows more flavor to develop in your cookie. If you baked the dough immediately, you would get flat cookies as the butter melts quickly (which is totally fine if that is what you like!). I chill the dough for 2-4 hours to make sure the butter is hardened and my cookies are chewy.

Roll the cookie dough into balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. I was making cookies for ice cream sandwiches, so I wanted to have smaller sized cookies. Using a tablespoon, I scooped up the dough, rolled it on my fingers, and placed it on the baking sheet. Bake these cookies for about 7 minutes at 375. Since they are so small, they will bake pretty fast. If you are making regular-sized cookies, bake them for about 10-15 minutes.

Once these cookies are baked, you let them chill for a few minutes. I love to dig into a nice warm cookie, so I take them off the baking sheet and eat them as soon as I can handle it without burning my tongue or breaking the cookie apart. These cookies are so good and can be considered healthy with the flaxseed. I like to use these cookies to make ice cream sandwiches or dunk them in milk for a nice snack. Let me know how these cookies turn out for you!