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Single chocolate chip cookie with dark chocolate chunks on a beige plate.

Single Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Marissa
Delicious French café-style single chocolate chip cookie with perfectly chewy centers and crisp edges. Bake in the oven, air fryer, or microwave. Includes egg and no-egg options (aquafaba, milk, or ground flaxseed) for a moist, flavorful cookie. Quick and easy with just a small bowl and a spoon, no chilling required.
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Prep Time 3 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine International
Servings 1 Person
Calories 439 kcal

Equipment

  • 1 small bowl
  • 1 Kitchen Scale Or measuring spoons
  • 1 Spoon

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/4 tbsp melted butter or 3 and 3/4 tsp or 18 grams
  • 1 tbsp light brown sugar 12 grams
  • 1 tsp granulated sugar 4 grams
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 egg yolk 1 1/2 tsp or 8 grams. Or 1 - 1 1/2 tsp whole milk or plant-based milk, 1 1/2 tsp aquafaba or 1 tsp flaxseed meal pre-mixed with 1 tbsp water.
  • 3 Tbsp flour 24 grams
  • pinch baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • pinch cinnamon
  • 24 grams chocolate chips about 2 1/2 to 3 tbsp chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • Melt and Cool the Butter. Melt the butter in the same bowl you’ll be mixing in. Way less washing. Microwave or stove top, your choice. But let it cool fully. Touch the bowl. Still warm? Wait. Or put your bowl over a bowl of cold water and it will cool in a couple of minutes while you get the rest of your ingredients.
  • Add brown and white sugars.
  • Mix the sugars with the melted butter, making sure you get rid of any large sugar clumps. Use a fork if you need to. It does not have to be perfect.
  • Stir in egg yolk (or substitute) and vanilla.
  • Mix the egg and vanilla in gently.
  • Add dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips or chunks and optional cinnamon (your dry ingredients).
  • Don’t overmix—stop when you still see a few flour streaks. This is important!
  • Shape into a ball, squish a little. Air fryer or microwave? Flatten a touch more.

Oven method

  • Preheat 350°F (175 °C).
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put your cookie dough on it.
  • Bake 13 to 16 minutes. Edges should be golden brown, center slightly underdone. That’s the sweet spot.
  • Let the cookie cool for 5 minutes before you move it. The cookie will continue baking on the sheet and will hold its shape better. If you try to hold it right away, it can sort of crack or fall into a few pieces and it’s too hot to eat straight away anyway…

Air fryer method

  • Preheat 320°F (160 °C). Flatten the dough ball slightly more than you would for the oven.
  • Line with parchment paper if your air fryer allows it. Mine doesn’t, so I either put it on a silicone air fryer mat or just put it directly in the air fryer basket, which works fine.
  • Bake 5-6 minutes, gently check the bottom, add 2 minutes if needed. The cookie will look more done on the outside than the oven baked cookie, but the underside will be less cooked. So lift it up to make sure that underside is not still raw. Keep checking after one-minute intervals.
  • Let the single chocolate chip cookie sit on the hot plate of the air fryer for a few minutes. It will continue baking the underside and will set, so it does not fall apart when you pick it up.

Microwave method

  • Use the no-egg version with milk. Trust me on this one.
  • Add an extra 1/4 tsp vanilla to make up for the lack of egg flavor
  • Flatten your cookie dough ball more than you would for the oven
  • Put it on a microwave-safe plate lined with parchment paper
  • Microwave for 45-60 seconds (start with 45) and potentially up to 1 minute 15 seconds depending on your microwave.
  • Let the cookie cool for 5 minutes before you move it. It will be quite floppy when you take it out of the microwave, but it will firm up in a few minutes as it cools a bit.
  • Tip: It is very easy to overbake this cookie in the microwave. The first time you make this in the microwave, you need to keep a really close eye on it.
  • The edges should look set, but the center can still look pale

Notes

How to replace the egg

 
1. Aquafaba - Perfect texture, neutral flavor, easy, best for oven and air fryer. Use 1 1/2 tsp aquafaba in the place of 1/2 egg yolk. Just use it straight from your chickpea can! 
2. Whole milk or plant-based milk - Thinner cookie, neutral flavor, easy, best for microwave. Use 1 - 1 1/2 tsp whole milk instead of 1/2 egg yolk.
3. Ground flaxseed meal (aka linseed meal). Decent texture, nutty/peppery flavor. Use 1.5 teaspoons ground flaxseed meal + 1.25 tablespoons water (roughly 4 tsp water) to replace 1/2 egg yolk.
Instructions for using flaxseed meal:
  1. Mix the flaxseed meal and water together in a small bowl
  2. Let it sit for a few minutes until it becomes gel-like
  3. Add to your cookie dough as you would the egg yolk
 
Reminder from my testing: The flax egg works, but it does add that slightly nutty, almost peppery flavor that I found competed with the chocolate.

 

 
Baking in the oven: The most common problem is overbaking. And this is because people tend to take out the cookie when it looks done, not realizing that the cookie will continue to bake on the cookie sheet after you take it out of the oven.
So you need to take it out when it looks almost done. If you think to yourself, “Oh, this just needs another minute”, then it’s probably already done. And if in doubt, take it out. You can always put it back in. But you can’t un-bake an overbaked cookie! Here are some things to look out for:
  • The edges should be golden brown, but the center will look slightly puffy and pale.
  • Touch test: Gently press the edge. It should feel set, but the center can be a bit soft.
 
Baking in the air fryer: The most common problem is underbaking the underside. This is because the dough will not spread as much in the air fryer and the cookie may be a bit thicker. Combine that with the air fryer heat that gives it a good strong blast on the top and you get a cookie where the top may look done, but the underside may still be raw. So gently lift the cookie and check. When the underside looks like the dough is almost done and definitely no longer raw, then your cookie is done.
 
Baking in the microwave: The cookie is done when it is”set”. It will be firm (not hard) when you gently press it with your finger. And it will look paler than your regular oven or air fryer baked cookie, because it cooks the whole thing at once, rather than having the heat bake it from the outside in. So, once it is set, it is done.
If you continue baking it it will bake from the inside out and the inside will be brown and the outside still pale. Actually still quite yummy if it is only slightly overbaked, and crunchy, but the chewy single chocolate chip cookie we are aiming for.
 

How to make a brown butter single chocolate chip cookie:

This is very easy to do. Just melt your butter in a pot on your stovetop and wait until it foams. As soon as you see little light brown flecks forming, take it off the heat and immediately transfer it to a heat proof bowl so it stops cooking. Then measure out the required melted butter for the recipe and you are good to go!
 
 
Dough storage: Fridge 3 days, freezer 3 months. Slightly squish before freezing.
Baked cookies: Room temp 2 to 3 days, fridge 1 week, freezer 2 months. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1personCalories: 439kcalCarbohydrates: 46gProtein: 5gFat: 26gSaturated Fat: 15gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 136mgSodium: 123mgPotassium: 192mgFiber: 3gSugar: 25gVitamin A: 579IUCalcium: 44mgIron: 3mg
Keyword Chocolate chips, Quick and easy
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