This is a break from my regularly scheduled Savory January programming because I have a new One Big Cookie and it’s too good to wait to share.
What’s a One Big Cookie, you ask? Why, it’s basically my favorite dessert: a recipe for exactly one cookie the size of my hand. It’s perfect for random dessert cravings, or when you want a dessert you don’t have to share (though you can if you’re kinder than I am).
I’ve made several One Big Cookies over the last few years, so whether you’re into chocolate chip, chocolate M&Ms, snickerdoodle, oatmeal, or peanut butter cookies, there’s one to fit your tastes. Today’s has been a long time coming: One Big Sprinkle Sugar Cookie! It’s got all the buttery vanilla flavor and chewy texture you love in a classic sugar cookie, plus a ton of crunchy, colorful sprinkles. Truly, this is the cookie of my rainbow sprinkle dreams.
Just like all my other variations, this big cookie is measured in spoons and mostly mixed with a fork. Form the resulting soft dough into a ball, then press it into a puck before baking for optimal crinkly top formation. Crinkly cookie tops bursting with sprinkles are one of my love languages.
Basically anything with rainbow sprinkles is one of my love languages.
That said, if you are one of those people who doesn’t like sprinkles, this recipe will work without them. I may fundamentally misunderstand you as a person, but you can still have a helluva sugar cookie all to yourself, and that’s what really matters here.
One Big Sprinkle Sugar Cookie
makes 1 large cookie
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon water (not cold)
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles (jimmies, not nonpareils)
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Set aside.
Make the dough. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together melted butter and sugar. Mix in water and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt, and whisk until a dough forms; a silicone spatula may be helpful here. Fold in sprinkles.
Use your hands to form dough into a ball. Place on parchment and use the heel of your hand to press down gently, just so that the dough is more of an inch-thick disk/puck and less of a ball.
Bake for 13-14 minutes or until the top is craggy and appears just slightly underdone.
Let cookie cool on the pan for 5-7 minutes before using a spatula to remove it to a plate. Enjoy warm or at room temperature.
If you’re the sort of person who loves big cookies and hates sharing, you’ve come to the right corner of the internet. Over the last couple of years, I’ve posted three “One Big” cookie recipes: 
You’d think after posting three single-serve cookie recipes on this site, I’d be able to churn out a new one in my sleep, but you’d be wrong. This lone oatmeal cookie? It took 27 tries. Twenty. Seven. That’s the highest number of concentrated tests I’ve ever done for one recipe.
The good news about this recipe, though, is that while it was hard to get it exactly right, it is very simple. Oh, and it makes one kickass, golden brown, chewy as all get-out oatmeal cookie. Oh my goodness, it is so good. Trust me—I’ve bitten into 27 cookies to get this one exactly right. Quality control, you know?
Like all my One Big cookies, the ingredients here are measured by the spoonful rather than in cups. Oats replace some of the usual flour (duh) and I’ve added a hint of cinnamon for that classic oatmeal cookie flavor. You’ll notice that there’s no egg in this dough, as I prefer to use water for such a tiny portion. As a bonus, no egg means this recipe can easily be made vegan! Just swap vegan butter for the dairy butter ☺️ 
The big secrets to golden, chewy oatmeal cookie success? Before baking, press down on the dough ball to form a puck. This encourages a consistent shape, texture and browning pattern. Nothing terrible will happen if you don’t press down your dough ball, but your cookie likely won’t look like mine.
As far as mix-ins go, use whatever you like. I went for classic 
Have a good weekend, y’all. Make yourself a cookie.
Last week, I needed a win. I needed a win badly.
I was reeling from a personal tragedy, having a difficult time getting myself out of bed in the morning, and couldn’t get any recipes to work properly. I suffer from depression and anxiety, so some of this is just part of my normal life, but there’s something about having recipes—something with which I am supposed to have some modicum of talent and control—repeatedly fail that sends me into a tailspin.
I woke up Friday morning determined to get one recipe to work. Just one. Something I thought would be easy and only take two or three tries: a chocolate variation on my single-serving 
Over the course of two hours, I ran the gamut of cookie failure. Too flat, too puffy, too dry, too chemical-tasting—you get the idea. Here are four of them:
But then I looked at my tried & true 
Also, crucial to cookie success? Underbaking. If you bake this cookie until it’s fully done, you’ll end up with a chocolate M&Ms frisbee. This is because cocoa powder tends to dry things out and also because I use a teaspoon of water here in place of the usual egg (a little trick I learned from the regular chocolate chip version). Underbaking will yield crisp-chewy edges, a crackly top, and a soft, fudgy center. Yesssss.
I had a bunch of M&Ms leftover from making 
I know I’ve been keeping it 
My partying days are well behind me now. I don’t drink or smoke anymore. I quit Diet Coke completely and have cut my seltzer intake to a maximum of two a day. My coffee…well, that’s neither here nor there.
The point is that my list of vices is pretty short these days, but making myself One Big Chocolate Chip Cookie on the occasional late night is one that I have no intention of parting with. Sometimes you just need a cookie the size of your face. Sometimes it’s the answer to all your problems.
But this is a baking blog so…back to this big, no-sharing-required dessert for one (or two, if you’re feeling benevolent). It requires miniscule amounts of 8 ingredients that you likely already have, and only about 25 minutes start-to-finish.
This recipe differs drastically from that of my usual 
The other differences from my regular recipe are less…scientific. I use melted butter here because creaming one tablespoon of butter is ridiculous and unnecessary. Oh, and there’s no need to chill your dough. This recipe is meant to be made on the fly and enjoyed while the chocolate is still melty.
Melted chocolate + soft centers + chewy caramelized edges = ❤ ❤ ❤ 
A quick word about leaveners before I get to the recipe. I tested this recipe seven times (!) with both baking soda and baking powder. Baking soda, which I use in my large-batch recipe because it produces browner cookies with more surface area, won out, but just barely.
Thank me later.
e2 bakes brooklyn 