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Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies

4.65 / 5 ( 17 Reviews )

I absolutely love these air fryer chocolate chip cookies! They come out perfectly baked with a delicious flavor and texture, all without the need to heat up the oven.

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the best air fryer chocolate chip cookies

Try this air fryer chocolate chip cookie recipe!

Chocolate chip cookies in the air fryer are so good! I love the texture and flavor – the chocolate is perfectly melted, the outside is fresh and crisp, and the inside is soft and gooey. These cookies and our favorite air fryer donuts are definitely my favorite air fryer desserts so far! Yum.

This wouldn’t be the route to go if you’re making chewy cookies for a crowd and large batches, but perfect if you’re just wanting to do a small batch as fresh-baked treat. You can make the cookie dough, store it in the fridge, then bake when desired. In my air fryer, 4 cookies at time works best and it only takes 6-8 minutes to bake them. One batch of the cookie dough yields about 16-18 cookies.

Ingredients and Supplies for Making Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies

butter and sugar for air fryer cookies

Ingredients:

Unsalted butter, room temperature
Granulated sugar
Light brown sugar
Large egg, room temperature
Vanilla extract
Lemon juice
All-purpose flour
Old fashioned rolled oats
Baking soda
Salt
Cinnamon
Chocolate chips (or chocolate chunks)

Supplies:

Air fryer
Large mixing bowl
Small mixing bowl
Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
Spatula
Cookie scoop or spoon
Parchment paper or aluminum foil
Wire rack

Ingredient tips:

It is ideal to set the butter out in advance so it will be room temperature by the time you want to make the air fryer cookie dough. But sometimes you just need to make cookies without as much advance thought. 😉

If you’re in a pinch and only have frozen butter, you can use a cheese grater to shred the frozen butter into the bowl. It will work just about as well as room temperature butter! Another alternative is to use the microwave to warm butter straight from the refrigerator. Keep the butter in its paper wrapper and microwave carefully and briefly until warmed. Be careful not to melt it!

how to get egg to room temperature quickly

How to bring an egg to room temperature

Here’s a handy trick to bring an egg to room temperature quickly! Place the egg in a bowl and add warm water. Let the egg sit in the warm water while you gather the rest of the ingredients. By the time you need to add the egg to the cookie dough, it should already be at room temperature. It only takes a few minutes of sitting in the warm water to make a difference.

Why use room-temperature ingredients?

Room-temperature ingredients tend to mix better and more evenly with the batter or dough. Room-temperature eggs are less thick and sticky. Using room-temperature eggs may also help the dough to rise more easily. Another factor is cooking time. Using room temperature ingredients, as opposed to cold, may reduce the needed cooking time.

Are oats necessary?

I love the addition of oats and cinnamon to these air fryer chocolate chip cookies. It adds just a little more texture and flavor. While I don’t notice the cinnamon or the oats standing out too much in these cookies, it is still a really nice subtle addition to the overall deliciousness.

You can process the oats into finer pieces if you’d like, but I don’t find it necessary at all. Also, you could swap the oats for flour instead.

The cookie dough will be pretty wet and sticky, and that’s ok. In fact, that’s what we want for this air fryer cookie recipe.

how to make cookies in the air fryer

How to make air fryer chocolate chip cookies

Step 1: Cream sugar

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars, until well blended. Mix in egg, vanilla, and lemon juice, and blend until light and fluffy.

Step 2: Mix dry ingredients

air fryer chocolate chip cookie with oats

In a small bowl, combine flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to the large bowl and mix for about 45 seconds to combine. Don’t overmix. Stir in chocolate chips with a spoon or spatula.

Step 3: Add dough to the air fryer

air fryer chocolate chip cookie dough

Line air fryer basket with heavy duty foil, leaving space at the top and bottom edges of the basket for air flow. Scoop cookie dough into balls (38 grams or about 2 tablespoons) and place on foil, leaving 1 1/2 to 2 inches between cookie dough balls. Lightly press the cookie dough down to flatten the tops of the cookies.

Step 4: Air fry cookies

Once the cookies are in the air fryer basket, air fry the cookie dough at 300 degrees F or 149 degrees C for 6-8 minutes.

Step 5: Remove cookies:

Lift foil and cookies out of the air fryer. Let cookies cool for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack for another 5-10 minutes of cooling. If you handle the cookies too soon, they will fall apart.

Air frying notes:

I went through some trial and error in how to cook cookies in the air fryer. And your results may vary! My air fryer may be different than yours. For me and my Philips XXL air fryer, this is what I found…

If the foil covers too much of the bottom of the basket, the air cannot circulate enough, so the foil ends up moving around too much and squishing the cookies.
Cooking 5 cookies at a time yielded thicker cookies that were a little more gooey inside. I think this is because they did not have enough space to spread out. Four cookies at a time seemed to work better, in my opinion. (My air fryer basket is about 9×9 inches, for size reference.)
Placing the cookies too close to the edge of the air fryer parchment paper allowed the parchment to blow out from underneath the cookies. The cookie dough ended up all over the basket and the parchment flew up into the cooking element and began to burn! Big fail. Maybe just doing 4 cookies at a time and placing them not so close to the edge of the paper would’ve worked better. I quickly went back to the foil after that experience though. Ha.
Four cookies at a time on a piece of heavy duty foil folded in half, leaving about 1/2 to 1 inch of space at the top and bottom edges of the basket for air flow worked the best for me. You can reuse the foil for several batches too!

how to make cookies in the air fryer

Some people swear by the air fryer parchment paper because it helps the air circulate better and they say it helps the cookies cook more evenly. Give it a try if you want! My tips…Don’t place the cookies too close to the edges. 😉 Don’t place parchment in the air fryer without food on it to hold it down, otherwise it will fly up into the cooking element and potentially catch on fire.

foil sling for cookies in the air fryer

The cookies moved around a bit in my air fryer with all of the different methods I tried, but the folded foil with space for air flow and 4 cookies at a time (in image #4) worked out the best for me. That is how I made the cookies you see in the photos! All in the air fryer, baby! No oven.

You can leave about an inch or so extra foil on the left and right sides to act as handles for you to lift it out of the air fryer easily. However, if you leave too much extra, it may just blow onto your cookies and squish them.

Again, please note that your air fryer may be different than mine, but I hope my experience helps you avoid big fails and gives you some good ideas about how to make the perfect air fryer cookies!

chocolate chip cookies in the air fryer

Optional Oven Instructions

If you would rather cook them in the oven, you can do so on a baking sheet at 300° F for about 20-24 minutes. Still delicious, but not quite as good as in the air fryer. The difference I noticed between air fryer and oven is the contrast in texture from outside to inside of the cookie is more pronounced in the air fryer.

I am sure loving my air fryer. I hope you are too!

More desserts to make:

Here are even more great options for desserts to make in the air fryer:

Final Thoughts:

If you are looking for a way to make cookies without use the oven, this is a great option! It will only make a few cookies at a time, but it is great when you just want a few for a quick snack!

Check out more of our favorite air fryer recipes!

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