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 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.

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 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 dough to rise more easily. Another factor is cooking time. Using room temperature ingredients, opposed to cold, may reduce the needed cooking time.

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.

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 bake cookies in the air fryer…

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…

1. 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.
2. 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.)
3. 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.
4. 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!

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.

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!

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!

Check out more of our favorite air fryer recipes!

Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love these air fryer chocolate chip cookies! Perfectly baked, delicious flavor and texture, and no need to warm up the oven!

4.60 / 5 ( 15 Reviews )

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 7 minutes minutes

Total Time: 22 minutes minutes

Serves: 18

Adjust Servings: 18

US CustomaryMetric

Equipment

• Air Fryer

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons butter room temperature
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ⅛ teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• ½ cup old fashioned rolled oats
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 to 1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Instructions

• In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars, until well blended. Mix in egg, vanilla, and lemon juice, blend until light and fluffy.
• 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.
• 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.
• Air fry at 300˚F/149˚C for 6-8 minutes.
• 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.

Nutrition

Calories: 161kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Sodium: 148mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 13g

Recipe Adapted From: Stay Snatched