The Sweetest (and Cutest) Gift to Give: Tiny Cookies

Homemade, easy-to-bake, tasty, and the size of a dime, these tiny cookies prove that good things really do come in small packages.

I wanted to make these tiny cookies not only because I love miniatures, but also to have a thoughtful and unusual gift to share with others.

I've included 3 recipes here (chocolate chip, peanut butter, and sugar), but feel free to experiment with your own. I have really just scaled basic cookie recipes down and made a few small adjustments (chopping up the chocolate chips, changing cook time, etc.).

Something that's really great about this project is that you don't need any special skills or equipment. Just a few basic ingredients and a little bit of patience.

I have also included templates to fold tiny cookie bags as well as gift labels for any other packaging. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp beaten egg
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/16 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/16 teaspoon salt
• 1 tbsp chocolate chips, chopped into tiny pieces

Directions:

Use a fork to cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth.

Mix in the beaten egg. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to thoroughly combine everything.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Chop up the chocolate chips into very small pieces. They don’t have to be even, just make sure there aren’t any very large chunks or they will end up being too big for the actual cookie.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until just combined.

Stir in the chopped chocolate chips.

Cover the dough and transfer to the refrigerator or freezer (freezer is better) for about 10 minutes to allow the dough to firm up. This will make it easier to work with and also keep it from spreading too much.

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare a baking sheet (parchment paper recommended).

Take very small amounts of dough and roll into balls. When flattened, each dough ball is about the size of a dime.

Place on the baking sheet 1 inch apart and bake for about 4-6 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges.

When the cookies are done, allow them to cool on the baking sheet until they are set enough to be moved. Then transfer them to a rack to finish cooling and to be served. Store in an airtight bag or container.

Recipe adapted from Modern Honey.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
• 1 tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp packed brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1/2 tbsp beaten egg
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

Use a fork to cream the peanut butter, butter, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.

Mix in the beaten egg and vanilla. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to thoroughly combine everything.

Mix together the flour and baking soda.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until just combined.

Cover the dough and transfer to the refrigerator or freezer (freezer is better) for about 10 minutes to allow the dough to firm up. This will make it easier to work with and also keep it from spreading too much.

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare a baking sheet (parchment paper recommended).

Take very small amounts of dough and roll into balls. When flattened, each dough ball is about the size of a dime.

Place on the baking sheet 1 inch apart. Use something with a very thin edge to make the lines in the dough to flatten them (I used the tip of an icing spatula) and bake for about 4-6 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges.

When the cookies are done, allow them to cool on the baking sheet until they are set enough to be moved. Then transfer them to a rack to finish cooling and to be served. Store in an airtight bag or container.

Recipe adapted from Ahead of Thyme.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp butter, softened
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp beaten egg
• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• pinch salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/16 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar*
• 1 tbsp sprinkles**

* don’t skip this- it reacts with the baking soda and also makes the cookies soft.

**I used nonpareils - the really small round sprinkles. They bleed color into the dough a little bit, but regular sprinkles are too big for this size cookie.

Directions:

Use a fork to cream the butter and sugar until smooth.

Mix in the beaten egg and vanilla. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl to thoroughly combine everything.

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until just combined.

Stir in the sprinkles.

Cover the dough and transfer to the refrigerator or freezer (freezer is better) for about 10 minutes to allow the dough to firm up. This will make it easier to work with and also keep it from spreading too much.

Preheat the oven to 350. Prepare a baking sheet (parchment paper recommended).

Take very small amounts of dough and roll into balls. When flattened, each dough ball is about the size of a dime.

Place on the baking sheet 1 inch apart and bake for about 4-6 minutes or until set and no longer doughy. The bottoms of the cookies will be very light brown.

When the cookies are done, allow them to cool on the baking sheet until they are set enough to be moved. Then transfer them to a rack to finish cooling and to be served. Store in an airtight bag or container.

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction,

Below is a printable pdf with foldable templates for 3 different cookie bags. About 2 dozen cookies will fit in each bag.

There are also gift labels if you wish to package the cookies in a different container.

To assemble the bags:

Materials:

• Printed foldable template
• Scissors
• Glue stick

Directions:

Cut out the template.

Turn the template over so that the blank side is facing up, then fold along the solid lines.

Add glue to the longest flap, the two small flaps, and the medium-sized flap in between (see 4th photo).

Attach the long flap to the inside of the opposite edge of the bag so that the design faces out.

Fold the two small flaps to cover the bottom of the bag, then fold down the flap that has glue on the top of it and adhere it to the smaller flaps (5th and 6th photos).

Fold the last flap down and it should stick to the glue on the top of the flap you just folded.

Now you can gently crease the sides of the bag by pinching the top edges so that the center of the sides fold inward.

Fold the top of the bag down to seal.

Congrats! You have successfully folded a tiny cookie bag!

How can I make my own cookie bags?

If you're interested in creating your own designs for packaging, I simply drew out the label on a piece of plain paper, outlined it in dark marker, and scanned it to a computer to save it as a jpg. From there, I opened the image in Pixlr, copied it onto this template, edited it, and added color to the design using the bucket tool in Pixlr. Then, I simply uploaded the image to a document, resized it to the size I wanted, and printed it.

If I have extra dough/I get tired of rolling tiny cookie dough balls, can I just bake them as regular cookies?

Absolutely. For a typical 1-2 tbsp size ball of dough, the cook time will be about 10-12 minutes at 350.

How many cookies does each recipe make?

It really depends on the size cookie you choose to make, but if you made them the same size that I did, it will be a lot- over 60 per batch, but I am not sure of exact numbers.

My cookies spread too much.

Make sure the dough is cold enough. Chill it in the freezer for a couple minutes before baking again.

My cookies aren't spreading enough.

Try flattening the dough slightly before baking.

Snickerdoodle, oatmeal raisin, double chocolate...Have fun creating your own tiny cookie recipes!

Thanks for reading :)