
Yes! It IS possible to bake cookies in a toaster oven! Here’s a systematic guide to find the baking time difference between the regular oven and a toaster oven.
Have you ever wanted to make a small batch of cookies and not turn on the big regular oven?
Or perhaps pick up some cookie dough and bake it in the toaster oven at work (and subsequently make all of your coworkers jealous by wafting the sweet smell of fresh baked cookies as you walk out of the break room enjoying a fresh-out-of-the-(toaster)-oven cookie?
The latter is why I bake cookies in a toaster oven. Mostly. I just love cookies, but you knew that.

It is a little bit different, however, and it might take some practice to get it down perfectly for your specific type of cookie, but I’m here to help you determine the bake time difference between the normal oven and the toaster oven
In this example, I’ve used the recipe for my 3-Ingredient Shortbread Cookies using the confectioner’s sugar method. Now, on to the good stuff.
Preparing Cookies to go in the Toaster Oven
- Prepare the cookie dough as normal
- Preheat the toaster oven. The one I have available at work has functions for Temperature, Function and Timer.
- Temperature: Use the same baking temperature as your recipe calls for.
- Function: Change the function to Bake.
- Timer: Set it for 10 minutes to begin preheating. If you find you need more time to prepare your pan of cookies, increase this so it doesn’t turn off and begin cooling before you put your cookies in.
- Place a sheet of foil onto the toaster oven pan. (Optional. It just makes clean up easier.)
- Place your cookies onto the prepared pan, leaving the amount of space between cookies that your recipe calls for. For mine, 3/4″ should be sufficient. Use more than that, of course, when baking drop cookies
Baking the cookies
DO NOT LEAVE COOKIES AND TOASTER OVEN UNATTENDED.
This is where the most variance happens between the regular oven and the toaster oven. The first round will require close attention, but after that, you’ll be totally set for the future!
For the 3-Ingredient Shortbread Cookies, I have found the total time to be INCREASED from 12 minutes to 18 minutes.
Other cookie types may be different. Here’s an approach to help you find the sweet spot for your particular cookies.
- Start by baking the cookies for 3 minutes LESS than the time given on the recipe. For a 12 minute bake time, start with 9 minutes on the timer.
- Carefully open the toaster oven and inspect the cookies. If they appear done, turn off the toaster oven and pull them out (carefully).
- If they clearly need more time, add an additional 3 minutes.
- If they look almost done, add an additional 1 minute to the timer.
- Note the total time the cookies have been in the oven. 9 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 18 for mine.
- Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until cookies are done!
The final total you have in Step 3 is your Toaster Oven Bake Time for that particular cookie type. Now I know that for each batch of shortbread cookies I make in the toaster oven, I can just set it to 18 minutes and not have to go through the whole process again.
Comment with the “regular oven” times and the Toaster Oven Bake Times for the different cookies you make!
Maybe you, too, can become the official office cookie baker! (Yes, I’ve been commissioned to make cookies for the office..In the toaster oven.)
Chocolate chip cookies in a regular oven: 8-10 minutes depending on chewy vs crispy and length of time chilling. Toaster oven : 14 minutes for chewy, letting each cool outside of the oven for about 5 minutes to set and get that chewy center and crispy edges. Cooling on the rack I could barely see the difference! Thank you so much for this post it really helped! I had barely enough dough for 3 cookies after I put a batch in the oven, and cooking 3 on their own completely separate in the oven was just silly.