Every cookie we make is approximately 4.5 oz. That is roughly twice what you would pick up in a supermarket, and it is the number the whole recipe is built around.
Small cookies cannot hold a middle
A thin cookie bakes through evenly. Edge and centre finish at the same moment, so you get one texture all the way across. Pleasant, but flat.
At 4.5 oz there is enough mass that the outside sets while the inside is still soft. That difference between the crisp edge and the gooey centre is the entire point, and it is a function of size before it is a function of anything else.
It leaves room for filling
A molten core of Nutella. Lotus Biscoff spread with crushed Biscoff through the dough. Belgian white chocolate in the Red Velvet. None of that survives in a cookie too small to carry it — the filling either bleeds out or overwhelms the dough.
What it means for a box
A 4-pack is more cookie than most people expect, and a 12-pack is a genuinely large box. Worth keeping in mind when you are choosing a size, especially if you are sending one as a gift.
One cookie, split
Plenty of people halve them. At this size that works — there is enough of a middle that two people each get some. Warm it first and the split is cleaner.
