This is a copycat of Australia’s most famous chocolate chip cookie – Byron Bay Milk Choc Chunk Cookies. They’re big, crunchy, buttery and generous on the chocolate! At $3.50 for a single biscuit, they aren’t cheap – so save a ton by making them yourself!
BONUS: They stay 100% crunchy for 2 whole weeks! (Possibly longer – I caved).
Chocolate Chip Cookies – Byron Bay Copycat!
Australia’s most famous cookie are Byron Bay Cookies. They come in all sorts of flavours, and three of the most popular ones are White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies, Triple Chocolate Fudge and the chocolate chip cookies.
They’re sold at cafes all across Australia, and they are without a doubt the most well known cookie brand. While sometimes you find them individually packaged and sold at grocery stores for around $2.50 each, most cafes will charge $3.50 to $4 for a single cookie.
Which means a dozen of them cost $42…. or you can make them at home for around $7!!
These chocolate chip cookies stay 100% crunchy for 2 whole weeks!
What they taste like
These cookies are crunchy but it’s a soft, buttery crunch – sort of like Shortbread Cookies, except not as sandy/crumbly. The mouthfeel is what’s quite unique about this thick cookies – most crispy cookies this thick are noticeably rougher and drier (rice flour is the secret ingredient here that specifically achieves this).
There’s generous chunks of chocolate littered throughout, and the really great thing is that they stay 100% crunchy just like they’re freshly made for up to 2 weeks!!! (Probably longer, I just couldn’t hold out any longer).
Ingredients for Byron Bay Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here’s what you need to make these cookies. The ingredients are basically a replica of the ingredients disclosed on the Byron Bay Cookie packets, with minor tweaks to achieve the same mouthfeel and flavour using ingredients available to home cooks (eg. things like cultured dextrose, emulsifiers and soy lecithin that normal folk like us can’t get).
Just a note on a few ingredients:
- Rice flour – this is the secret ingredient to give these crunchy cookies a sort of “velvety” mouthfeel which is unique to Byron Bay Cookies and one of the reasons people love them so much. You can substitute with more flour – the cookies still work out perfectly but the mouthfeel is “rougher” (still extremely delicious and this is what I use if I don’t have rice flour). Cornflour/cornstarch also works but the texture becomes more crumbly like Shortbread but the mouthfeel is drier than shortbread;
- Yolks – we use 2 egg yolks in these cookies to give them richness;
- Softened butter – you need softened butter for these cookies so they whip up creamy and smooth. If you’re like me and always forget to leave it out to soften, or if it’s so cold that it just never softens even if you leave it out all night, you’ll love this trick: microwave a jug of water for 3 minutes, then remove and put in a plate of diced butter and just leave it. The residual heat softens the butter perfectly. Never try microwaving butter to soften it – it doesn’t soften evenly, you will always end up with melted pockets which will affect the success of the recipe;
- Brown and white sugar – each of these bring something different to the cookie. White makes them crispy while the brown sugar adds flavour and adds softness to the crunch; and
- Chocolate – Byron Bay calls their chocolate chip cook “Milk Choc Chunk Cookies”, being that they’re made with a darkish milk chocolate. Good quality milk chocolate for baking isn’t readily availably, so I’ve taken the liberty of using dark chocolate instead. If anything, it makes them even BETTER with a more intense chocolate flavour! Use chips or chunks if you prefer.
How to make Byron Bay Chocolate Chip Cookies
And here’s how to make them – pretty standard really. We need the chill time to make the cookies sliceable and also to stop the from inflating when they bake (yep, tried to shortcut it and ended up with sumo cookies).
Cookie emergency? No beater?
No worries! Make these super easy Chocolate Chip Cookies instead (they’re soft and chewy, no chill time).👍🏼
Ahh, it’s a good moment when you pull them out of the oven.
I know, I know, you want to grab one right away while it’s hot and the chocolate is all melty and glistening but WAIT!! We have to let them cool on the tray so they become nice and crunchy. It’s worth it!!
Use the cooling time to think about the people in your life who will be lucky enough to put one in their gob. Think very carefully – there are only 12 of them, which makes them exponentially more valuable than most cookies that make a couple of dozen in a single batch. These are very, very special Chocolate Chip Cookies! 😉 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Byron Bay Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 175g / 12 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter , softened (6.2 oz, Note 1 - softening tip!)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar (light or normal, not dark)
- 1/3 cup white sugar , caster / superfine
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 egg yolks , at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract/essence
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup rice flour (sub with plain/all purpose flour, Note 2)
- 1 1/2 cups flour , plain/all purpose
- 200g / 7 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate block , chopped into pretty small pieces (Note 3)
Instructions
- Place butter, salt and both sugars in a bowl. Beat on speed 5 for 1 minute until it's soft, creamy and fluffy.
- Add yolks and vanilla - beat for 1 minute until well incorporated.
- Add baking powder, rice flour and half the plain flour. Beat until you can't see flour anymore, then add remaining flour and beat again until incorporated.
- Mixture will be fairly clump and thick, but if you press between your fingers, it should stick together (rather than being dry and crumbly).
- Use a wooden spoon to stir chocolate through.
- Tip out onto a work surface then press together into a 22cm / 9" log. Wrap in cling wrap or paper, twisting to seal the ends.
- Refrigerate 1.5 - 2 hours (Note 4).
Baking:
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan).
- Line 2 trays with baking/parchment paper. Put one shelf in the middle of the oven, and the other underneath.
- Remove from fridge, unwrap.
- Use a serrated knife to slice into 1.75cm / 2/3" thick slices. Saw carefully through choc chunks. If it falls apart on edges, just press if back together, no big deal. Place 6 on each tray.
- Bake 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 170°C/340°F (150°C fan), switch trays (Note 5)
- Bake for a further 15 minutes until surface is light golden and edges are a bit golden.
- Remove from oven and cool completely on trays - this makes them crunchy.
- STORAGE: Keeps for at least 2 weeks in an airtight container - they stay 100% crunchy, just like they're freshly made.
Recipe Notes:
- cut into 1 cm cubes (or for US sticks, slice 1/3" thick) and place in single layer on small plate
- place 2 cups water in a microwave proof jug or bowl. Microwave on high for 2 - 3 minutes until just before boiling
- working quickly, remove jug, put plate in microwave and shut door, DO NOT TURN MICROWAVE ON! Leave for 10 minutes - the residual heat in the microwave will soften the butter perfectly!
- if still not soft enough (eg cut too big, microwave has lower power), then just repeat (but for round 2, check after a few minutes)
Nutrition Information:
For Cookie Monsters
Life of Dozer
“Everybody” thinks I bundle Dozer up in jumpers just because I’m a crazy dog lady / for my own amusement. And while both these hold true, the main reason is because it holds in his fur and sand which means marginally less littered all over the house.
Honestly, I seriously reckon it reduces sweeping by almost half. You should see how much fluff/sand poofs out when I pull the jumper off him (outside of course!!!)
finally made the Byron Bay Chocolate chip cookies yesterday.. SO delicious. all your recipes are 100% and more successful and delicious Nagi. thank you.
Finally, I can made my own Byron Bay cookies. I missed it a lot. Thanks a lot, Nagi 😊.
You’re so welcome Evita!! N x
yummoooo..came out perfect just like the picture and taste was so unexpected as I have never tasted rice cookies atleast in recent memory. May be you can get these from shops but Hey you can’t get them straight out of their oven n eating them just after you have convencied yourself they are cold n crunchy enough. DIVINE freshness smell of butter n chocolate so fresh. Can anything get better !! I used milk chocolate as not a fan of dark so yes it was not intense chocolate affair but just right for me. Butter OMG that’s a lot of it but it tastes so goooood. I agree rice flour is the key so my humble suggestion not to skip it – super cheap in WW. Next I am going to try with white chocolate+macadamias..
tHESE ARE THE BEST COOKIES EVER!!!.Just need to know where I went wrong? Instead of staying thick and round like yours mine spread and flattened out. Definately a C for presentation but an A+++ for flavour
Hi Kerry, sorry you had issues here – was the dough cold from the fridge when you baked it? N x
Hi Nagi, these are great thanks! I have never made cookies before and they worked out fine. My only problem is they were quite scorched on the bottom. I had to scrape the burnt bit off (less than 1mm) as it impacted the taste. Metal baking trays and FF oven. Any thoughts?
Hi Nagi,
Sorry if this is a silly question but I really want to try this recipe and unfortunately don’t own a handheld beater. Would combining the ingredients with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease work? Or perhaps using an electric whisk be a suitable substitute?
Hi Samantha, you really need to cream the butter here – do you have a stand mixer that you could use? N x
I made them today and omg they are so good! My daughter gave big thumbs up and demanded me making chocolate chip cookies like this in the future. Thank you for sharing this recipe Nagi!
Hi Nagi,
No butter in the house but a craving for choc,chip cookies.Can I substitute some other fat for the butter?
Hi Rita, sorry you need butter here unfortunately. N x
My new favourite cookie! One question though, and it may be a stupid one! But how do you get yours so round? I always have a flat edge from where they’ve sat in the fridge. Do you simply just reshape them? I’m worried that they’ll get too warm from my hands if I try that and flatten when they cook.
Hi Tasmin! You can give it a little roll before you start slicing to make the bottom round again, and also I use a bread knife so I can saw back and forth to slice it without having to press down which flattens the base of the log 🙂 And yep you can also reshape after slicing, as long as you aren’t spending like 30 seconds on each slide, you won’t “melt” the butter in it! N x
Aw Nagi that pic of Dozer is sooo cutie, cutie I so did laugh. what a good idea. i must tell my daughter about that she lives in Sydney too! Nagi can you off a recipe for Oat milk please? I’m guessing it would be a similar method to Almond milk?
These are our new favourite biscuit! Totally different to a standard choc chip cookie. So easy too. Highly recommend!
Thanks so much for the great feedback Anna! N x
These are amazing! I added some flaked almonds and they were fantastic! Looking forward to experimenting with different flavours!
Hi Nagi! I just wanted to share that I have tried baking this and everyone loves it, including my Dad who’s quite picky 😊! Thanks for the recipe and I find all the notes really helpful. Looking forward to trying out more recipes from your site.