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!!!)
Hello! Thanks for the recipe. Do you think normal rice flour (non-glutinous) or corn flour works too?
Ops I just read the comments carefully and you’ve replied previously that you use normal rice flour!
I asked because I tried this recipe over the weekend but my cookies didnt turn out “crunchy” and they sort of rose considerably instead of staying flat like those in your photos. So I wondered if I used the wrong kind of rice flour. Hmm… I will experiment again and see what went wrong! Thanks again for the recipe.
Hello! I’m just starting out with baking and found this recipe to be a great one but I did have a question. Unfortunately, my batch was a bit more over baked than I wanted so they were very crunchy but I also used a bigger tray and put the 12 on there, could this have caused the dryness? I also didn’t put them in the oven the entire time as by 12 minutes they were already gone to no return. Would you have any other advice or tip on what I may have done wrong? I used all purpose flour as well.
Wondering whether these can be made ahead and the “logs” frozen to be cooked later?❤️
Hi Caroline! I haven’t tried this specific recipe (from memory… but I do cook a LOT!) but given this is required to be chilled anyway and that pretty much every other cookie dough can be frozen, I am 99% confident it will work perfectly. 🙂 N x
Hi, thank you for the recipe. Question though, is the rice flour, glutinous or non-glutinous? Thank you!
Hi Phiy – just standard bib glutinous
Can I use nuttelex butter for the Byron Bay chocolate biscuit recipe.
These are the best cookies I’ve ever tasted in my 40+ years on this earth! I can’t tell you how many cookie recipes I’ve made that were advertised as “the best cookies you’ll ever taste” or words to that effect, and to be fair they were all decent enough. THESE ACTUALLY ARE THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES EVER (and it’s not even in the title)!!!!!!!!
I used all plain flour. I froze the dough in balls to bake them the next day as it was really late when I started making the batter. I probably could have just kept the dough refrigerated but just incase I didn’t get round to baking them the next day I thought it might be best to freeze them. Don’t know if this had any ill effect on the quality, texture etc. but they were so delicious I honestly don’t care.
Nagi you are a star for sharing this recipe. I can’t wait to try more of them.
A massive thank you all the way from Ireland!
Oh my Lordy, Nagi!! The kids and I made these a few weeks ago and used all plain flour, but added ‘Rice Flour’ to the shopping list. Today we made them with the rice flour and these are the most drool-worthy biscuits EVER!!! As if these will ever need to be stored for 2 weeks ;-p
Thank you… again!!
Winner!!!! I can’t cook, but want to get better, so I tried these and brought them into work. They were an absolute hit. Thank you!!!!
These were great and easy to make!
I’d make these again without question!
Wahoo, that’s great Jessica! N x
Hi Nagi,
I made these cookies today. They turned out to be really good, especially the texture of the cookies. However, the cookies have a strong “buttery” taste. Is there any way we can change this recipe to get rid of that taste?
Regards,
Tanisha.
Finally got around to making these, excellent and easy to follow recipe, as usual! My hubby prefers a crunchy choc chip biscuit while I like soft, so this works for both of us… I used a ruler to mark out on the top of the log by indenting the knife at 1.75cm intervals and then went along and cut them all at once so I didn’t handle too much and to keep them even. My log had also been in the fridge for more than 4 hrs so was very hard, only took about 10 mins before I was able to slice, probably the harder they are the better they hold their shape too. Only question to ask is “how many should I eat before everyone comes home from work & school”….