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:
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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;
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Yolks – we use 2 egg yolks in these cookies to give them richness;
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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;
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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
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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!!!)
Hi Nagi,
When I was a child a local grocery store used to have a “cookie club” for kids where you could pick up a cookie when you were shopping with a parent by just asking the bakery staff. It was my absolute favourite cookie as a kid, like a shortbread and chocolate chip mashup – my two favourite cookies. Eventually I got older and it probably dissapeared along with the grocery chain and I always remembered those cookies! Well, all these years later you have brought it back – and all along it was a Byron Bay style cookie! (Or pretty darn close)
I used regular Lindt 70% dark chocolate bars and had no trouble with the chocolate turning into a melty mess. I will give them a go with semi sweet baking chocolate next time as my youngest found the dark chocolate a bit rich but they were still excellent! I used Bobs red mill stoneground white rice flour and no gritty mouthfeel at all. These are excellent, anyone who says otherwise should see a doctor 😉 – I kid of course!
Thanks Nagi!
Holly
Advice to anyone with multiple sizes of chocolate: don’t use cubes from a bar for more than 30% of the mix because the cookies fall apart. These cookies are my favourite of every kind I’ve baked and I’ve made them on three separate occasions in the past month.
So good! I recommend making a double batch. I have not been to Australia so don’t know how they compare to the original. But oh my goodness! Definitely a keeper.
Hi Nagi and team, I need help to save my cookies for Christmas.
They have gone soft after 1 day. I did reduce the rice flour by 20gm as last time they were a bit grainy.
Do I cook them again? If so for how long and what temp.
They still taste great, though the don’t have the crunch in crisp I was hoping for.
Fantastic! I made my own rice flour and didn’t get a grainy texture, could possibly by a particular brand. I used candy chocolates instead of a block of Chocolate, my kids loved them
Pues debo Darte las gracias, por tu ayuda,
Soy mayor pero me gusta cocinar y sobre todo seguirte para lograr mis agradables galletas hago y disfruto 3 veces a la semana o mientras me dura la reserva que he hecho
Hi Nagi and Dozer. I made a half batch measured ingredients to a tee. The whole house smells fantastic. However there seems to abit if a sandy mouth feel afterwards, would this be due to the rice flour? If so what do I you suggest? Could I reduce the rice flour by 10gm and increase the plain flour??
Hi Kim, just wanted to let you know that I used rice flour recently (for the life of me, can’t remember what I made with it) but I had the same issue in that the mouth feel was “grainy”. So unpleasant that I tossed what I had made in the bin. Might be just me, but I won’t be using it in anything in the future.
Hi Kim,
You are right – the sandy mouth feel is coming from the rice flour. To me, the cookies I baked do’t have that feeling, may be because (by mistake) I mixed all flour and sifted and this make the rice flour mix completely with the flour.
I didn’t have any issue like this. The only potential difference between mine and yours that I can think of is that I used brown rice flour – maybe that makes a difference?
I dont have a mixer so all wooden spoon for me but I couldnt be happier with the result. The biscuits are crunchy and yummy and ever so moreish as promised, second batch underway today. Thankyou
I had made some nougat had had egg yolks left.
So what does one do when they have an ingredient left over they go to your site (or I do anyway)
I found this recipe and I agree with others Nagi you have created a monster with these.
The nougat I made was as a test for chistmas, now i have an extra item to give to family at Christmas.
So what started as one home made item as turned into two.
Another few items will be your Christmas cake that I made for family last year.
I will also be adding your gourmet crackers & a spiced pear paste along with these cookies and the nougat
I used my egg whites to make meringue, which was a complete disaster. It was less a meringue and more some slime stuck to my grease proof paper. Thank god the biscuits turned out so much better!
Hey!
I’m gearing up to try this recipe but I’d like to know if I could try other add-ons instead of choc chip? Like sprinkles.