Famous Byron Bay Chocolate Chip Cookies (crunchy 2 weeks!)

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 these 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.

  Leftover egg whites – Here’s my list of what I do with them and all my egg white recipes can be found in this recipe collection;
  

• 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 them 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

Author: Nagi

Prep: 20 mins

Cook: 25 mins

Chilling: 1 hr 30 mins

Baking, Cookies

Australia, Western

4.97 from 79 votes

Servings12 BIG cookies!

Tap or hover to scale

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Recipe video above. This is a copycat of Australia's most famous Chocolate Chip Cookies – the Byron Bay Milk Choc Chunk Cookies! Just like the real deal, these are big, crunchy, buttery and loaded with a generous amount of chocolate. See reader feedback on the White Chocolate Macadamia which uses the same cookie dough! Good quality milk chocolate for baking is hard to come by, so we're using dark chocolate here – but if anything, it intensifies the chocolate experience!

Cookie emergency? No beater? No worries! Make these fast & easy Chocolate Chip Cookies instead (they're soft and chewy, no chill time).

Ingredients

CupsMetric

• ▢ 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 (Note 6 for using leftover whites)
• ▢ 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:

SMALLER COOKIES – 30 cm/12″ log = 30 cookies x 1cm / 2/5″ thick slices. 10 minutes at high temp, then around 8 minutes at the low temp (switch trays). They expand slightly (see photo in post) so leave at least 1″ / 2.5cm between each cookie.

1. Butter – you want the butter to be soft so it’s easily to whip and become fluffy. Don’t let it be on the verge of melting though – that’s too soft, no good for cookies.

BUTTER SOFTENING TIP – if it’s too cold for the butter to soften by leaving it out on the counter, or you forgot (as I always do), then use this trick:

• 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)

Do not try microwaving the butter – even the greatest experts run a high risk of pockets of melted butter = cookies won’t work!😩

2. Rice flour – this gives the cookies a slightly more “velvety” mouthfeel even though they are crunchy cookies, which is a distinct feature of the Byron Bay Cookies. Find it in Asian stores and the flour aisle of grocery stores (small box). Also used in Shortbread Cookies (for same reason). Sub with normal flour – cookies are still terrific, texture is just not quite as velvety (but 100% still fantastic – in fact, I made a batch for a friend with no rice flour just a few days ago).

Note: If you use the McKenzie’s brand (Australia) the rice flour isn’t ground as finely as flour so you may notice a faint grit in the cookies. Though actually, most normal people don’t notice it! For this reason, I prefer using Asian brands as they don’t have this problem. However, the faint grit really is a minor, minor thing and it’s 100% worth it for the texture benefit you get in the cookie!

3. Chocolate – use any baking chocolate here ie chocolate sold in the baking aisle, intended for cooking. Eating chocolate doesn’t hold up in the oven – goes a funny texture. Choc blocks are better quality, but chips will be fine too!

4. Chilling dough – this is to make it sliceable, and to stop the cookies from inflating in the oven. If you forget about the dough and it stays in the fridge for way longer, it gets rock hard so leave it out for 20 minutes or so before slicing.

5. Switch trays for even cooking – move the bottom tray up to the middle shelf, and the tray on the middle shelf down to the bottom shelf.

6. Leftover egg whites – Here’s my list of what I do with them and all my egg white recipes can be found in this recipe collection.

7. An original recipe, my copycat of the Byron Bay Cookies by reference to the ingredients on the packet. It’s as close as I can get – pretty close!

8. Nutrition per cookie:

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 337cal (17%)Carbohydrates: 38g (13%)Protein: 4g (8%)Fat: 19g (29%)Saturated Fat: 11g (69%)Cholesterol: 65mg (22%)Sodium: 31mg (1%)Potassium: 152mg (4%)Fiber: 2g (8%)Sugar: 18g (20%)Vitamin A: 416IU (8%)Calcium: 34mg (3%)Iron: 2mg (11%)

Keywords: choc chunk cookies, Chocolate chip cookies

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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!!!)