The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Use Toasted Milk Powder

You’re in luck! Because this recipe was really developed around how the dough tastes, so these are also excellent cookies without the chocolate chips or chunks. They have a lovely caramelized flavor and subtle tang that really shines without the chocolate, IMO.

It’s really important to me that all elements of a recipe are flavored and balanced individually. It makes the end result so much better and allows for greater flexibility with recipes.

I like to toast the milk powder until it’s the same medium umber color that milk solids get when you brown butter, so I suggest using that as a benchmark. Technically, however, anything between ochre and the medium umber is good-to-go. The darker the color the more nutty and caramelized flavor you will have. The least amount of time I would spend toasting is probably around 30 minutes.

Yes, but I’d only suggest using one of them. Three other ways of toasting powdered milk without needing specialty equipment are:

1.) Adding powdered milk to a sauté pan where you are already browning butter – When the butter just melts, add the powdered milk and continue as normal. This is a great way to boost flavor and get things caramelizing fast. However, you can really only use what’s needed for a single recipe, so it’s not bulk or pantry friendly. Browned butter lasts for about a week in the refrigerator if you want to make it ahead of time.

2.) Using a microwave – I’ve heard mixed results for this option and haven’t tried it personally for that reason. According to other blogs you can cook (1 cup) 100g of powdered milk in 30 second increments for 10 minutes and have a golden milk powder in 1/6 of the time as dry toasting it on the stove top. Make sure to break up clumps between rounds.

3.) Baking it in the oven – Heat your oven to 300°F (149°C). Spread the powdered milk onto to a parchment paper covered baking tray and place it in the oven for between 6-9 minutes. You’ll need to stir the toasting powdered milk at least twice while it bakes. And, you guessed it, break up the clumps as you go.

You are welcome to use any of these options, however, the first one would be my preferred choice. Why you ask? Well, I am a HUGE control freak and knowing how quickly this ingredient burns makes me never want to take my eyes off of it. If I’m distilling the cooking time down from 1 hour to only 10 minutes, I want to be watching the milk powder cook the whole time.

Heck yes you can. As I said in the notes, making a bulk batch of this is a game-changer. In fact, it will last up to 6 months in a sealed container. Seriously, if you are going to spend an hour doing this, bulk it baby!

The short answer is: yes.

The long answer is: toasting (caramelizing) buttermilk powder dampens the tangy flavor it starts with. It is also more difficult than toasting regular powdered milk. It sticks together more when it cooks and still takes an hour to make.

I did a number of versions of this chocolate chip cookie with different ratios of toasted and untoasted powdered buttermilk to regular toasted milk powder. And, all of the versions with the toasted buttermilk powder just didn’t shine in the same way.

Don’t get me wrong, you can absolutely make and keep toasted buttermilk powder in your pantry for a number of applications, but this just wasn’t one of them to me.

Yes. If you can’t find buttermilk powder (it should be right next to the regular powdered milk) in your supermarket or you just don’t want to use it, leave it out.

I am not a sweet-toothed girly so I prefer to give my desserts a bit of bitterness, earthiness, or acidity to balance the sugar. The buttermilk powder creates that balance for me. The toasted milk powder in these chocolate chip cookies adds flavor, nuttiness, and interest. While the buttermilk powder and bittersweet chocolate elevate them from sugar bomb to, “I literally can’t stop eating them, someone take them away!”

Oh Yeah you can! Just know, brown butter loses about 25% of its liquid volume as you cook it. If a recipe calls for brown butter and you want to skip that step, use roughly 75% of the needed butter.
For reference, every 8 tablespoons (1 stick or 113.3g) of butter you would need about 1 tsp (2.5g) of toasted milk solids to get the same effect as browning butter. Do you see now, why this dough has so much more flavor?

To boost the brown butter flavor and not just recreate brown butter, I suggest using somewhere between 1-2 tablespoons (6-12.5g) of toasted milk powder per stick of butter (8 tablespoons or 113.3g).

OF NOTE: This is only a good substitute in cases where the recipe would traditionally start with creaming butter and sugar, but was updated to accommodate melted, browned butter. Some recipes may use melted butter or liquid brown butter, on purpose, to act as a crisping agent. In those cases, I’d say follow the instructions for the butter and add the toasted milk powder later by measuring with your heart.

Chilled butter is straight out of the refrigerator. Softened butter, has been left at room temperature long enough that you can press into it and it indents slightly. Softened butter is not spreadable. Room temperature butter is. If you press down on room temperature butter, you finger will immediately sink down and begin melting it.

My preferred chill time was 24 hours, but I think this cookie shines, as intended, as soon as 6 hours.
I did, as a glutton for punishment and cookies, test different chill times so I could report back. The times were: 20 minutes; 2 hours, 6 hours; 8 hours; 12 hours; 18 hours; and 24 hours. Between those times, the chocolate chip cookies developed a much softer and less grainy texture.

This is because the flour had time to hydrate and the sugar dissolved into the dough more. Longer chill time also affected the flavor favorably at the 6 hour and 24 hour mark. In between those times, there wasn’t a discernible difference. Here are some quick and dirty notes:

– 20 minutes: The flavor tastes just like the dough as mixed. The texture is chalky and cakey.

– 2 hours: The flavor is much the same as at 20 minutes. The texture is softer but is still noticeably granular.

– 6 hours: The flavor is definitely deeper at this point. The texture is also softer, eliciting a nice gooey center when baked.

– 12 hours: Honestly, not a big difference between 6 and 12 hours. The center of the cookie is a little bit softer.

– 18 hours: Flavor is still about the same as at 6 hours. I thought this was peak texture until I had the 24 hours chilled cookies.

– 24 hours: Holy wow! The flavor is concentrated in the best way possible and is noticeably different from the 6 hour cookies (finally). And, the texture is velvety and gooey. The only granularity comes from the crispy edges.

Bittersweet chocolate is, as described, more bitter than semisweet chocolate. This is due the to the percentage of cacao in the chocolate. Bittersweet chocolates tend to have between 70-74% cacao. Semisweet chocolate, has a cacao content around 60%.

Yes, of course. If you love a good milk chocolate to sweeten the proverbial cookie deal. Go for it! I can definitely see myself using an even less sweet dark chocolate (between 75-80% cacao).

There is also a large chocolate to dough ratio in this recipe. If you are feeling like less is more when you are chopping, use less.