Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies

These Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies are an old-fashioned recipe made with malted milk powder, chocolate syrup and shortening rather than butter. The combination may sound unusual, but it creates cookies with crisp edges, soft centers and a rich caramel-like flavor that sets them apart from classic chocolate chip cookies.

In the past I made them with butter flavored shortening, but developed kind of an aversion to the butter flavored type and stopped making the cookies. Now I'm making them with regular shortening and they are much better. There are enough other flavors to make up for the missing butter.

An Unusual Recipe

Unlike many chocolate chip cookie recipes, these cookies are made with all brown sugar, which gives them a deeper color and a subtle butterscotch flavor. The malted milk powder adds sweetness and a distinctive malt flavor, while a small amount of chocolate syrup enhances the overall richness without making the cookies taste overly chocolatey.

Texture and Flavor

One of the things I like most about this recipe is the texture. The shortening helps the cookies bake up slightly thicker than an all-butter cookie, with lightly crisp edges and tender centers. They also stay fresh for several days, making them a great choice for bake sales, cookie exchanges or simply keeping a cookie jar stocked. The flavor is vanilla with hints of molasses from the brown sugar and definitely malt! Milk chocolate goes so well with malt I always try to include some milk chocolate chips, but then I also add dark or semisweet for good measure. The last batch was a combo of Guittard milk chocolate and their semisweet Super Cookie Chips.

Ingredients You'll Need

This recipe uses a handful of pantry staples along with a few ingredients that give the cookies their unique character.

• Malted Milk Powder - I typically use Carnation malted milk powder, but Horlick's works as well. Malted milk powder gives the cookies their signature flavor and adds a subtle sweetness.
• Shortening - Regular shortening works best in this recipe, and you can use any brand. I have been using Spectrum lately. The flavor is neutral and seems close to what commercial bakeries use. Please weigh it! Shortening is difficult to measure by volume and being slightly off could ruin the recipe. Just put the bowl on the scale, set the tare to zero and plop in 192 grams.
• Chocolate Syrup - Just a small amount deepens the flavor and complements the malt without overwhelming it. It probably contributes to the chewiness as well. And good news! Hershey's makes chocolate syrup without high fructose corn syrup. I've been making these cookies with their "Simply 5".
• Brown Sugar - Using only brown sugar gives the cookies a darker color, a moist texture and a richer flavor. For best results, use a good organic brand (365, for example) of brown sugar. It could just be me, but lately I've found the mainstream brands of brown sugar to be a little less tasty than usual (and paler).

Recipe Tips

• Avoid overbaking, and bake on a sheet of parchment paper so that you can slide the parchment off the hot sheet and let the cookies cool on the counter.
• Make the cookies any size you want, but the 2.5 oz size will give you bakery style, chewy, slightly thick cookies. Keep a close eye on them.
• Use a strong (higher protein) all-purpose flour like King Arthur.
• Scooped cookies look prettier than shaped. If you are in the market for a good cookie scoop, I will say I am loving this set of scoops I bought a while back.

Where Did This Come From?

I first shared these cookies on Food.com (back when it was Recipezaar) more than 20 years ago. The funny thing is that I no longer remember where the recipe came from. It may have been from an old Crisco booklet, a magazine clipping, or perhaps a recipe I adapted heavily. Whatever the source, I put the recipe on the back burner for a while as bakers became less interested in shortening and more focused on butter.

While looking for information on the recipe, I was delighted to find that other bakers had been sharing it too! Seeing the recipe on blogs such as Pinch of Yum and a few others inspired me to revisit it and take some new photos. After one batch, I remembered exactly why I liked it so much. I'm still going to play around with adding butter flavor, but maybe a more natural tasting one.

• Malted Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Chocolate Malted Cookies from Cooking Light
• Malted Milk Biscotti
• Chocolate Malted Hazelnut Cookies
• Strawberry Malt Biscotti

Recipe

Older Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe with Chocolate Syrup

Anna

This recipe has kind of a strange ingredient list, but the cookies are very good. Shortening is crucial for the chewy texture.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Chilling and Cooling 2 hours hrs

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 16 cookies

Ingredients

 

• 1 cup shortening (192 grams)
• 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar (250 grams)
• ½ cup plain malted milk powder
• 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour** (260 grams)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• In a mixing bowl, beat together shortening, brown sugar, malted milk powder, chocolate syrup, and vanilla; beat for 2 minutes. Mix in egg.
• In a small bowl mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture.
• Stir in chocolate chips
• Shape into 16 large balls or about 24 medium size balls. You can shape by hand or use a scooper. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake for about 10-13 minutes or until golden brown.
• Slide parchment off pan and let cookies cool on the parchment on the counter.

Notes

The volume amount of the flour could range from 2 cups to 2 ¼ cups, but the amount I've been testing with is is around 260-270 grams of King Arthur all-purpose.

Keyword Chocolate Chip Cookies, Malted Milk Powder, Melted Butter

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