If you know me at all, you’ll know I’m a fiend for cookies. I’ve baked my own cookies since I was at school, but they were pretty crap until I started experimenting with this Millie’s cookies recipe in Bolivia.

How I learned this Millie’s Cookies recipe

I was staying in Sucre for a few weeks and decided to put my chef’s hat on. I knew that the famous Millie’s Cookies were the type of consistency I was aiming for, so I experimented with a few different cookie recipes and merged some of them together.

While the oven in my Bolivian hostel wasn’t very good and they kept coming out undercooked, I soon mastered the recipe and have baked them all over the world. They’re always better when you have an oven that you know well because you need to strike the perfect balance between crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Too hot and they become hard in the middle. Too cool and they still look like dough.

It’s a fine line to walk for cookie greatness.

Christmas Cookies

Yelena has a tradition of baking cookies at Christmas time. In fact, her coconut macaroons started out as Christmas treats, but I don’t have any such rule. I live a simple life: you make cookies when you crave cookies. However, for those that are after some Christmassy feel-good food, these homemade Millie’s Cookies are the perfect follow up to your traditional Christmas dinner. Even better if you want to get creative and shape them into Christmas trees or snowmen. You can improvise a little with the design if they’re used for Xmas time, even experimenting a little with melted white chocolate to get the snow colour effect.

Whip up some homemade mulled wine, stick your 8-minutes-to-perfection cookie dough in the oven, and you’re on for a good ‘un.

Why the ingredients matter

Sure, you can make any old cookie recipe and mix up the ingredients a bit. Maybe you prefer one type of flour over another, or perhaps you opt for a bag of chocolate chips rather than breaking up the cooking chocolate yourself; I’m not saying these won’t make good cookies. You might find yourself creating an entirely new recipe and that’s great.

But if you want a proper Millie’s Cookie tasting treat, then I suggest you stick to these ingredients as if they were a hand-drawn map to a long-lost treasure. Once you’ve gotten the swing of it, the recipe is as simple as can be.

Ingredients

• Self-raising flour: 235 g
• Unsalted butter: 125 g
• Caster sugar: 125 g
• Light brown sugar: 100 g
• Egg: 1
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Cooking chocolate: 100-200 g
• Baking paper: 1-2 sheets

How to make the best Millie’s Cookies

1.Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line one or two (depending on how big your oven is) baking trays with non-stick baking paper. If you miss this step, your cookies will definitely stick to the pan.

2. Break up the cooking chocolate into chunks, preferably about the size of half a square of chocolate. You may need to use a knife, but it’s good to just batter them with a rolling pin or another blunt instrument (so long as it’s still in the wrapper).

3. Cut the butter into chunks and pop it in a small saucepan on a low heat for a few minutes, until completely melted.

4. Meanwhile, get a large mixing bowl and sieve the caster sugar and light brown sugar into it, making sure there are no lumps of crystallised sugar.

5. When the sugar is fine and the butter is melted, add the melted butter, the egg and the vanilla extract to the bowl and mix with the sugars with a wooden spoon.

6. Add a bit of self-raising flour and mix well, then add a bit more. Continue like this until all the flour has been used.

7. Add the chocolate chunks and mix them into the dough.

8. Form a big ball of dough with the mixture. You should be able to pick it up without any of it sticking to your hands. If the dough is still too wet to form a ball, you may need to add a bit more flour. Don’t over-flour it though. This is the key to the soft middle of these chewy cookies.

9. Using your hands, create little balls around 1cm thick and a few centimetres wide. This will give them an authentic homemade look. Lay them out on the baking trays but leave ample room in between them as they will expand. Pro tip: It’s usually better to bake them on just one tray and do 2-3 batches.

10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 8 minutes. This makes them golden brown on the outside, but soft and gooey in the middle. They will still be soft when you first remove them, but after a few minutes of cooling on a rack, they will firm up on the outside. Pro tip: If you know your oven is fierce, maybe reduce the time to 7 minutes. Likewise, if your oven is weak or gas-lit, they may need a little longer.

11. Transfer the baking paper, with the cookies still on top, onto a rack to cool. You can use an upside down metal grill from the oven if you don’t have a cooling rack. After a few minutes, remove the baking paper and leave the cookies directly on the rack.

12. Repeat steps 9, 10 and 11 until all the dough has been used.

13. These chocolate chip cookies are delicious when warm, but ensure that you leave them for around 15 minutes so they reach the right consistency.

MELT-IN-THE-MOUTH MILLIE’S COOKIES RECIPE

Yield: 25-30

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 23 minutes

If you're looking for the perfect chewy cookie with a deliciously soft middle, you have to try our Millie's cookies recipe.

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Ingredients

• Self-raising flour: 235 g
• Unsalted butter: 125 g
• Caster sugar: 125 g
• Light brown sugar: 100 g
• Egg: 1
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Cooking chocolate: 100-200 g
• Baking paper: 1-2 sheets

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line one or two (depending on how big your oven is) baking trays with non-stick baking paper. If you miss this step, your cookies will definitely stick to the pan.
   
2. Break up the cooking chocolate into chunks, preferably about the size of half a square of chocolate. You may need to use a knife, but it's good to just batter them with a rolling pin or another blunt instrument (so long as it's still in the wrapper).
   
3. Cut the butter into chunks and pop it in a small saucepan on a low heat for a few minutes, until completely melted.
   
4. Meanwhile, get a large mixing bowl and sieve the caster sugar and light brown sugar into it, making sure there are no lumps of crystallised sugar.
   
5. When the sugar is fine and the butter is melted, add the melted butter, the egg and the vanilla extract to the bowl and mix with the sugars with a wooden spoon.
   
6. Add a bit of self-raising flour and mix well, then add a bit more. Continue like this until all the flour has been used.
   
7. Add the chocolate chunks and mix them into the dough.
   
8. Form a big ball of dough with the mixture. You should be able to pick it up without any of it sticking to your hands. If the dough is still too wet to form a ball, you may need to add a bit more flour. Don't over-flour it though. This is the key to the soft middle of these chewy cookies.
   
9. Using your hands, create little balls around 1cm thick and a few centimetres wide. This will give them an authentic homemade look. Lay them out on the baking trays but leave ample room in between them as they will expand. Pro tip: It's usually better to bake them on just one tray and do 2-3 batches.
   
10. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 8 minutes. This makes them golden brown on the outside, but soft and gooey in the middle. They will still be soft when you first remove them, but after a few minutes of cooling on a rack, they will firm up on the outside. Pro tip: If you know your oven is fierce, maybe reduce the time to 7 minutes. Likewise, if your oven is weak or gas-lit, they may need a little longer.
    
11. Transfer the baking paper, with the cookies still on top, onto a rack to cool. You can use an upside down metal grill from the oven if you don't have a cooling rack. After a few minutes, remove the baking paper and leave the cookies directly on the rack.
    
12. Repeat steps 9, 10 and 11 until all the dough has been used.
    
13. These chocolate chip cookies are delicious when warm, but ensure that you leave them for around 15 minutes so they reach the right consistency.

Notes

• For a vegan version of Millie's Cookies, replace the egg with a ripe banana. This alters the consistency a little bit but it gives the cookie extra flavour. I've tried the banana version myself several times and it's delicious, but there are other vegan alternatives I haven't tried, like replacing the egg with flax or chia seeds (mixed with water).
• Always preheat the oven and use something to prevent them sticking to the baking tray. I find ungreased baking paper works best and you can reuse it for another batch.
• I usually use dark chocolate chunks, but you can use white or milk chocolate chips if you prefer, or a combination of the three. The reason I break up an actual bar of chocolate is to get a big chunk rather than a little chip.
• Leave space in between the cookie dough balls as the self-raising flour makes them expand, sometimes quite dramatically. Expect them to double in size.
• Baking them on one central tray at a time is recommended because otherwise the two trays may come out uneven. There's usually enough cookie dough to make 2-3 batches.
• Adjust the cooking time based on your oven. I've had the best results with these cookies when using a microwave oven that rotates the tray whilst it's cooking.
• It's a good idea to make the cookie dough first, then leave it in the fridge for an hour or more. This can be done to spread the batches apart, but it often results in better cookies as the dough has time to cool.
• You can store these Millie's Cookies in an air-tight container for about two weeks.

Enjoy Your New Favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Let me know how you get on with this Millie’s Cookie recipe. It’s super easy to make and always produces good results. If you’re making them for a group of people, prepare for them to disappear quickly.

You can also check our other baked recipes: gooey flapjacks, British scones, or a mouth-watering strawberry cheesecake. We have plenty of easy recipes you can make in under half hour. Or if you’ve got a little longer, we have an equally easy baklava recipe!