Chocolate Chip Cookies Burst With Flavor With One Scoop Of This Old-School Ingredient

Making homemade chocolate chip cookies is a relatively simple process. Finding ways to improve them, however, can sometimes be quite difficult. You can opt for using brown butter to improve a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but there's another underrated ingredient that's easy to integrate into recipes and can make your cookies more unique and flavorful: malted milk powder. We spoke to Yuvika Wadhwa, pastry chef at Protein Chefs, who gave us some insight into exactly what malted milk powder brings to homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Malted milk powder — the ingredient that differentiates milkshakes from malts — is an easy, old-school fix for boring cookie recipes, but it's often passed over because it's fallen out of regular use in recent decades. However, Wadhawa says it's time to revive the practice: "Flavorwise, it gives chocolate chip cookies a nice nutty touch from the malted barley and an earthiness and sweetness from the evaporated milk powder."  The pastry chef also notes that the sugar in malted milk powder is a natural way to make the cookies taste sweeter, especially if you're not reducing the amount of sugar in your recipe to account for it.

And while a cookie's taste is incredibly important, its texture can also make or break the dessert. Luckily, malted milk powder helps in that department as well. "It also alters the texture by making the cookies softer in the center as the milk solids and natural sugars in the powder capture and retain moisture while baking," adds Wadhwa. "So, they will be tender and feel more fresh."

One of the most enticing things about using malted milk powder to make cookies is how easy it is to use in recipes. As Yuvika Wadhwa explains, there's only one instance where you may need to change up your pre-existing cookie recipe to make room for the powder. "It can be added with other ingredients," says the pastry chef, adding, "Some brands add more sugar into these powders. So, check the label, and you can reduce the sugar in the original recipe by about one to two tablespoons, depending on your preference." Wadhwa also notes that adding a pinch of salt instead of removing sugar can also help balance the flavor if you think the cookies taste too sweet with the added malted milk powder.

As for how much powder you should add, that ultimately depends on the size of your batch and how much you want it to impact your cookies' flavor. Wadhwa gave us a baseline to follow to achieve ideal results: "For a batch of about 20 cookies, I would add anywhere from two to four tablespoons of malted milk powder. Even a tiny bit is enough, so I suggest starting out with a smaller amount but it depends on your taste profile."

Finally, when it comes to baking the cookies, you'll want to be aware of how long they're in the oven, because malted milk powder makes the cookies caramelize faster. Wadhwa says you should bake them for less time so you don't need to repair your burnt cookies by using a microplane.