Malted milk powder is probably most commonly known as being an ingredient in malts (malted milk shakes) and in the chocolates, Maltesers or Whoppers.  It can also be used in homemade pancakes, waffles, ice cream or gelato, hot chocolate, cake, and cookies, etc.  In our home, we grew up with the malted milk drink, Horlicks.  As an infrequent treat before bed time, my dad would make it for us with boiling water or hot milk and sugar.  Once in a blue moon, he would randomly call out, “Who wants Horlicks?”, and we would all yell, very excitedly, “I do! I do!”.  You see, we lived in, for the most part, a junk food and sugar free home.  To this day, I still get a little bit excited every time I decide that I deserve a hot cup of Horlicks, but it never tastes as good as when my dad makes it.  I associate malt drinks with comfort and I’m loving experimenting with malted milk in baked goods.

Nestle Carnation produces a malted milk powder that can be found in the US.  Unfortunately, malted milk powder is not sold in Canada.  However, King Arthur Flour ships to Canada and their malted milk powder has received tremendously positive reviews.  I didn’t want to pay for shipping and Ovaltine (which is another brand of malt drink that’s not quite as tasty as Horlicks, in my opinion) happened to be on sale, so I used malted milk drink instead.  (I wonder if malted milk powder would add a bit more flavour; I’ll let you know if I ever compare the two.)  Malted milk drink adds a subtle and unique flavour that adds depth to these deliciously chewy and crispy cookies.  I love the texture of these chocolate chip cookies and I’ll bet that most people will love the flavour without realizing that it’s the malted milk that makes the difference.  Ed said that these may be the best cookies that I’ve ever made (and he knew nothing about malted milk prior to this).

Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

makes 3 dozen cookies but this recipe halves well; adapted from The Pioneer Woman  (Note:  Her cookies are very thin whereas mine did not spread out as much.  I think that this is probably attributable to a difference in altitude and humidity.)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

3/4 cups lightly packed brown sugar

3/4 cups granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp malted milk powder (or malted milk drink such as Horlicks or Ovaltine)

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips