Perfectly soft and gooey inside, with lovely crispy exterior. These Milk Chocolate Orange Cookies are full of flavour, easy to make and you'll love them!
The love at first bite happened last November in Bangkok, when I first tried Ben's cookies. There was this line of 6-7 people waiting for freshly baked cookies and I knew I had to join them.
The biggest struggle was how to choose only 4-5 pieces, instead of a whole array displayed, just looking at me, begging me to buy them. But alas, I've made that tough call and these were my second favourite.
First being Mocha (I have a soft spot for coffee desserts), but I still don't know how to make that gorgeous coffee filling, so I chose to replicate these Milk Chocolate Orange Cookies. Y-U-M.
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Is this the best cookie recipe EVER?
I really can't say. But, yes. (Office fans, where you at? 😉 )
If you're into big, delicious, gooey in the middle cookies with that crispy exterior, then this is your lucky day. A day where all your cookie dreams come true. Pinky swear.
If you didn't know, Ben's Cookies is a chain of shops in England (as Wikipedia beautifully put) - I found that out AFTER I'd finished eating them, of course.
As a major fan of anything that has any relevance to the UK, my love for these grew even more, naturally. (Promise land! Lol.)
I did a little digging and they are really popular across the country and worldwide. Their cookies are fairly big in size, with a chewy, but also slightly cakey texture - not in a bad way, though. And you get that crunch on the outside when you bite into it.
One of the things I most loved about them is that they use big discs of chocolate, instead of chocolate chips.
But let me walk you through the process of making these Milk Chocolate Orange Cookies.
How to make Milk Chocolate Orange Cookies
Not to brag, but I think my cookies are even *better* than the ones I tried. Okay, it's a little bit braggy. 😉
I've tried to find pictures of their cookie dough on Instagram and YT. Some people actually filmed a little bit of making of process, so that was a good starting point for me, just to see how the dough looks.
To ensure that gooey-ness in the middle, I decided to use brown sugar and melted butter. But not your good ol' plain butter, oh no.
I made brown butter. And you can read a little bit about that deliciousness on my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.
For extra chew and texture, I mixed two types of flour: All-purpose flour and Whole Wheat flour. But if you can't get a hold of the whole wheat right now, just use all-purpose.
As for bringing that orange flavour, I zested one BIG orange and added some candied orange peel, just like the original. It's the small, diced orange peel especially made for baking, nothing expensive and fancy.
Last but not least, don't skip refrigerating the dough! It will add so much flavour and the chilled dough will ensure the chewy, gooey inside. You can keep it in the fridge for up to three days.
Tips for making Milk Chocolate Orange Cookies
- The original Ben's cookies are made with almost teardrop shaped chocolate discs. I used Belcolade Belgian chocolate discs, but if you can't find any, just roughly chop come good quality milk chocolate bar. You can also use dark chocolate, have fun!
- You can freeze cookie dough balls and bake them later, just add a couple of minutes more when baking. I suggest freezing the cookie dough balls on a baking tray and then transferring them to a ziplock bag, so you can easily remove just a couple when you get that cookie craving. 🙂
- I suggest baking one cookie as a test batch, to see how long you need to bake them.
- Baking the cookies on a higher temperature makes the outside go crispy really quickly and the cookies spread just enough, leaving the middle soft. That said, it's better to slightly underbake them. 😉
Here are some of my other favorite cookie recipes you might love:
If you make these out-of-this-world DELICIOUS Milk Chocolate Orange cookies, let me know by tagging me on Instagram @anasbakingchronicles or tell me all about it in the comments section down below. Seeing my recipes come to life in your kitchens, always makes me incredibly happy! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Happy baking!
Love,
📖 Recipe
milk chocolate orange cookies (copycat Ben's cookies)
Description
ingredients
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- 100 g whole wheat flour
- 325 g light soft brown sugar
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- zest of one large orange
- 75 g candied orange (diced, for baking purposes)
- 250 g milk chocolate disks (I used Belcolade brand)
Instructions
- Place sliced butter into a light-coloured pan or skillet. Melt over medium-high heat, stirring continuously, until becomes foamy, then turns clear and starts showing brown specks. You'll also notice nutty aroma. It's done after approx. 5 min, at medium brown stage. Transfer it to a large bowl and allow to cool.
- In a separate bowl sift both flours and mix in baking powder and salt using a whisk.
- Once the butter has cooled a little bit, add sugar and orange zest to it and mix it with a whisk for a minute, just to combine. Then add eggs, one at the time, with vanilla extract and whisk for a minute until combined.
- Add dry ingredients in two batches and combine with a wooden spoon to form a dough. (You can do this in a stand mixer, with a paddle attachment). Add candied orange peel and chopped chocolate disks, leaving 30 disks for later.
- Form 80 g balls, put a chocolate disk in the middle of each ball of dough and then stick one on top. Put cookie dough balls on a baking tray, cover with plastic wrap and chill for a couple of hours or up to 3 days before baking.
- Preheat the oven to 190˚C or 375˚F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Leave 2-3 inches (5-8 cm) between each cookie dough ball and bake for approx. 12-15 min. It depends on your oven.* When done, cookies should be golden and crispy outside but soft to the touch. Leave them on a baking tray for 2-3 minutes to firm up a little bit before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
IMPORTANT
All the recipes are developed and tested using only metric measurements and a kitchen scale. The U.S. cup and spoon measurements are provided for your convenience, but I highly recommend getting a digital kitchen scale and measuring in metrics. It's easy and always guarantee the same results in baking!
Nutrition
The nutritional information and US conversions are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data. If this is important to you, please verify with your favourite nutrition calculator and/or unit conversion tool.
Nina says
Hi! I just made these cookies but I'm not sure why my cookies aren't spreading 😥
Ana Zelić says
Hi Nina,
hm, that's strange. Did they stay ball shaped or...? Maybe your oven wasn't hot enough or you measured some ingredients wrong - it happens. These cookies are definitely on the chunkier side, but should definitely spread to form a thick cookie. If you tell me more info, maybe I could help better!
Nina Yeoh says
Thank you so much for responding! I actually used an ice cream scoop to measure out the cookie balls. Perhaps I should flatten it upon baking? But other than that, I did measure the ingredients correctly! However, the cookies ended up tasting great! Would definitely baked them again 😋
Bassam Bukhowa says
For the cookies to spread, substitute half the baking powder with baking soda. See https://www.buzzfeed.com/jesseszewczyk/baking-soda-or-powder-cookie-baking-test
Ana Zelić says
Hi,
yes, it's true that baking soda spreads and baking powder puffs, but they are not interchangeable. 1/4 tsp of baking soda is equal to 1 tsp of baking powder, but there has to be enough acidic elements in the recipe so the baking soda can react. In this recipe, the only acidic element is brown sugar and I'm not sure if there is enough of it to properly react with baking soda - I'll have to retest the recipe, it's on my April to do list. 🙂 Also, if someone decides to leave out the brown sugar but proceeds to use baking soda, they can have cookies with a soapy or metallic aftertaste.
But thanks for trying to help!
Bassam Bukhowa says
Thank you for the information, yes we need to resolve the non-spreading issue somehow. It would be great if you could retest.
Ana Zelić says
I personally didn't have issues,they're supposed to be a little chunky, but until I retest you can flatten them with your hand a little bit to help the spreading. Hope I find a better solution for everyone, though 🙂
Katerina | Once a Foodie says
Ohh, these look amazing, Ana! I love the combination of orange and chocolate but never thought of using that in a cookie. Such a great idea!
Cindy says
Amazing recipe, definitely the best cookies I have ever made!! I amended the recipe slightly by adding white chocolate and added the zests of 2 lemons + 2 tbs of lemon juice instead of the milk choc and candied oranges. The texture is spot on and a great dupe for Ben's cookies! Super delicious - highly recommend 🙂
Ana Zelić says
What a great combination of flavours, I'll have to try it out! I'm so glad you liked it and gave it your own twist! 🙂
Ana xx
Feirouz says
I just tried Ben's cookies last weekend in Dubai, was a bit disappointed as it seems I've been sold an old cookies! Anyways, was wondering how to proceed if one does not have whole wheat flour please? Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Ana Zelić says
Ahh, so sorry for your experience in Dubai! :/ I added whole wheat for a bit more chew and texture, but if you don't have any feel free to use all plain/all-purpose flour. It should work just fine!:)
Zed says
First of all, many thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe. I had compared it to other 'Ben's Cookies' recipes and felt yours was closest to the original recipe.
The cookies came out great (i followed ur recipe to the gram but didn't use 100g of whole wheat flower, instead used 400g of all purpose flower and didn't add candied orange). I would suggest your readers slightly press/flatten the dough when placing on tray as they don't flatten so much.
Secondly, i used light brown sugar but the cookies came out way too sweet. I have a sweet tooth and regularly ate Ben's cookies in UK. Normally after eating 2 Ben's cookies, i feel i had enough because of sugar overdose, however after just one cookie of your recipe, i raised the white flag. Other recipes suggest using 200g for even larger dough volume which was the main difference but i still preferred your one because the ingredients were richer and were more likely to create a soft cookie. I will attempt doing this again (not anytime soon!) using 200g of sugar instead... I suspect this would strike the right balance.
Ana Zelić says
Hi Zed,
Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm definitely going to test the recipe again after some of you mentioned they don't spread enough. Switching a little bit of baking powder for baking soda might help, I'll for sure play with the ratios.
As for the sweetness, brown sugar does provide more rich, caramel flavour (which some like you find too sweet), but it also helps with making a soft cookie. If you were to reduce it for more than 30% that could affect the overall consistency and softness of the dough, so just bare that in mind with experimenting. Let me know how it goes and good luck 🙂
Daniel Roccia says
Hello!
Thank you for this recipe! What does it mean: "1 + 0.75 teaspoon baking powder" – I don't understand the 'plus' part; is it 1.75, or should I be adding two parts of baking powder at separate times?
Thanks, and Merry Christimas!
Best wishes,
Daniel.
Ana Zelić says
Hi, Daniel!
it's 1.75, which I originally write as 1 + 3/4 teaspoon due to the measuring teaspoons, because it was brought to my attention that not putting a "+" could confuse some people. It goes in all at once! 🙂
Hope this helps!
Thank you for you wishes and have a wonderful, happy Christmas.
Ana x
Daniel Roccia says
Hi Ana,
Thank you for clarifying 🙂 They taste really good!
Take care x
Arnold Yudell says
I made them today and I was surprised how great they were. I did make a few adjustments based on other comments. I only had all-purpose flour so I used 400g; I reduced the sugar to 225g; and I flattened the cookie slightly before baking.
Next time I make them I think I will use dark chocolate, which I prefer, on the other hand these were great the way the were. It's a good thing I gave all but one away.
Arnold Yudell says
I have tried this recipe twice, once with milk chocolate and again with dark chocolate. With dark chocolate this recipe is 5 stars - I can taste the contrast between the chocolate and the orange must better. I didn't bother with leaving some disks to the end - I just through them all in. Excellent reviews by all who tried them.
Ays says
Your description has a little typo, just letting you know 🙂
Trying this recipe today. Thank you!
Ana Zelić says
Thank you for noticing! Hope you liked the cookies 🙂
Stefac says
This recipe was amazing!! Thank you so much!! I was craving gooey ben’s cookies and these turned out perfect. (Note: I didn’t add candied orange and I used a mix of dark and milk chocolate chips as there were no discs in my local supermarket, but they are still super delicious!)
Ana Zelić says
Makes me so happy to hear that and I love the combination of milk and dark chocolate, yum! Thank you! xx