These homemade Ovaltine Cookies are crispy, sweet, and dotted with Maltesers for an extra flavour hit. They’ll have you reaching for the cookie jar over and over again!
Adapted from the recipe for Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies from ‘Holiday Cookies’ by Elisabet der Nederlanden (Penguin Random House, 2017), you’ll find these biscuits to be perfect not just on your holiday dessert table, but for any time of the year the mood strikes.
For another chocolate bar inspired cookie, try my gooey Mars Bar Cookies!
What to Expect from this Recipe
- Easy. You can mix everything by hand, so no special equipment is required.
- Buttery dough. A soft and dough that feels and looks more ‘buttery’ than you might be used to with a cookie dough. Don’t panic, this is how it’s supposed to look! The extra resting time at room temperature on the counter while the oven is heating helps the dough to firm up somewhat to make for easier rolling.
- A crackled top. Thanks to the white sugar you’ll roll the dough in before baking
- A crispy exterior. With a sweet and slightly salty inside
- Small bursts of Maltesers (malted milk balls) throughout the biscuit
What You’ll Need to Make Ovaltine Cookies
- Ovaltine malted milk powder (or another similar brand)
- All-purpose flour
- Golden yellow sugar (golden brown sugar)
- Granulated sugar
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Egg
- Maltesers (or similar malted milk balls). If you can’t find these balls, you could replace them with chocolate chips or chopped milk chocolate instead.
How to Make Ovaltine Cookies
For this recipe, we’re going to go against all of our cookie baking instincts and wait to heat the oven until we’ve made the dough. I know it feels strange, but trust me on this. You’ll see below why we leave this step until later.
- Take out a large bowl and whisk together the flour, sugars, baking soda, and salt.
- Next, melt the butter. I like to use a microwave to do this step, as it’s the quickest way. Make sure you use a microwavable container and start out in small bursts. I usually microwave butter in 15 sec intervals until I get the desired consistency.
- If you’d prefer to melt your butter another way, you can put it into a small pot and melt it on low on the stove top.
- Let your melted butter cool for a couple of minutes. You don’t want to cook your egg when you add them both to the dough!
- Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and pour in the cooled melted butter and the egg. Take a fork and gently beat the egg, then using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, fold the butter and egg into the flour mix.
- Chop or crush the malted milk balls and fold them into the biscuit dough.
- Now you’ll want to set aside the bowl while the oven heats. The dough will look quite buttery, but don’t worry, this is normal. Leaving the dough to rest on the counter for a few minutes while the oven heats will let it firm up a little bit. It will still be a fairly soft dough for rolling.
Bake the Cookies
- Heat your oven to 350F/180C and arrange the oven racks in the middle.
- Line your cookie sheet, (or sheets if you’re using two) with parchment paper.
- Pour the remaining granulated sugar into a shallow bowl.
- Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball and then roll the ball around in the sugar until it is completed coated.
- Pop the dough balls onto the cookie sheets making sure to space them out as the dough will spread while baking. I find that 8 balls per cookie sheet is a good fit.
- Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes or so until they are golden brown and crackled on top.
- You’ll want to allow the chocolate malt cookies to cool completely before serving as they will continue to settle and crack on the top while they are cooling.
Julianne’s Notes
Ovaltine is a flavouring powder made from malt extract, sugar, whey and cocoa. It is typically mixed with milk and served either hot or cold.
Maltesers are chocolate candy malted milk balls. You may find similar malted milk balls under different brands.
If you are unable to find any malted milk balls for this particular recipe, you could try substituting milk chocolate chips, or chopped milk chocolate to the dough instead.
Ovaltine Cookies are the perfect biscuit to have alongside a cold glass of milk or a warm hot chocolate. In the unlikely event that you manage not to eat all of these delicious gems in the first 3 days of baking, you can crumble any leftover cookies on top of vanilla ice cream for a wonderful treat.
If you like this recipe, you might like these other cookie recipes:
Share your baking!
If you make this cookie recipe, be sure to leave a comment. I love hearing from you! Also, if you make this recipe, I’d love for you to share your photos on Instagram! Remember to use the hashtag #bakersbookshelf.
Ovaltine Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Sheet (2 if you have them)
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour (200 grams)
- ¼ cup Ovaltine powder (or other malted milk powder) (21 grams)
- ⅓ cup yellow sugar (golden brown sugar), firmly packed (65 grams)
- ⅛ cup granulated sugar (plus ½ cup for rolling later) (16 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt (or ½ teaspoon kosher salt)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted (113 grams)
- 1 egg, large
- ½ cup Maltesers, chopped (or other malted milk balls)
Instructions
- Note: Wait until you've made the biscuit dough before you heat your oven.
- Measure out the flour and Ovaltine powder and pour them into a large bowl. Add the yellow sugar, ⅛ cup of granulated sugar, baking soda and salt and whisk everything together.
- Melt the butter in a microwavable container and leave to cool for a couple of minutes.
- Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the cooled melted butter and the egg and using a fork, whisk until egg is lightly beaten. Then using a rubber spatula, fold the butter and eggs into the flour mix. Fold in the chopped Maltesers and leave the dough to sit on the counter while you heat the oven.
- Place your oven racks in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F (180°C).
- Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper and fill a shallow bowl or plate with the remaining ½ cup of granulated sugar. Scoop out the dough in 1 tablespoon amounts and roll gently into balls. Drop the balls into the sugar and roll them around until they are coated and place each ball onto the cookie sheets. You'll want to spread the balls out as the dough spreads while it's baking. 8 balls to a cookie sheet is a good fit. Lightly flatten each ball with your palm and then place the cookie sheets in the oven.Rotate the cookies sheets halfway through the baking time. If you're baking 2 sheets at once, rotate the sheets from top to bottom rack and back to front.
- The biscuits will take around 15 minutes to bake. Make sure to check them before the 15 minute mark as each oven is different when it comes to baking times. Look for the cookies to be light golden on top and crackled on top.Continue to bake the remaining dough in the same way. You should end up with around 30 biscuits.
- Let the cookies cool on a cooling rack before serving.
Shireen says
These were perfect. Not too sweet. I liked the addition of the Maltesers!