If you love the sticky caramel, creamy nougat, and sweet chocolate in Milky Way Candy bars, you are gonna be obsessed with these easy homemade Milky Way cookies!
With a crispy bottom, chewy edges, and soft center, these brown-sugar based cookies are loaded with chopped up Milky Way for big flavor with minimal effort.
As a busy mom who loves to bake, I love a foolproof recipe that’s easy to make, easy to clean up after, and easy to enjoy. With just 8 ingredients, 20 minutes (the dough requires no chilling time!), and one bowl, this candy bar cookie recipe ticks all the boxes!
(P.S. if you love chocolate and caramel in cookies, see these Easy Chewy Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies next!).
Cookies with Milky Way Bars Ingredients
To ensure you get enough Milky Way flavor in every bite, you’ll want roughly 1 ½ cups (or 180 grams) of chopped up Milky Way Bars. You can get this with 3 ½ full size bars or 10 fun size bars.
I like to use unsalted butter and add my own salt, but you can easily use salted and omit or reduce the added salt.
Milky Way Candy Bar Cookies Tips and Tricks
How to Make Cookies with Milky Way Bars
As with almost all of my cookie recipes, the cookie dough here only requires one bowl (because when I claim a recipe to be easy, I’m thinking about clean up, too!). This just means we have to be precise in which order we add the ingredients to the dough.
Start by creaming the butter and sugar. Take your time here, keep beating with a hand mixer until well-combined and light & airy.
Then, mix in the egg and vanilla. Next, add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until a thick dough starts to form. Use a rubber spatula to finish combing the dough, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl to add any dry ingredients left behind.
Chop the Milky Way bars into small chunks, roughly ½-cubic inch. Set some aside to push into the top of your cookies and fold the rest into the dough.
Form your cookies and add them to a lined baking sheet. A large cookie scoop is perfect here, otherwise you can roll your cookies into balls with two clean hands using 4 tablespoons of dough.
Make sure the chopped Milky way is encased by the dough. The caramel can get runny if it’s too close to the sides or bottom of the cookie.
Push a couple of the conserved bits of Milky Way into the top and center of the cookie and bake on the bottom rack. If you can only fit one baking sheet on the bottom rack and you want to bake all 12 cookies, bake them in shifts.
If you bake them on the top rack they will brown and the bits of Milky Way on top will burn. Bake on the bottom rack, and you’ll get the perfect texture.
How I Store Homemade Milky Way Cookies to Keep them Fresh
At room temperature, these easy homemade cookies with Milky Way will last for 5-7 days when covered or stored in an airtight container. In the refrigerator, they can last up to three weeks.
Quick tip: Storing your cookies with a piece of bread will keep them softer and chewier. This is the perfect use for the end piece! The moisture from the bread keeps them from drying out.
You can also freeze them once they’re baked for up to a year, but I prefer to freeze the unbaked dough. That way, I can have freshly baked cookies whenever I’m craving them!
I like to shape the cookie dough into balls and store them in a freezer safe storage bag. Just watch them closely when you bake them and add an extra minute or two to your baking time if need be.
20-Minute Chewy Milky Way Cookies
SAVE RECIPE TO COLLECTION PIN PRINT RATEEquipment
- Large Cookie Scoop optional
- Reusable Baking Mat optional
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups Milky Way candy, roughly chopped
- ½ cup softened unsalted butter (½ cup butter = 1 stick)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (or vanilla paste)
- 1 large egg
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a reusable baking mat. Roughly chop the Milky Way bars into small chunks.
- To a large mixing bowl, add softened butter and brown sugar. Use a hand mixer on high to cream together until light and airy.½ cup softened unsalted butter, 1 cup light brown sugar
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and use your hand mixer on low to combine.1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 large egg
- Add the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix to combine, careful not to overbeat. Use a spatula to scrape any flour off the sides of the bowl and integrate it into your dough.1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon table salt, ½ teaspoon baking soda
- Add most of the chopped Milky Way to your dough and use a rubber spatula to fold them in. I like to keep a small handful of each out to place on top of the cookie dough once it's formed into cookies.1 ½ cups Milky Way candy, roughly chopped
- Use a large cookie scoop or 4 tablespoons of dough to form your cookies, adding them to the prepped baking sheet. Make sure the candy is encased by the dough, so the caramel doesn't melt and spill onto the baking sheet. Leave at least an inch of space in between each cookie for minor spreading. Add the conserved candy on the very top and middle of the cookie.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes on the bottom rack. It's okay if they are slightly underdone. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet so they continue to bake as they cool. If you want perfectly round cookies, use a round cookie cutter, scooting it around the cookie while they are still hot. Similarly, if any caramel from the Milky Ways spills over the sides, use a cookie cutter or the curve of a spoon to push the caramel back into the cookie while it's still hot.
Pro Tips
- You can freeze excess cookie dough before baking it to give you fresh baked cookies every time when the craving hits! Just bake them as normal straight out of the freezer.
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