Made with bread flour, these honey cookies are the chewiest out there. Soft, with slightly crunchy edges, a chewy middle, and a mind-blowing honey flavor combined with brown sugar and speckles of salt, these cookies take you on a journey of amazing flavors and textures.
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Ingredients and substitutes
Flour – For my extra-chewy honey cookies recipe, I use bread flour (the same one you would use to make focaccia, milk bread, or cinnamon rolls). However, you can replace it with the same amount of all-purpose flour or make a bread flour and all-purpose flour half-and-half blend.
Baking soda – You won't need baking powder for this easy honey cookie recipe, only baking soda.
Salt – I use Himalayan salt, but you can use kosher salt or even flaky sea salt. You want some salt crystals undissolved so you can catch them with your tongue and feel those flavor rollercoasters.
Butter – Use unsalted butter at room temperature.
Sugars – I used both brown sugar and white granulated sugar, but you can replace brown sugar with 35g of white sugar.
Egg – We need one medium egg at room temperature for this recipe. With shells, it should weigh 55-60g.
Honey – Wild flour honey or clove honey will give a nice, mild flavor to our chewy cookies. However, the most important thing is that you like the flavor of the honey you use, so be free to choose the honey you like. This is exactly what I love so much about this recipe: you can make it your own by adding different types of honey and it will taste different every time.
Cooking tips
Don’t add vanilla extract. Vanilla will overpower the honey in our soft honey cookies, so I wouldn't recommend adding it.
Avoid beating the butter with sugar too much. By beating those ingredients together, we introduce a lot of air into the cookie dough. Too much air can create a porous interior, which will make the cookies cakey and not chewy. So, beat the butter with our sugars just for 1-2 minutes, until it resembles a thick paste and the sugar starts melting a bit.
Don’t overmix. As always, we want the right amount of gluten to develop during the last stage of preparing the dough. Especially with bread flour, you don't want to overwork the dough.
Drop the baking sheet right after baking the cookies. It's not necessary, as the cookies will deflate while cooking a bit, but if you want them to be very thin and extra chewy, drop the baking sheet on a flat surface like your kitchen top and see how all the puffiness drops down, leaving your cookies with a crackly top.
Step by step directions
1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a mixing bowl and a hand mixer), add the butter and white and brown sugar. Beat on medium for 1-2 minutes until it resembles a homogenous paste.
3. Then, add the egg and beat on high until fully incorporated and the mixture has emulsified. This will take 30-40 seconds. Add the honey and beat until incorporated.
4. Add the dry mixture and mix on low just until no dry ingredients are left. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while the oven is preheating.
5. Preheat the oven to 355F (180C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
6. Scoop out 12 cookie dough balls, placing them on a baking sheet, and leaving a 2” (5cm) distance in between.
7. Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until the cookies have spread, became golden on the edges, and puffed up.
8. Remove from the oven and drop the tray on a flat surface to deflate the cookies. Let them cool down for 10 minutes on the tray. After, transfer to a cooling rack to cool down completely.
Possible variations
Walnuts – Walnuts and honey are meant to be together. My suggestion is to crush walnuts or chop them roughly before folding them into the cookie dough.
Dark chocolate – You can never go wrong by adding ¼ – ⅓ cups of dark chocolate to make honey chocolate chip cookies.
Toppings – Anything from simple sugar glaze to chocolate glaze to Salted caramel can be used to drizzle on top of completely cooled-down cookies. However, don’t go overkill with them, as these cookies are already sweet enough.
FAQ
Store them at room temperature for up to 4 days.
You can make the cookie dough in advance and store it covered in plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Yes, you can freeze it for up to 2 months covered in plastic wrap and a piece of foil.
Yes, you can use 1- or 2-tablespoon cookie scoops to make more but smaller cookies. However, you'll need to adjust the baking time as smaller cookies will need less time to bake.
More dessert recipes
Recipe card
Honey cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer or hand mixer and a large mixing bowl
- Cookie scoop (3-tablespoon cookie scoop)
Ingredients
- 200 g bread flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 80 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 100 g white granulated sugar
- 35 g brown sugar
- 1 medium egg at room temperature
- 50 g honey
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or use a mixing bowl and a hand mixer), add the butter and white and brown sugar. Beat on medium for 1-2 minutes until it resembles a homogenous paste, scraping the sides and the bottom of the bowl in the middle of the process. DO NOT beat the butter until fluffy.
- Then, add the egg and beat on high until fully incorporated and the mixture has emulsified. This will take 30-40 seconds. Add the honey and beat until incorporated.
- Add the dry mixture and mix on low just until no dry ingredients are left. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate while the oven is preheating. The dough can stay in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Preheat the oven to 355F (180C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop out 12 cookie dough balls using a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop, placing on a baking sheet and leaving a 2” (5cm) distance in between. You can bake cookies in two batches if your baking tray doesn't feat 12 cookies.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until the cookies have spread, became golden on the edges, and puffed up.
- Remove from the oven and drop the tray on a flat surface to deflate the cookies. Let them cool down for 10 minutes on the tray. After, transfer to a cooling rack to cool down completely.
Lisa
Delicious recipe! Great combo of flavors!
Anna
Thank you, Lisa!