Heavenly Condensed Milk Cookies (Biscuits) – #1 Choice

These easy homemade condensed milk cookies or biscuits are thick, soft, and a bit chewy.

These cookies are flavored with sweetened condensed milk. After rolling out the dough, you press it down with a fork to give the cookies a cute, old-fashioned look.

These Condensed Milk Cookies don’t have eggs and are great for the holidays. They taste really good with my plain vanilla cookies and ginger biscuits

Recipe Updates

I grew up baking this sweetened condensed milk cookies recipe from the Kei Road Women’s Association Centenary Recipe book, along with the Romany Creams recipe.

However, I had to change the measurements from pounds to metric, and then into cups and spoons. I increased the amount of vanilla extract, added a bit of salt, and tried reducing the sugar in the biscuits.

Ingredients

Here are some notes on the ingredients used in this recipe. Please see the recipe card for quantities.

Sugar
White granulated sugar is used for additional sweetness and texture in these cookies or biscuits. The original recipe calls for 340 grams in total, but I have tested and preferred the recipe at 300 grams of sugar.

Sweetened Condensed Milk
These biscuits are made with sweetened condensed milk, which adds sweetness and a delicious condensed milk flavor. This cannot be substituted with evaporated milk, which has a different texture and thickness. However, I have used the “light” or lower-fat version of condensed milk, and the cookies turned out perfectly fine.

Butter or Margarine
Butter adds flavor, softness, and moisture to these biscuits. I used a New Zealand butter with a butterfat content of about 82%, similar to European or Irish butter. However, I grew up making these with Stork baking margarine, so this can be used instead of butter.

Vanilla Extract
Vanilla extract adds a bit of vanilla flavor and enhances the flavor of the butter and sweetened condensed milk.

Flour
These biscuits are made with plain flour, standard-grade, or all-purpose flour.

Baking Powder
Baking powder gives these cookies a bit of lift.

No Eggs
This recipe contains no eggs.

Weighing and Measuring Ingredients

Weighing ingredients with a kitchen scale is more accurate than using measuring cups. All my recipes are developed and tested using grams only.

However, check out the recipe card for cup measurements. For these conversions, cups are equal to 240 millilitres/8 fluid ounces, tablespoons are 15 milliliters and teaspoons are 5mL

Making the Condensed Milk Cookies

Step 1
Line two large baking trays or sheets with baking paper or parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Step 2
Cream together the room-temperature butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This can be done by hand, using an electric hand mixer, or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. This will take 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Note: If the butter is a bit hard, microwave it in 10-second intervals until it is soft enough to cream. Do not melt.

Step 3
Add in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla essence. Mix until well combined.

Step 4
Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Then add in a third of the flour mixture, mixing until combined. Repeat this step twice more with the remaining flour. Once all the flour is mixed in, you may need to knead the dough a few times to ensure everything is well combined. You should have a soft cookie dough.

Step 5
Portion the cookie dough using a cookie scoop (I used a 5cm cookie scoop, then divided each scoop in half). Alternatively, roll balls of dough approximately 3cm in diameter. Place the rolled cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet about 4cm (1.5 inches) apart. Press the cookies down until they are about 1cm tall using your fingers or the back of a fork.

Note: I like to portion all my cookie dough before baking and store the cookie dough balls on a plate or board lined with parchment paper.

Step 6
Bake the cookies in a preheated oven for 15 to 25 minutes or until they are a beautiful light golden brown color.

Note: If your cookie dough feels a bit soft, you can place the portioned cookies on a plate or baking sheet in the fridge for 10 to 30 minutes to firm up.

Step 7
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before lifting them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Making Levain/New York Style Cookies

To make thicker Levain/New York-style cookies, portion the cookies out using an ice-cream scoop. Rest the cookies for 30 minutes in the fridge and then bake for 25-25 minutes.

Making Cutout Cookies

Recently, I decided to try this cookie recipe as a cutout cookie. I placed the cookie dough between two sheets of baking paper and rolled it out to about 7mm thick. Then, I refrigerated the dough for an hour.

After that, I cut the dough using plain round cutters and a few other shapes. I baked them for 15-20 minutes, which resulted in a soft sugar cookie.

However, the cookies do expand or spread approximately 3mm from the edge during baking. So while this recipe can be used for cutouts, I would recommend sticking to simpler shapes.

Storage

These cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for about 2 weeks. Preferably a beautiful cookie tin!