Non-Fat Milk Powder Will Change Your Chocolate Chip Cookie Game Forever

Chewy cookie lovers, rejoice: Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi has shared her secret to making a perfectly chewy cookie. While it's not too hard to enjoy store-bought chewy cookies, it can be difficult to bring that soft, "bakery-level" texture to homemade baked goods. But Tosi has the answer — a "secret weapon" that will yield chewy cookies every time.

Thankfully, Tosi's cookie hack doesn't require much in the way of extra time or ingredients. What it does necessitate is a product that you might not think of adding to a standard cookie recipe. 

Milk powder can be found in most grocery stores, but chances are, when you stock up on baking supplies, you walk right past it. It's a real game-changer, though, especially when you add it to chocolate chip cookies (which, according to Insider, Tosi often uses as a base for complex flavors and textures). If you follow Tosi's advice, your chocolate chip cookies will be well worth sinking your teeth into.

Christina Tosi's secret cookie weapon? A teaspoon of nonfat milk powder. Not only does milk powder make cookies chewier, but it also deepens their flavor profile.

Milk powder is a dry form of milk that's been processed to be shelf-stable. It has all of the same nutrients that milk does, but its dry texture seriously elevates cookies. Like liquid milk, it doesn't taste strong enough to have a standout flavor in your cookie recipes. But unlike everyday milk, baking it into cookies can make them softer and chewier. It's all thanks to the way that the milk fat interacts with the gluten proteins in the cookie. 

You don't need much milk powder at all to make a huge difference in the texture and flavor of chocolate chip cookies. Before you make cookies next time, stock up on some milk powder.

The beauty of milk powder is its versatility. You can add milk powder to a variety of baked goods to improve their textures in ways that'll make your mouth water even more.

Milk powder can be used in the majority of recipes that call for milk, but it's especially good in breads, ice creams, and brownies. Adding milk powder to brownies and breads helps them rise — you'll have a taller loaf of bread and a chewy pan of brownies. If you're more into making homemade ice cream, milk powder is still a must. It makes ice cream silkier, denser (goodbye, pesky bubbles), and milkier. 

And milk powder isn't limited to improving just a few desserts. It can help pie crust rise and gives cake donuts a beautiful golden hue. While Christina Tosi recommends using milk powder to make cookies, there are so many other ways to use it to make all of your favorite treats' flavors stand out.