Let’s talk about cookies, they seem hard to make with fresh milled right? Too thick or they spread too much?

But here’s the thing, I honestly don’t think cookies are the hard part.

I think flour choice is. In-fact I actually use regular recipes for cookies all the time! Some of them need fresh milled tweaks, but quite truthfully, most of the time I’ve learned, I just need to select the right flour. So let’s talk about that.

Most people are told to use 100% soft wheat for cookies. Or 100% spelt. And then they wonder why the cookies spread into thin puddles, or bake up sandy and fragile. Or they go the other direction and use only hard wheat and end up with tall, stiff cookies that feel more like muffins pretending to be cookies.

The magic is not extreme. It’s balance.

When I mill for cookies, I lean into a 50/50 blend: half structure, half tenderness. That’s the sweet spot.

This current recipe is adapted from a childhood classic and rebuilt for fresh-milled flour. It’s simple, it chills well, it freezes beautifully, and it gives you that chewy, soft centre people are always chasing. I’ll try to post a few cookie recipes to get my favourites out there, but to begin, let’s do the classic:

Chewy Chocolate chip cookies

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The Flour Blend (This Is the Key)

You’ll need 3 cups fresh-milled flour.

Best results come from a 50/50 mix:

50% Hard Grains (structure)

• Hard white (my first choice)
• Hard red
• Kamut

50% Soft Grains (tenderness)

• Soft white
• Spelt
• Einkorn

Mill as fine as your mill will allow. If you prefer a smoother cookie, you can sift out the largest bran pieces. But because we’re chilling this dough, you can also leave all the bran in. The rest time softens everything beautifully.

Quick guide: too much soft wheat can cause spreading and puddling, and too much hard wheat can make cookies tall and firm. The blend is what gives you that classic shape and bite.

One more small but important detail when baking with fresh milled flour: chill your dough after shaping. Fresh flour absorbs moisture differently than store-bought flour, and that short rest in the fridge allows everything to fully hydrate. It also re-firms the butter, which helps the cookies stand up taller instead of spreading thin. The right grains build structure, but the chill is what sets it.

Alternatively, this recipe is written for my All-purpose baking flour. With this flour I’ve taken the guesswork of choosing the right grain out for you. It is my own personal blend of hard wheats, soft wheats and ancient grains. You can order it here!

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Fresh-Milled Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup softened butter (brown butter is optional and adds deeper flavour)
• 1 cup organic cane sugar (or white sugar)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 Tbsp syrup (maple syrup or similar)
• 3 cups (450g) fresh-milled all purpose baking flour or (50/50 hard + soft blend)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugars: Beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add wet ingredients: Mix in the eggs, vanilla, and syrup until smooth.
3. Add dry ingredients: Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Fresh-milled dough often looks dry at first. It can look crumbly and “wrong.” Keep mixing until it shifts, clumps, and becomes cohesive and smooth. This is not a “barely mix” situation.
4. Fold in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
5. Portion and chill: Shape into cookie balls. Chill for 1 hour if you’re in a hurry, but overnight is even better for hydration and texture.

Freezer Option

This dough freezes wonderfully. Freeze the shaped cookie balls and bake directly from frozen when you want fresh cookies.

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Baking

Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 12–14 minutes.

You’re looking for:

• Edges set
• Centres still soft
• A slight underbake in the middle (they continue setting as they cool)

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Easy Variations

• Chocolate chunks instead of chips
• Toffee bits
• Chopped nuts
• Brown butter for a richer, caramel-like depth

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Why This Works

The syrup adds chew. The grain blend controls spread. The chill time allows the bran to soften and the flour to fully hydrate. And once you understand that fresh-milled dough often looks dry before it comes together, you stop panicking and start trusting the process.

Cookies are not complicated. They just need balance.