Byron Bay Cookies

First baked twenty years ago in Byron Bay, these cookies were the first to see the Australian sunrise each morning - Byron Bay being the most easterly point in Australia.  Having come along way since the first batch of white choc chunk and macadamia nut cookies, they've now migrated to Britain as well as other parts of the world.

I was particularly attracted by the ethical stance of the company who are continually trying to reduce their carbon footprint.  They use free range eggs and some fairtrade ingredients, many of which are locally sourced, such as their flour, oats, eggs, butter and honey.

A goodly sized box arrived in the post from Beyond the Bean, the main UK distributor for the Byron Bay Cookie Company.  My initial thought was yippee - I always get excited when a parcel arrives in the post. But my first thought after unpacking the  selection of chocolate cookies was, these aren't ordinary cookies, they're doorstops - I know size isn't everything, but these are whoppers.  They were all nearly half an inch thick and weighed in at 60g apiece. One per sitting is enough, unless like me, you are particularly greedy.

The wonderful smell of chocolate wafted upwards as soon as I opened the Triple Choc Fudge packet.  Half biscuit, half cookie they don't resist the bite, but are just the right side of crumbly.  Unlike some chocolate chip cookies which can be quite sickly, these were not too sweet, but were very chocolatey.  The biscuit mixture is liberally studded with chunks of white chocolate, dark chocolate and fudge which provide the majority of the sweetness.

The other cookies came individually wrapped, so would be an ideal packed lunch treat.  Indeed, they would make an excellent walking companion.  Having done some walking around Byron Bay, a couple of these would have been very welcome when hunger pangs set in.  We've spent quite a lot of time this week down at the plot harvesting, digging and tidying up, so I know that these biscuits also make good gardening companions.  CT will also vouch for that one.

The Milk Choc Chunk was my personal favourite having an almost creamy taste and texture with lots of chocolate studded throughout - you can see from the picture that these are by no means chocolate in name only.

CT's favourite was the White Choc Chunk & Macadamia Nut, which was the company's original cookie and I guess has withstood the test of time.  It didn't last long with us though.  He felt macadamia nuts would make anything delicious, but particularly liked the crunchiness of the nuts contrasted with the creamy chocolate.

Dotty would especially appeal to children as the top is covered in colourfully coated chocolate beans that make for a fun look - the colours used in the beans are all natural. The cookie itself is full of milk chocolate chunks.  This one was sweeter than the others because of the sugar coated beans, but nonetheless tasty for that.

The pack also included a couple of gluten free cookies, A triple chocolate Dotty and White Choc Chunk & Macadamia.  Gluten intolerant cookie lovers will be pleased to know that there is a gluten free version for many in this range.  These tasted particularly creamy, almost like shortbread and had a lovely melt in the mouth feel.  They were however, rather crumbly - one was broken on arrival, the only one that was so, as the others arrived in perfect condition.

Unevenly sized and shaped, these are obviously meant to be reminiscent of home made cookies and I have to say - they are.  Of course, I would now like to try their non-chocolate flavours, having read The Ordinary Cook's review the sticky date ginger and walnut sounds particularly appealing; but then again so does their limited addition strawberries and clotted cream.  All in all, I would be more than happy to munch my way through a few more of these cookies - in a cafe (which is the primary intended market) or in the great outdoors.