Custard Canteen, Tallebudgera
Cookies by the creek – is there anything better? The popular Tallebudgera Creek sweet spot slings some of the best cookies in town. The OG salted caramel white-choc cookie has a cream-cheese cookie dough base that’s super-charged with chunks of Lindt white chocolate before being baked and injected with house-made salted-caramel ganache. Hot tip – get yourself a six pack of Custard’s cookie dough and bake these bad boys at home.

Tarte Bakery & Cafe, Burleigh Heads
The talented Tarte team sure know how make and bake a five-star cookie. The hero is a simple choc-chip variety, which is loaded with house-made brown-butter cookie dough, stuffed with quality chocolate and finished with more chocolate and sea salt. Plus, there’s a soft, gooey and incredibly delicious brownie-cookie hybrid that’ll make you weak at the knees.

Bam Bam Bakehouse, Mermaid Beach
While its famed flaky croissants, cruffins and picture-perfect tarts are often in the spotlight, Bam Bam’s moreish cookies certainly hold their own in the eye-popping display cabinet. Here, the milk-, white- and dark-chocolate-chip cookie dough is baked until golden, sprinkled with sea-salt flakes, then piped with either a Nutella or salted-caramel to create an extra gooey experience.

Tarte Beach House, Currumbin
Tarte’s Currumbin venue takes things up a notch. Here, the OG brown-butter choc-chip cookie dough is packed with chocolate, sprinkled with a touch of salt and baked to order in a piping-hot skillet, before being topped with a hefty scoop of vanilla ice-cream – which you can enjoy while soaking up the views over Currumbin Creek.

The Paddock Bakery, Miami
Paddock’s cookies are soft, gooey and baked fresh across the day – plus, there’s always a sweet selection to choose from. Think combinations like Caramilk, Nutella-stuffed choc chip, cream cheese with white chocolate and macadamia, decadent chocolate fudge and the highly addictive (you’ve been warned) brown-butter pecan cookie. If you’ve got a birthday or event coming up (not that you need an excuse) you can also pre-order giant versions of Paddock’s cookies online – they weigh a whopping 1-kg.

Doughed, Hope Island
Prefer a New York-style cookie? Hope Island hotspot Doughed has the goods. You’ll find cookies in mouth-watering flavours such as salted-caramel pretzel, red velvet, NYC (classic choc chip with walnuts), Funfetti (sprinkles and white chocolate filled with Milky Bar) and Ferrero (milk and dark chocolate filled with Nutella and hazelnuts). Grab a strawberry-matcha latte while you’re at it.

Cubby Bakehouse, Chinderah
The sweet, delicious aroma of freshly baked cookies billows out of Cubby Bakehouse from the crack of dawn daily. Cubby’s salted-caramel white-choc cookie is always a hit, or for something a little more decadent, there’s a brownie cookie laced with both dark and milk chocolate, house-made brownie chunks and a cheeky pocket of Nutella. Hoo boy.

Currumbin Cookies, various locations
This family-run cookie outfit dispenses its goodies at both the Burleigh and Palm Beach farmers markets every Saturday – and very few market-goers can leave without buying a sneaky stash of these moreish Canadian-style sourdough cookies. The secret recipe uses a slow-fermented sourdough base, giving the cookies a distinct soft and chewy texture. On market day, the cabinet is lined with flavours like M&M choc-chip, brown-butter chocolate and pecan, macadamia with white chocolate and peanut butter, and a whole heap more.

Oh My Waffle, Burleigh Heads
While stacked waffles and over-the-top milkshakes are the specialty here, this popular southern treat spot attracts cookie lovers in droves. There’s the Brookie (a brownie-cookie hybrid topped with Nutella), New York-style cookies in flavours like caramello and triple choc, and a diet-busting warm cookie bowl served with a scoop of ice-cream and lashings of melted Cadbury chocolate.

Side Piece, Varsity Lakes
It’s always exciting seeing what treats the Side Piece team are whipping up each day – but one staple guaranteed to always be staring at you from the cabinet is the miso brown-butter choc-chip cookie, sprinkled with sea salt. Grab one (or two?) with your morning brew and thank us later.

Got a hot cookie tip for us? Shoot us an email. Be sure to check out our go-to list of the Gold Coast’s best bakeries, too.