White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies – The name is certainly a mouth full, but I promise you’ll be glad to have a mouth full of them. Make them with regular macadamia nuts or try out my extra step of roasting the nuts before folding them into buttery, sweet cookie dough speckled with white chocolate.
In this household, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are king. Say that five times fast. White chocolate macadamia nut cookies. No, I’m not just trying to fill out my keyword quota here. I think this is the next big tongue twister.
I had a vision of trying these cookies with toasted macadamia nuts. You can make them either way, but I implore you to give the roasty toasty rendition a try. The nuts pick up a deep, almost coffee-like flavor. They were a delight! I ended up saving a few for snacking
Ingredients
Click “Jump to the Recipe” at the top of the page or keep scrolling down to the recipe card for ingredient amounts and the full recipe instructions. Below I have extra detail, ingredient substitutes, an FAQ section, and pro tips to make sure your cookies turn out perfect every time.
- Butter – I prefer to use unsalted butter to have full control over the sodium. If yours is salted, reduce the salt called for in this recipe. You can also use butter substitutes such as margarine instead.
- Sugar – You’ll need both brown sugar and regular granulated sugar. I like to use a medium demerara brown sugar, but just use light or dark if that’s what you have handy.
- Eggs – You’ll need one whole egg and one egg yolk. Don’t waste that leftover egg white! Make yourself a whiskey sour. You deserve it.
- Vanilla – Extract or paste. You can use more or less if you’d like.
- Flour – All-purpose flour works best for this recipe. I don’t recommend using bread flour, but you can use cake flour. Use an extra 1/4 cup of flour in this case.
- Baking powder – If you only have baking soda on hand, you can use it, but keep in mind it may add an aftertaste to the cookies.
- Salt – To taste.
- Macadamia nuts – Regular or toasted. See below for instructions on toasting them.
- White chocolate – Chips, chunks, chopped from a bar; whatever you like.
How to make white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
- Wet ingredients: Preheat the oven to 350F. Add the butter and both sugars to a large mixing bowl and cream together until smooth. Add the whole egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, then continue to beat until light, with the sugars mostly dissolved.
- Dry ingredients: Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into the mixing bowl. Mix just until you no longer see any flour, then scrape down the sides with a spatula and fold in any remaining dry ingredients. Fold in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips.
- Roll dough: Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out ~2 tbsp-sized balls of dough and line them on the baking sheet, with room for them to spread. Transfer the sheet pan to the fridge for 10-15 minutes, just until the dough is cool.
- Bake: for 10-12 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
FAQ
Preheat the oven to 325F. Spread the macadamia nuts on a sheet pan and toast for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Take the pan out of the oven and toss the nuts every 3-4 minutes to ensure even browning.
No more burnt bottoms on your cookies! Take the cookies out right when you see the edges start to brown. The cookies will continue to cook for a few minutes out of the oven. They will still look pale when they’re ready to come out, but after cooling they’ll be absolutely perfect.
Measuring flour by volume versus weight can sometimes cause a discrepency in how baked goods turn out. If the dough is too sticky to roll, you have two options:
1. Add a bit more flour to the dough. This will result in a taller, cakier cookie.
2. Cover the dough and let it sit in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. This will harden the butter to make the dough easier to roll. This will give you a flatter, chewier cookie.
I love to use a cookie scoop with a release. They make cookie baking so much easier! If you don’t have one, you can use a tablespoon measure. Scoop a heaping tablespoon from the dough to get an average-sized cookie.
Tips for making perfect white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
- Don’t over-mix. I mix the batter just until I barely see any more dry ingredients, then I fold in any stragglers with a spatula.
- Chilling the cookie dough prevents excess spreading and will give you a softer result.
- Take the cookies out when the edges start to brown. The cookies will still look pale and undercooked, but trust me here. They continue to cook for a few minutes out of the oven. If the cookies come out completely golden brown, they will end up hard with a burnt flavor.
- Every oven is different. Keep a close eye on your cookies and use visual cues to take them out. It may be more or less time than my recipe calls for, but you know your oven best.
- Give the cookies space on the pan to spread out. You’ll end up needing to bake these in batches, but that’s okay! Use one pan at a time in the center rack.
- Keep the oven door closed between batches. You may think that you’ll move fast to swap sheet pans, but even having the door open for 30 seconds will let out a significant amount of heat.
How to store white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
Keep your cookies in an airtight container of some sort to preserve freshness. A sealable container, freezer bag, cake plate with a dome are all great options.
Room temperature: Up to one week.
Fridge: 2 weeks to 1 month.
Freezer: Up to 6 months. I suggest, first, freezing the cookies on a sheet pan for about 1 hour, then transferring them to an airtight container or freezer bag so you can take them out one at a time without being stuck together.
A cookie for your thoughts? Give these recipes a try:
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White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups butter unsalted, melted
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cup flour all-purpose
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1 cup macadamia nuts roughly chopped, optionally roasted*
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Add the butter and both sugars to a large mixing bowl and cream together until smooth. Add the whole egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, then continue to beat until light, with the sugars mostly dissolved.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into the mixing bowl. Mix just until you no longer see any flour, then scrape down the sides with a spatula and fold in any remaining dry ingredients. Fold in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips.
- Prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out ~2 tbsp-sized balls of dough and line them on the baking sheet, with room for them to spread. Transfer the sheet pan to the fridge for 10-15 minutes, just until the dough is cool.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Notes
- Preheat the oven to 325F. Add the macadamia nuts to a sheet pan in a single layer.
- Roast the nuts for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Take them out of the oven to toss every 3-4 minutes to ensure they brown evenly.
Love this combo
Isn’t it the best? The roasted macadamias are amazing š