White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies — These EASY white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies are the perfect combination of sweet, nutty, soft and chewy perfection! They’re loaded with creamy white chocolate chips and crispy chunks of macadamia nuts and baked until slightly crisp on the outside with a perfectly soft and slightly chewy center. Learn how to make these cookies that are BETTER than from a bakery!
Table of Contents
- Easy White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies Recipe
- Ingredients in White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
- How to Make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Tips for the Best Macadamia White Chocolate Cookies
- How to Store White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Recipe FAQs
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies Recipe
- More Easy White Chocolate Recipes:
Easy White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies Recipe
One of my favorite cookies of all time is white chocolate macadamia! I have lots of recipes for white chocolate cookies on my site — including with coconut, with cranberries, and with cream cheese — but this is the first traditional white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe I’ve ever posted.
Indulge your taste buds in an irresistible blend of sweet and nutty perfection with my these easy white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies.
A buttery cookie base is dotted with ample amounts of both white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. The resulting cookies are perfectly soft and chewy.
This is an easy recipe made with simple kitchen and pantry staples — minus probably the macadamia nuts. It’s the kind of cookie recipe you turn to when the sweet cravings strike. They’re no-fuss and always satisfying.
If you want to make these for holiday entertaining and Christmas parties, or to include as a welcome addition to any Christmas cookie exchanges, they’re a great cookie to include because they stay soft for a long time.
Or perhaps you’re a white chocolate fan and are inspired to make them in the spring for Easter or Mother’s Day for a lighter tasting treat, they’ll be gobbled up in no time!
Ingredients in White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
To make this easy recipe for white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies, you’ll only need a handful of easy to find and very common ingredients including the following:
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- White chocolate chips
- Macadamia nuts
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
My instructions for how to make the cookies are as simple as combining wet ingredients and dry ingredients, folding in the mix-ins, a quick chill time, scooping, dropping, then baking.
Step 1: Add the softened butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat with a flat beater attachment on a medium-high setting until the butter is pale and creamy.
Step 2: Add the egg, vanilla extract, and cream once again until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula.
Step 3: Add the flour, baking soda and salt, and mix until just combined.
Step 4: Add the white chocolate and nuts into the dough and mix to incorporate.
Step 5: Chill the mixing bowl for 45 minutes in the refrigerator.
Step 6: Use a small to medium cookie scoop to form dough mounds.
Step 7: Bake just until you see a lightly crisp edge, cool completely on a wire rack, and enjoy!
Tips for the Best Macadamia White Chocolate Cookies
Stand or Hand Mixer: The cookie dough can also be made using a large mixing bowl and hand mixer or of course with a stand mixer.
Don’t Overmix: Adding the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts while still bringing the dough together will help prevent the dough from over-mixing the flour mixture. You can also stir the nuts and chips in by hand.
Cookie Scoop: I strongly recommend using a medium cookie scoop to form dough mounds that are uniform in size so they bake evenly. However, if you don’t have one you can make rounded tablespoons of dough using a tablespoon.
Butter: Unsalted butter was used in this recipe, however it can be substituted for salted butter. If using salted butter, omit the 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Baking Soda: Not to be confused with baking powder. Always make sure your baking soda is fresh. This is what helps prevent your cookie recipe from falling flat. A thicker texture is what we want.
Salt: The salt content of the cookies can be increased or decreased to suit personal tastes. However, because white chocolate can read very sweet, I recommend using the full amount of salt called for to balance the flavor profile.
White Chocolate Chips vs. Chunks: The white chocolate chips can be substituted for chopped white chocolate chunks from a high quality bar of white chocolate. Note that chocolate chopped from a bar will have a tendency to melt in ‘pools’ whereas chips have stabilizers in them to prevent melting.
Macadamia Nuts: Roughly chop the macadamia nuts, whole macadamia nuts will be too big for the cookies. Have more questions about nuts? See the FAQs below.
How to Store White Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies
Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
However, if you’re putting these in a cookie exchange, you can feel quite confident that they’ll taste great for 7 days. Make sure not to overbake them though!
Can the Cookies Be Frozen?
You can freeze baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Or you can freeze unbaked cookie dough balls for up to 3 months and then bake off as many cookies as you’d like when the time is right.
If using this method, there’s no need to thaw before baking – simply add a couple minutes to the overall baking time.
Recipe FAQs
If there’s a reason to avoid nuts like an allergy or you simply don’t care for nuts, you can omit the macadamia nuts. However, obviously you won’t have white chocolate macadamia nut cookies at that point!
If you’re omitting the nuts, you don’t have to add anything else. You may wish to consider adding a bit more white chocolate chips though.
For the macadamia nuts, you may want to opt for salted dry-roasted ones, adding a burst of incredible flavor to the cookies.
However, feel free to choose unsalted or raw macadamia nuts based on your preference.
Yes you can. I realize macadamia nuts are pricey – actually ALL nuts are pricey! But if something like slivered almonds or chopped walnuts (or pecans) are more your speed than macadamias, go ahead and use them instead.
Make sure whatever nuts you do use are chopped or diced finely enough so that you’re not biting into a big honkin’ piece! Plus those overly large chunks tend to fall out of the dough more easily.
I am a firm believer in chilled dough because it’s less prone to spreading in the oven. For this recipe 30-45 minutes is all that’s needed. You can pop your mixing bowl directly into the fridge, and then scoop out the cookie dough portions after that time. Don’t forget about it though because if it’s too chilled, it’s more like chiseling away at a rock which isn’t the goal here!
I use the fridge rather than the freezer because frankly I don’t have space in my freezer but you can experiment with things as you can make it work. 20 minutes in the freezer is probably sufficient.
Not a fan of white chocolate, no worries. You can use your favorite chocolate from milk to dark in these cookies.
Craving more of these heavenly treats? Doubling the recipe is as easy as adjusting the quantities while maintaining the perfect balance of flavors. Simply double all the listed ingredients, follow the same steps, and treat yourself to an abundance of chewy goodness. Perfect for sharing with friends, family, or simply for satisfying your sweet tooth on a grander scale.
Life can get busy, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying freshly baked cookies. Prepare the cookie dough ahead of time, cover it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate it in convenient cookie dough balls for up to 48-72 hours before baking off. Or as I mentioned in the storage section above, you can freeze unbaked cookie dough balls for up to 3 months.
When your cookie cravings strike, simply pop the dough balls onto lined baking sheets and bake to golden perfection. This not only saves time but also ensures that you can have warm, gooey cookies whenever you desire.
Definitely. Use either a silicone baking mat or parchment paper to line your cookie sheet. This will prevent the cookies from sticking and/or spreading too much.
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White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temp
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- ½ cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped (I use dry roasted and lightly sea salted macadamias)
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large bowl and handheld electric mixer), add the butter, sugars, and beat on high speed untii pale and creamy, about 3-4 minutes; stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the egg, vanilla, and beat on high speed to incorporate and until creamy, about 1-2 minutes; stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and beat for 1 minute to incorporate.
- Add the white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, and beat for an additional 30-60 seconds, or until the flour and add-ins have been completely incorporated; do not overmix.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill for 30-45 minutes. Tips – Do not skip the step of chilling the dough because your cookies will be much more prone to spreading during baking. However, don't chill for long because the dough will become too firm and it'll be like chiseling rather than scooping it out. You can also chill it in the freezer for about 20 minutes if you have the freezer space to do so.
- Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat liners; set aside.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, form cookie dough balls each using approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons dough (I made 20 balls). The overall yield will depend on the exact size of your dough balls.
- Place dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spaced at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake for about 8 to 9 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden browned and set. Baking Tips – Do not overbake. Cookies will continue to firm up as they are out of the oven and cooling, so it's ok to pull your baking sheets even if the cookies appear slightly undone. These cookies taste best when they're slightly underbaked rather than overbaked. Plus, white chocolate is prone to scorching and doesn't look very pretty if you overbake it. For optimal results, I bake cookies on the middle oven rack, one sheet at a time, rotating the baking sheet once midway through baking. The unevenness of your oven's heat output and air circulation (all ovens have this problem, some more so than others) will be very notable on white/light colored cookies like this, which is why I recommend rotating your baking sheets and only baking one sheet at a time so you can really pay attention to what's happening. If you made your cookies smaller/bigger than mine, baking time will vary. Bake as necessary in your oven; baking times listed are an estimate only.
- Optionally, immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, if desired you can add a half dozen white chocolate chips to each cookie for beautification. Barely tap them in and they will melt a bit and adhere.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes, or until firm enough to transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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