With thick, chewy centres and slightly crisp edges, these easy white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are the perfect balance of soft, sweet and crunchy!
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Honestly? I don’t think I’d ever tried white chocolate macadamia nut cookies before I developed this recipe. I just had a feeling they’d be tasty. Man, what an understatement. I’m making up for lost time now because I am obsessed with these cookies!
It’s always fun recipe testing cookies in my kitchen, but dangerous. Having so many cookies around me, it’s hard to control myself. Luckily my partner and neighbours are happy to be taste testers, especially while we’re still in lockdown here in Wales.
One neighbour told me these cookies taste exactly like Subway’s white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies! So if you like the Subway version, these homemade chocolate chip cookies need to happen in your kitchen too!
How to make white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
This white chocolate macadamia nut cookies recipe is honestly so easy to make, especially as the dough doesn’t need to be chilled before baking. So they’re super quick to make too!
- Whisk the flour, cornflour, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl
- In a separate bowl, beat the butter, followed by the eggs and vanilla extract
- Add the dry ingredients to this bowl
- Add the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and beat once more until all combined
- Measure out two tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll into balls and place on a baking tray
- Bake for 10 minutes
- Leave on the hot tray for 5 more minutes once out of the oven to finish baking
- Remove and place the cookies onto a wire rack to cool. Done!
The best white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies
I feel I’ve found my perfect cookie recipe ratio for soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies. Once you see how easy it is to make this chocolate chip cookie recipe from scratch, you’ll be hooked. Apologies in advance! 🙃
You’ll see that I use a similar ratio of ingredients in my Chewy Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies, Strawberry White Chocolate Cookies and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. So what is the purpose of each of the ingredients in my chocolate chip cookie recipes?
White chocolate macadamia nut cookies ingredients
- Flour gives the cookie its main structure
- Cornflour helps to create a softer, more tender cookie
- Bicarbonate of soda helps to leaven the cookie, making it slightly thicker and slightly softer too
- Salt enhances the flavours in the cookie and prevents them being overly sweet. You can’t taste the salt in this recipe as only a small amount is used
- Softened butter helps with chewiness, plus beating the butter helps to leaven the cookies. Some cookie recipes call for melted butter where the dough then needs to be chilled before baking. I prefer softened butter as I still use enough to make the cookies chewy but no chilling of the dough is required before baking! Also, melted butter can give a slightly greasy texture to cookies
- Light brown sugar helps keep the cookies soft and chewy! Plus it gives a wonderful caramel-like sweetness to cookies
- Caster sugar helps the cookies spread in the oven, whilst of course adding sweetness to the cookies too
- Egg yolks are great for chewy cookies, so I only use yolks and no egg white. The yolks also help with the cookie’s structure.
- Vanilla extract adds flavour
- White chocolate chips or finely chopped white chocolate give the deliciously sweet white chocolate flavour!
- Macadamia nuts give that perfect crunch which pairs amazingly with the soft cookie texture
how to bake the best white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
I go into this in more detail in my Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies post, but to summarise, measuring the ingredients for cookies is SO important! You’ll see in that post how many batches of test cookies I made to get to my ideal ratio, and each cookie only had slight tweaks to the recipe each time.
Chocolate chip cookies FAQs
Let’s look at some common cookie baking issues and see how this relates.
Why aren’t my cookies spreading in the oven?
Possible causes include using too much flour or using too many add-ins (white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts in particular in this recipe).
Also, you do not need to chill this cookie dough before baking. So if you were to put the dough in the fridge to bake later on, make sure you leave it out to come to room temperature before baking. Otherwise, cold cookie dough here will prevent your cookies from spreading in the oven.
Why are my cookies spreading too much in the oven?
This can be caused by using too little flour, too much butter, too much egg, or too much sugar. Flour gives the cookie it’s main structure, so not enough of it will make it difficult for the cookie to hold it’s shape when baking.
Soft ingredients like butter and eggs can also cause over-spreading if measured out incorrectly. This white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe only calls for egg yolks so just make sure you separate the eggs as best you can to prevent any excess egg white getting into the cookie mix.
Caster sugar helps with spreading when it melts in the oven. So again, weigh this out carefully to prevent this happening.
Why are my cookies are dry and crumbly?
This can be caused by again using too much flour, or over-baking the cookies. Bake them for exactly 10 minutes; they should still look a little pale with the slightest browning on the edges.
This is why it’s important to leave the hot baking tray on your countertop for a further 5 minutes. The cookie centres will continue baking through on the tray. After 5 minutes they will become firm enough that you can carefully lift them onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Why are my cookies too soft in the middle?
This can be caused by under-baking your cookies, either by taking them out of the oven too soon, or your oven temperature not being hot enough. Place them back in the oven for 1-2 more minutes, watching very closely until the edges look slightly brown. Then remove and leave on the baking tray for 5 minutes as explained above.
The cookies are meant to be soft in the middle, just not raw in the middle! Check by looking underneath the cookie before placing it on the cooling rack. It should look slightly softer in the centre but if you touch it the cookie should feel firm and set.
If it feels doughy and your finger leaves a dent easily, it’s under-baked so place it back in the oven for a few more minutes as described.
Can you freeze baked homemade cookies?
Absolutely! They freeze perfectly; I often do this when I make big batches (to stop me eating too many at once!). I usually place them in a ziplock freezer/sandwich bag. Then I can take out however many I want quickly, and leave them out to defrost.
They don’t take long to defrost but you could always pop them in the microwave for 20 seconds or so to give them a head start!
How long can cookies be stored in the freezer?
You can freeze homemade cookies for up to 6 months. For optimal flavour and texture, I’d suggest eating them with 3 months.
What is the best baking tray to use for cookies?
A standard baking tray covered in baking/parchment paper would work fine here, although I do highly recommend using a silicone baking tray if possible. Silicone helps to distribute the heat more evenly, meaning more evenly baked cookies! Mine is very similar to this one!
So, to summarise, these simple white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are:
- thick, soft and chewy in the centre, with slightly crisp, buttery edges
- easy and quick to make with no need to chill the cookie dough
- packed full of white chocolate chips and chopped macadamia nuts
- freezable up to around 6 months
If you try this recipe I’d love to see! You can show me by tagging me @bakerjoblog or using #bakerjoblog!
Other cookie recipes to try:
- Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Chip Cookie Pizza
- Chewy Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Strawberry White Chocolate Cookies
- Peanut Butter Banana Dog Treats
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Equipment
- Baking tray (preferable silicone)
- Hand or stand mixer
- Whisk
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 290 g plain flour
- 2 tsp cornflour level
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda level
- 1/4 tsp salt level
- 190 g butter softened/room temperature, and use spreadable not block butter
- 140 g light brown sugar/light muscovado sugar if using light muscovado, sift to remove lumps
- 90 g caster sugar
- 2 medium egg yolks room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 80 g white chocolate chips or finely chopped white chocolate chunks. (keep the extra 20g from the 100g bag of chocolate chips, or chop 20g more chocolate chunks to press into the warm cookies once out of the oven – this is mainly for appearance though so optional!)
- 100 g macadamia nuts finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°/160° fan.
- If you're not using a silicon baking tray, line your baking tray with baking/parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl whisk the plain flour, cornflour, bicarbonate of soda and salt until combined. Set aside.
- Using the bowl of your stand mixer (fitted with paddle attachment) or a large bowl if using an electric hand whisk, beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed for 1 whole minute until light and fluffy.
- Add both egg yolks and vanilla extract to this bowl and beat on medium speed for around 20 seconds until combined.
- Add half the dry ingredients to this bowl and beat on low speed until just combined. Add the remaining half and beat again on low speed until just combined.
- Add the white chocolate chips/chunks and finely chopped macadamia nuts to the bowl and beat on low until just combined.
- Measure out two level tablespoons of dough per cookie – press the two tablespoons of dough together, roll into a ball in your hands and place on your baking tray. I bake 7-8 cookies per tray to allow space for the cookies to spread slightly.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, turning the tray halfway through if your oven has a hot spot so that they bake evenly.
- Once out of the oven, place the baking tray on your countertop and leave the cookies on the tray for a further 5 minutes – they will continue baking on the hot tray.
- While they're still warm, use the remaining chocolate chips from your bag of chips to press 3-4 gently onto each cookie (or chop 20g more chocolate chunks). This is mainly for appearance but I think it makes such a difference!
- After 5 minutes, remove the cookies from the baking tray using a spatula and place on a wire cooling rack. Do this carefully as the cookies will still be slightly soft.
- Once completely cool, store in an airtight container at room temperature.
- Best eaten within 2-3 days. They freeze really well too! Individually wrap each cookie so you can grab one as a quick snack.
Hi what is flour quantity- not listed in ingredients. Thank you
Author
Hi, I’m so sorry about that! You’ll need 290g of plain flour 🙂
Thanks for pointing this out to me, I’ll amend it now!
Thanks Jo, cookies were delicious 😋