These White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies are filled with chunks of creamy white chocolate chips and roasted macadamia nuts, then baked until crisp on the edges with perfectly soft and chewy centers. Bring these delicious, buttery cookies to your next holiday party and watch them quickly disappear!
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📋 About the Recipe
- Requires just 10 ingredients. Your favorite classic cookies can be made from scratch with just 10 simple ingredients. Many are basic pantry staples!
- No chill time. When developing new dessert recipes, I try to keep it as simple as possible. No one likes to wait for an hour to chill cookie dough before baking! These cookies are developed with just the right ratio to omit this step, making them the easiest-to-make white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.
- Perfect for the holidays. These chewy cookies are most popular during the holiday season and are the best cookies to add to your holiday gift boxes. They're also one of my favorite cookies to bake for Valentine's day too. Give them a try alongside some of my other favorite holiday treats: Heart Shaped Rice Krispie Treats, Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies, Christmas Pretzels, and White Chocolate Raspberry Blondies!
🛒 Ingredients
A few notes about the ingredients:
- Butter - I always recommend using unsalted, real butter sticks in baking. Buttery spreads and margarine typically have a higher water content than butter, causing cookies to spread into thin puddles.
- Sugar - For the best flavor, you'll need both white sugar and light brown sugar. The combination adds a rich molasses flavor that enhances the toasted macadamia nuts and a balanced sweetness that doesn't overpower the flavor of the cookie.
- Leavening agents - These cookies are made with both baking soda and baking powder. In addition to helping these cookies rise, the baking soda encourages the cookies to become golden brown while the baking powder helps to keep the cookies soft and tender.
- White chocolate chips - I love extra chocolate-y cookies and like to use a full cup of chocolate chips in this recipe. If you prefer an equal nut-to-chocolate ratio, feel free to adjust the measurements to ¾ cup of each.
- Macadamia nuts - Roasted, crunchy macadamia nuts are my all-time favorite, but you can also use raw macadamia nuts if you prefer a softer overall cookie.
⁉️ Substitutions and Alterations
- No white chocolate? You can use milk chocolate, semi-sweet, or dark chocolate chips instead of the white chocolate chips. However, this will alter the cookie's overall flavor.
- No macadamia nuts? You can use peanuts, slivered almonds, or chopped pecans instead of the macadamia nuts. However, depending on the nut you choose, the cookies may have a nuttier flavor than with the more neutral tasting macadamias.
📓 Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, then set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again to incorporate.
- Mix in the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on a low speed until just combined.
- Add macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips. Using a spatula, fold the nuts and sweet white chocolate chips into the cookie dough batter until evenly dispersed.
- Form 2-tablespoon sized cookie dough balls. Scoop out 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet, leaving space between each for spreading. Repeat this process until all of the cookie dough has been scooped.
- Bake. Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, or until they just start to brown on the outside.
- Cool, then serve. When ready, remove the cookies from the oven, and if desired, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with flaky sea salt. Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire cooling rack.
❄️ How to Store
To store: These macadamia white chocolate chip cookies will keep for up to 3 days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Can I freeze white chocolate macadamia cookies? Classic white chocolate macadamia nut cookies can also be frozen. Allow the cookies to cool completely, then transfer to a freezer-safe zip top bag or a tightly sealed container and freeze the cookies for up to 1 month.
How to reheat cookies: If the cookies are frozen, first allow them to come to room temperature on the kitchen counter. Then, place the cookies in the microwave and microwave in 5 second intervals until warmed through.
🔍 Recipe FAQs
I like to use roasted macadamia nuts in my white chocolate macadamia cookies because it adds a toasted, nutty flavor to the cookies. In contrast to raw macadamia nuts, roasted nuts are also often lightly salted and provide a delicious salty and sweet combination!
Unlike my Chewy Apple Cider Cookies and Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies, these macadamia nut cookies require no chilling. The consistency of the cookie dough doesn't require this added step, meaning you can make these cookies from start to finish in 30 minutes.
When using a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop, this recipe should yield about 24 regular-sized cookies.
Absolutely! Replace the white chocolate chips with another type, such as semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, peanut butter chocolate chips, or chocolate chunks. This will of course be a twist on the original recipe, but will still be delicious!
I have not tested a gluten-free version of this cookie dough recipe. If you are interested in gluten-free desserts, you might like my Cheesecake with Coconut Macaroon Crust, or these Homemade Coconut Macaroons.
💭 One More Tip
Cream the butter and sugar for a full 2 to 3 minutes. This will properly aerate and stabilize the dough, yielding lighter, fluffier cookies with a tender melt-in-your-mouth crumb! If the butter and sugar aren't creamed together for long enough, the cookies won't have as stable of a structure and can cause the cookies to overspread.
If you don't own a stand mixer, these cookies can also be made in a regular mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer.
🍴 Related Recipes
Share your cooking with me! If you make this recipe, I'd love to know! Tag @yourhomemadehealthy on Instagram or leave a comment with a rating and some feedback at the bottom of this page!
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup chopped roasted macadamia nuts
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, add butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Beat in vanilla and egg until well incorporated.
- Mix in the dry ingredients just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Fold in macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.
- Scoop out 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Place on a prepared baking sheet and repeat with the rest of the dough, leaving space in between each one.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or just until the cookies start to turn lightly golden brown on the outside. Optional: sprinkle the tops of the cookies with flakey sea salt when they come out of the oven.
- Allow to sit on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
Notes
- If you like an equal nut-to-chocolate ratio, feel free to adjust the measurements to ¾ cup macadamia nuts and ¾ cup white chocolate chips.
Nutrition
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