White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

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These White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies have soft and chewy centers with lightly crisp edges. They are loaded with white chocolate chips and macadamias for the ultimate cookie!

Easy White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

These white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are just so good. Simple, vanilla cookie dough flavored with brown sugar is loaded with rich white chocolate chips and buttery, toasted macadamia nuts and baked to perfection. The finished cookies have the softest, chewiest centers and perfectly golden brown edges that are just the right amount of crispy. Every bite is irresistible. The crunch of the macadamia nuts might be my favorite thing about them, but you’ll have to try them for yourself.

I really am so excited to share this cookie recipe with you all today. I’ve spent the last few months really diving into the art of cookie making and I can tell you that, after all that testing, these ones are just right. In fact, I pretty much guarantee they’ll be the best macadamia nut cookies you’ve ever had. I know that’s a big promise but there, I said it!

What Makes A Great Macadamia Nut Cookie?

I’m sure opinions on this vary but, for me, the perfect macadamia nut cookie is soft and chewy, lightly crispy around the edges, and loaded with flavor. Let me walk you through how some of the star ingredients in this recipe help the cookies achieve these sought-after characteristics.

• Butter for flavor. The butter in this recipe gives the cookies a wonderfully rich and, well, buttery flavor. Use real butter, not tub butter or margarine.
• Use some brown sugar. I used brown sugar in addition to granulated sugar here. It gives the cookies a classic, almost caramel-y flavor.
• Add an egg yolk. You’ll find a full egg plus an egg yolk in these cookies. The extra egg yolk helps add moisture and chewiness to these cookies.
• Opt for baking soda. I find that using baking soda produces cookies that are not only chewier but stay softer and chewier for longer than cookies that utilize baking powder as their main leavening agent.
• Measure your flour carefully. It is crucial to measure your all-purpose flour correctly. Small differences make a big difference in cookies and a little too much flour or not enough can throw your cookies way off. I suggest using a food scale or, if you don’t have one, the spoon and level method.

Recipe Ingredients

You probably already have most of the ingredients for these sweet, chewy cookies in your kitchen already. Here’s what

• All-purpose flour – As mentioned, measuring accurately is very important in cookies. Feel free to use a 1:1 gluten-free flour instead.
• Baking soda – This adds chewiness to these cookies and helps them brown nicely.
• Salt – For accenting the flavors in the cookie.
• Unsalted butter – The butter must be at room temperature. Otherwise, it won’t cream properly with the sugars.
• Light brown sugar – This gives the cookies more great flavor. It adds such a nice caramel-y flavor to the cookies.
• Granulated sugar – To aid the light brown sugar in tenderizing the cookies, without adding too much brown sugar.
• Egg and egg yolk – To bind the ingredients together, add moisture and add chewiness.
• Vanilla extract – Flavor!
• White chocolate chips – They’re in the name and therefore required.
• Roasted salted macadamia nuts – If you can’t find roasted macadamia nuts, go ahead and roast raw ones yourself. Just toss them in a pan over medium-low heat and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
• Milk – Just a touch to bring your dough together and keep it from being too dry.

How to Make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Here comes a quick overview of how to make these delicious macadamia nut cookies. Be sure to scroll to the recipe card below for more thorough instructions.

• Combine the dry ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
• Cream. Beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light in color and fluffy.
• Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the egg followed by the egg yolk and then the vanilla.

• Put it all together. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix in a teaspoon of milk (maybe 2 if the dough needs help coming together).
• Add the mix-ins. Fold in the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.

• Form the cookies. Portion the dough into 2 tablespoon-sized balls.
• Chill. Arrange the dough balls in a container or on a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or overnight.
• Prepare to bake. Take the cookies out of the fridge an hour before you want to bake them, preheat the oven to 350°F, and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

• Bake. Arrange the dough balls on the cookie sheets and bake for 8-9 minutes.
• Cool. Allow the cookies to cool on their baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Why Do I Need To Chill the Dough?

It might seem like a hassle, but this step is really quite important, so don’t skip it. As the cookie dough sits, the moisture soaks into the flour and becomes more dispersed through the dry ingredients. Why is that important? Read on.

If you don’t give the cookie dough the chance to chill, your cookies will spread too much and they won’t have the delightful chew that makes them so crave-able. They will also be drier because the dry ingredients won’t have had a chance to absorb the moisture from the wet ingredients.

Note that not all cookies are made better by refrigeration, but these ones 100% are.

Why Did My Cookies Spread Too Much? (Or Not Enough?)

Cookies that spread too much tend to be crispy instead of chewy and on the drier side. Cookies that don’t spread enough tend to have a cakey feel to them. You want your cookies to be right in the middle.

Here are some of the more common mistakes people make that cause their white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies to spread too much or too little. Study up so you can avoid them and get the perfect cookies!

Why did my cookies spread too much?

• Warm cookie dough. Warm cookie dough spreads because the heat causes the butter to melt, making the dough more liquid and allowing it to spread as it bakes. Be sure to chill your dough (see my next point) and don’t leave it out for too long before baking.
• You didn’t refrigerate the cookie dough. When the cookie dough is refrigerated (it needs at least 2-3 hours), moisture is absorbed by the dry ingredients. If you skip this step, the moisture is still hanging out in there and ends up making your cookies spread too much.
• Too much milk. You want to add just enough milk to help bring the dough together. No more. Excess liquid in the dough will cause the cookies to spread too much.
• Not enough flour. If you don’t measure out enough flour, the wet ingredients won’t absorb into the dough as well, which can cause the cookies to spread too much.
• Too much sugar. Sugar adds moisture to the dough and moisture makes cookies spread more. So adding too much sugar can cause the cookies to spread too much.
• Too-big dough balls. Bigger balls spread more so aim for 2 tablespoons of dough per ball.
• Not enough mix-ins. The fewer white chocolate chips/nuts in a cookie, the more likely it is to spread more.

Why didn’t my cookies spread enough?

• Too much flour. The number one culprit here is over-measuring flour. Use a food scale for the most accurate measurement.
• Overly cold cookie dough. It’s important to let the cookie dough sit out for an hour before your bake it. Letting it come to room temperature allows the dough to relax a bit and spread more.
• Too many mix-ins. If a cookie has too many mix-ins, they may stay in a mound in the center of the cookie so it ends up not spreading as well.
• Not enough sugar. Sugar adds moisture, which adds to the cookies’ spread. If you don’t have enough sugar, the cookie won’t spread enough.
• Tiny dough balls. Smaller dough balls are likely to spread less. Try flattening them out a bit prior to baking, if needed.

More Tips for Success

Now that you know how to make sure your cookies spread just the right amount, here come a few more useful tips and tricks for getting the perfect coconut macadamia nut cookies. Looking for more? Check out the video in the recipe card below. It’s full of little nuggets of cookie wisdom.

• Cream. When creaming together the butter and sugars, do so until the mixture is significantly lighter in color and fluffy in texture. This should take 2-3 minutes.
• Get everything in there. When adding ingredients to the dough and mixing them in, scrape down the sides of the bowl intermittently to ensure that all of the ingredients make it into the cookies.
• Don’t over-mix. When adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, be sure not to over-mix. This can cause the glutens in the flour to overdevelop, leading to tough, dense cookies.
• Use an oven thermometer. It’s important to get the temperature right here, folks. An oven that is too cool will cause the cookies to spread too much and won’t let them get that perfect golden brown. An oven that is too hot will cause the cookies to brown too quickly and will stop them from spreading properly. For the most accurate read, use an oven thermometer.
• Don’t over-bake. Remove the cookies from the oven just as the edges begin to turn golden. Note that the cookies will be a little puffy when you take them out of the oven but will fall as they cool.
• Get the spread right. Please see the section above titled “Why Did My Cookies Spread Too Much? (Or Not Enough?)” to learn how to ensure that your cookies spread just the right amount.

How to Store

Allow the white chocolate macadamia cookies to cool completely before sealing them in an airtight container. You can store them at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Note that storing cookies in the fridge can cause them to dry out a bit.

Can I Freeze White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies?

Not ready to indulge in your cookies right away? No problem. You can either freeze them fully baked to thaw and enjoy later or freeze the cookie dough so that you can make freshly baked cookies in the future. Here’s a look at both methods.

• Freezing baked cookies. Once the cookies have cooled to room temperature, seal them in an airtight container or ziplock bag and store them in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow the cookies to thaw at room temperature before devouring.
• Freezing cookie dough. Form the dough into balls and arrange them on a cookie sheet. Freeze the dough balls for a couple of hours before transferring them to a Ziplock bag and storing them in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you are ready to bake the cookies, thaw and bake as you normally would at 350 degrees F.

More Easy Cookie Recipes

Life as a cookie monster sounds pretty good to me sometimes. They are the perfect little desserts and tend to be super quick to throw together. Here are some of my other favorite cookie recipes for you to try. Let me know which are your favorites!

• Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies
• Best Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
• Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
• Classic Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Butter Pecan Cookies
• Cutout Sugar Cookies Recipe
• The Best Gingerbread Cookies

Watch How to Make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

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