Perfectly chewy edges, soft interiors, infused with BROWN BUTTER, and absolutely loaded with sweet white chocolate chips and salty macadamia nuts!
When it comes to classic cookies, you have your good ol’ chocolate chip cookie, your traditional oatmeal raisin, your sweet sugar cookie, and your salty n’ salty peanut butter cookie. However, another cookie that deserves just as much praise as these other cookies is the white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. With it’s heavenly combo of salty macadamia nuts and sweet white chocolate, this cookie has the perfect balance of flavors.
Now, one might ask why it’s taken me so long to create a recipe for such an iconic cookie that I love and adore. Well, it really comes down to the fact that macadamia nuts are hella expensive. They ain’t cheap! At no less than $20/pound, macadamias aren’t exactly the kind of nuts you buy haphazardly to snack on. If you buy them, they better be used WISELY.
So this week, I decided it was finally time. Time to make what I believe to be the PERFECT white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. And let’s just say, the price of the macadamia nuts was TOTALLY worth it…
These cookies not only have the perfect texture with their soft and chewy edges and moist, slightly doughy interiors, but every single bite is absolutely loaded with crunchy macadamia nuts and melty white chocolate chips. They’re incredibly flavorful thanks to one of my favorite secret ingredients (more on that later), and they bake up nice and thick in the oven. Because there’s nothing more disappointing than biting into a dry crispy critter of a cookie that should really be used as dog treats. Actually, I wouldn’t even feed one to my dog…
Ok, let’s talk ingredients!
The cookie dough requires pretty standard ingredients that can be found in most pantries. The only not-so-common ingredient is probably cornstarch. It’s a thickening ingredient found in pudding mix as well as cake flour, and it creates a nice soft and chewy bite in cookies.
My “secret” ingredient is brown butter. It adds a wonderful depth of flavor that’s nutty, toasty and almost toffee-like. It’s truly what makes these cookies stand out from the rest. There’s no other way to replicate that nutty, caramely flavor that brown butter adds, and it only takes an extra minute or so since you’re basically just cooking the butter a little longer. The key is to babysit the butter as it melts on the stove. Don’t ever take your eye away from it because butter can go from perfectly browned to burnt and bitter within seconds. I usually brown it to a golden amber color, then immediately remove it from the stove to prevent any residual heat from cooking it.
As for sweetness, this dough requires both brown and white sugar. I prefer a higher ratio of brown sugar to white since the molasses from the brown sugar ensures that the cookies remain soft and chewy in the center. You also get more flavor with brown sugar since it adds a warm maple sweetness to the cookie.
When it comes to the nuts, salted dry-roasted macadamia nuts are the way to go in these cookies. They offer the best flavor since they’re toasted, and the saltiness balances out the sweetness of the white chocolate chips. One cup of each seemed to be the perfect ratio of dough to nuts and chocolate.
After all of the ingredients have been combined, the dough will still be pretty soft and malleable, which is why you’ll definitely need to chill it for a couple of hours before baking it in the oven. Not only will chilling the dough prevent the cookies from spreading too quickly as they bake, but it gives the dry ingredients and wet ingredients time to mingle. “Mingle” meaning that the dry ingredients absorb moisture from the wet ingredients. While this hydration takes place, the flour breaks down into sugar, creating a sweeter, more concentrated flavor. The cookies also bake up more evenly with a beautiful golden brown color. Furthermore, the chilling process allows the flavors of the brown butter to develop, creating a richer, more decadent cookie.
I honestly don’t think you’ll find a better white chocolate macadamia cookie than these babes right here. They’re soft and chewy around the edges, thick and pillowy in the center, and gorgeously crinkly on the top. Not to mention, the rich nuttiness of the brown butter pairs beautifully with the white chocolate chips and the macadamia nuts.
Go ahead, I DARE you to find a better recipe than this one…
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup salted butter
- 2 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup roughly chopped macadamia nuts
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. As the butter melts, it’ll start to foam, then turn a clear golden color. Continue to stir the butter, scraping up any browned specks from the bottom of the pan as it starts to brown. It should have a nutty aroma. Once browned and nutty, remove from the heat; set aside to cool slightly.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch together in a medium bowl; set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the browned butter and both sugars together on medium speed until smooth and incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue beating until combined, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until just incorporated. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips with a wooden spoon. Cover, and refrigerate dough for at least two hours, or up to three days.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough into balls about the size of a golf ball, then place them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are set and the centers are puffy but still look slightly underdone. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.