Soft and Chewy White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
These White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies have slightly crisp edges with soft and chewy centers. Loaded with extra white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts, these are guaranteed to be your new favorite cookie!
Are you a fan of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies? If so, then get ready because I’m about to share the best recipe you will every try!
Not only are these cookies super soft and chewy, but they’re jam-packed with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Which is exactly how any cookie should be if you ask me. Plus, they bake up beautifully every single time!
This recipe also makes quite a few cookies, about four dozen. You can easily cut this recipe in half and bake just two dozen cookies or you can freeze some of the cookie dough to save for later. I’ve included instructions on how to do each in the recipe!
Recipe Ingredients
These cookies start out with some of your usual dry ingredients like all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. For the wet ingredients you will be using butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. And of course, there’s a hefty dose of white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts in these cookies too!
A few notes on some of the ingredients to ensure that these cookies turn out perfect for you:
- Butter: When it comes to the butter, I always stick with unsalted butter. If you only have salted butter on hand you can just reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.
- Macadamia Nuts: There are 1 and 1/2 cups of chopped macadamia nuts in this recipe. You can use raw macadamia nuts or roasted and lightly salted ones. Either option is fine!
- Eggs: Your eggs should be at room temperature just like the butter. This will help ensure that they mix together thoroughly with the wet ingredients.
How To Make These Cookies
To make this white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe, you’ll start by whisking together your flour, baking soda, and salt. This will help ensure that the baking soda and salt are mixed evenly throughout the cookie dough. Once the dry ingredients are mixed together, set them aside and prepare the wet ingredients.
For the wet ingredients, start by creaming together two sticks (or 1 cup) of butter with some brown sugar and granulated sugar. This should only take about 1 to 2 minutes, you just want these three ingredients to be thoroughly mixed together. Next, beat in two eggs, one at a time, then mix in the vanilla extract.
Once the wet ingredients are mixed up, add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and mix the two together until just combined. Finally, toss in the white chocolate chips and chopped macadamia nuts and mix them in on low-speed until they’re fully incorporated into the cookie dough.
After the dough is mixed together, it should look like the picture above. At this point, I recommend chilling the cookie dough for at least 2 hours. Chilling your cookie dough allows the flavors in the cookies to come together and it also prevents your cookies from spreading too much as they’re baking in the oven.
Once the dough is chilled, scoop it with a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop onto baking sheets, making sure to leave some room between each ball of cookie dough. You should get close to 4 dozen cookies in total.
Then, just bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops are set. After the cookies have cooled slightly, you can transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Or just eat them, the choice is yours!
Baking Tips
- When measuring your flour, don’t scoop it out of the container with the measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour around, spoon it into your measuring cup, and level it off with the back of a knife.
- Make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature before getting started. If you forget to set your eggs out ahead of time, you can place them in a bowl of warm water for 5 to 10 minutes.
- To make less cookies: You can easily cut this recipe in half to just make two dozen cookies. If you do, you can reduce the dough chilling time to 1 hour.
- To reduce the dough chilling time: Scoop the cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover, and chill the balls of cookie dough for 30 minutes.
More Cookie Recipes To Try!
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
- Apple Oatmeal Cookies
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 and ¾ cups (345 grams) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (230 grams) unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup (200 grams) light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (190 grams) white chocolate chips
- 1 and 1/2 cups (200 grams) chopped macadamia nuts
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together for 1 to 2 minutes or until well combined. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla extract, making sure to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Mix in the dry ingredients until just combined, then mix in the white chocolate chips and chopped macadamia nuts on low-speed until fully incorporated into the cookie dough.
- Cover the cookie dough tightly and transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours.
- Once the dough is almost chilled, preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- Using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, making sure to leave a little room between each one.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are set and the edges are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 to 10 minutes, then carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Hello! I was wondering if I could use salted macadamia nuts and if so, should I alter the salt measurement?
Thanks!!
I think that would be fine. It will depend on the amount of salt in the nuts, but you’ll probably want to reduce the salt to 1/4-1/2 teaspoon.
I have made these cookies and provided the recipe from you. I’m so inspired!!! Thanks
Hi Danielle, tried your recipe and it was awesome. My friends love it. But would rather want something less sweet. I tried to cut the sugar into half on my second batch but it made it less moist. If I reduce the sugar is there any alternative ingredient that I can use so that the cookies will still be moist?
So glad you liked the cookies! If you cut the sugar in half that will remove a lot of moisture. You could just try reducing the sugar by 1/4 cup and using less white chocolate chips, since those are pretty sweet too. If you cut the sugar down more you may want to add an extra egg yolk for more moisture.
Hi, I was wondering what would be the best way to chop the macadamia nuts? I.e. how tiny should they be chopped?
You can make them however small/large that you want, I usually just do a rough chop.
Hi I am planning to make these today do you have any recommendation for using oat flour instead of A.P.?
I’ve never tried it in these cookies, so it’s hard to give suggestions. I would really stick with all-purpose flour if you can, the oat flour will likely lead to a dry/crumbly cookie.
Hi. Would be okay if I just use the nuts with no white choc chip?
That would be fine! You may want to add another 1/2 cup of nuts.
Hi was wondering if the nuts should be raw or toasted?
I didn’t toast mine, but you can certainly toast them for a few minutes first and let them cool before adding them to the cookie dough.
This is a great recipe! I tweaked it just a bit to suit me, but honestly it doesn’t need it. I browned the butter just to golden. Let it cool enough not to burn the brown sugar I mixed in. I let it set in the refrigerator overnight. I brought it just to room temperature and creamed in the white sugar. I used half the white chocolate because it’s so sweet. I did not add salt because the nuts were sea salted. I again refrigerated over night to marry the flavors and the cookies were to die for, like right out of heaven delicious.
Hey, instead of putting the macadamia nuts I just put more white chocolate chips in would that mess up the recipe?
That would be fine! You can increase the white chocolate chips to 2 cups if you prefer too.
Do you use raw macadamia nuts??? That’s all I can find in my store. Maybe a stupid question???
That would probably be fine, the ones I typically use are dry roasted though.
I found raw ones. The dry roasted were salted, so I will use the raw ones.
Hello
Thanks a lot for the recipe.
I followed the exact recipe but my cookies turned out brown and not white as it is in the picture.
Do you have any idea why it did?
My cookies are light brown, did they just turn out darker? If so, did you use a dark brown sugar? That can affect the color of the cookies or just baking them a bit too long can affect it too.
Hello, im planning to make these tonight but I only would like to make 2 dozen instead of 4, would I cut down all the ingredients by half??
Yes, that’s correct!
Can I add rolled oats?
You could use this recipe and swap out the dried cranberries for macadamia nuts.
I plan on making these for a wedding I’m catering next month. I do not plan on tweeking the recipe at all, I come to your site all the time and have had great success with every recipe you’ve posted! I just wanted to thank you for a great site!
Thank you, Kelly! I hope you enjoy the cookies!
Hi – the recipe sounds great. I have a big bag of raw macadamia nuts. They don’t really taste that great. I’m wondering if they will do justice to the recipe. Do you think I should roast them first?
Thanks,
Tia
I would maybe roast them and add a tiny pinch of salt to them too just to give them some more flavor.
How long can the raw dough be refrigerated?
Thanks!
It should keep for 2-3 days covered tightly in the refrigerator.
Mine did not spread, do you know why?
Hi, Sara! Did you make sure to spoon & level the flour?
It came out perfect!!!!
Great recipe! I made these for my husband because Macadamia cookies are his favorite and he said they’re the best cookies he’s had. The first time I made it I did half the recipe and ended up with 13 cookies. I was using an ice cream scoop, so I suppose that made larger cookies. However I baked them for 13 minutes and they came out perfect! My second batch is in the fridge chilling now.
Can you put unsweetened Hershey chocolate in without ruining it?
I wouldn’t recommend it for this recipe.
Hi! this recipe is great! so delicious looking ! would love to make these! is there a replacement for eggs? as my friend with egg allergy would love to eat it if it is egg-free
You may be able to use two flax eggs, but I haven’t tried it yet.
Hello, I made this recipe for the Super Bowl and unfortunately didn’t come as well. I was disappointed since it’s my son’s favorite cookie.
I found it when I took the dough out of the fridge it was really hard to scoop it out. They were dry on the sides and raw in the middle. Any suggestions.
Sorry the cookies didn’t turn out good for you, Claudia. If the dough is too hard to scoop, you can let it sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes and that will help. You could also scoop it first, then refrigerate the balls of cookie dough for 30 minutes to 1 hour if that’s easier. Also, it sounds like the cookies may not have been fully baked through. Have you checked your oven temperature with an oven thermometer? And did you happen to scoop them larger?
A great recipe! I made great cookies out of this recipe and I am very satisfied with the result. The cookies are so soft and chewy, the perfect texture of my dream cookies! It tastes really similar to Mrs. Fields!
I’m wanting to bake this recipe but every store is out of all purpose flour right now, so I had bought coconut flour. I’m completely new to baking and this is the first recipe I’ll be doing.
What would the measurements be for the coconut flour, I was wanting to make around 2 dozen.
Would anything else in the recipe need to be changed?
Hi, Hannah! Coconut flour is quite different from all-purpose flour, it absorbs a lot more liquid. You would need to actually use less coconut flour, but I’m not sure how much and it will change the taste and texture of the cookies too.
STOP SCROLLING AND MAKE THESE NOW!! Seriously these are the absolute best white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. They stay soft and are way too delicious. I had roasted, salted macadamia nuts which I rinsed off, dried and then chopped – they worked great if you can’t find unsalted! Honestly this is probably one of the best cookie recipes i’ve tried and will definitely be putting it in the recipe box 🙂
So glad you loved the cookies, Alexandra!
Followed exactly for the half recipe but not thick cookies did i do something wrong?
Did you make sure to chill the cookie dough and double check the measurements? If so, it’s likely that the cookie dough was just too warm when it went in the oven. If you make them again, try chilling the balls of cookie dough for 30-45 minutes before you bake them and that should help.
Hi, can I use coarse sugar for this recipe?
I would recommend sticking with granulated sugar and brown sugar in these cookies.
Thank you. I have tried it with coarse sugar before seeing your reply because that was what i have. It turned out too dry.
Hi, is it okay not to put the white sugar and just stick to a cup of brown sugar? I am worried it might turn out too sweet since I am putting white chocolate as well.
You can, but keep in mind that the granulated sugar helps the cookies spread too. If you omit it, you may need to flatten the cookies some so they spread. You can reduce the white chocolate chips too.
I’ve only recently taken up baking. I baked these beauties yesterday afternoon after managing to get all the ingredients from our local Mercadona supermarket. I just made half the amount (as there’s only my husband and myself here to eat them) and I have to say they are fabulous. I don’t have an electric mixer so I just did things by hand (which was a good workout) and I didn’t have a cookie scoop so I just used an ice cream scoop. Pleased they’ll last up to 5 days in an air tight container although the way they are disappeared I think 3 days max.
Will definitely make again but I think I’ll be ordering an electric mixer of Amazon today.
Hi, what can i do if my cookies turned out to be too soft? my cookies broke apart even after i cooled them for 30mins.
They may have just been a bit under baked. You can try refrigerating them to see if that will help. If you bake them again, you can bake them for 2-3 more minutes and that should help.
Love love love this recipe. I’ve made these cookies several times and it tastes great every time!
HI i was just wondering if these measurements are in the us metric or normal metric as Im australian, and i just dont want to mess the cookies up. thank you!! so excited to make these
Hi, Jenny! The grams and ml measurements are normal metrics.
These were amazing! I used half butter & half shortening to make ‘em nice & fluffy. 🙂 I also recommend using 1/3 cup of white sugar, as they white chocolate chips make them quite sweet. Thanks for the recipe!