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
I made these cookies they were out of this world delicious! One question how do you bake them so they are a little soft in the middle but crispy on the edges ?
So glad you loved the cookies, Denise! To keep them soft in the middle, I usually bake mine just until the tops are set and let them cool for several minutes on the baking sheet. You could add 1 to 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to the dry ingredients too.
Hi! I just made these cookies and they were amazing !! Just wondering if I could change up this recipe by using dark chocolate and no sugar. Is that possible ?
So glad you enjoyed the cookies, Emilie! It would be fine to use dark chocolate in this recipe. I don’t recommend omitting the sugar though, the cookies wouldn’t taste good and they would be extremely dry.
I can’t wait to try these! I only have salted macadamia nuts. Should I decrease the salt?
If they’re lightly salted you don’t have to reduce the salt. If there’s a decent amount in them, I would reduce the salt by 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.
I made this recipe for my son today he loved them cookies
Hi Danielle!
What if I am a little lacking on butter? I just have 200 grams can I still go ahead with the rest of the recipe? I have canola oil at home as well, should I substitute it with that?
I’d recommend just cutting the recipe in half and only using one stick or 115 grams of butter.
These cookies are delicious! I’ve never baked or eaten these until I baked them yesterday and let me tell you these are my new favorite cookies. They are so good. This recipe is amazing! I have used so many of your recipes and they’re all so good. My friends and family loves everything I’ve baked so far!
Thank you, Shonneik! So glad to hear that you’re enjoying the recipes!
Hands down, this is the best recipe for WCMNC! I printed the recipe quit a while back and misplaced it, then found it. In the new version you cut the white chocolate chips to 1 cup from 1-1/2 cups. Any reason why? In my opinion the 1-1/2 cups is perfect!!
I just prefer them to be a little less sweet now, feel free to stick with 1-1/2 cups if you prefer though!
I made these cookies the other night and followed this recipe to a T except a little less nuts. They turned out absolutely amazing! So soft and fluffy and my family all loved them as well! I’m making my second batch as we speak.
The perfect cookies! Now that I have made them I can trust the rest of the site! These cookies are crispy on the edges soft, a bit of chew and melt in your mouth! Sweetness level is perfect!
I was looking for a copycat recipe of Subway’s white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, but found your recipe instead – they taste even better than Subway’s!!! All my friends and family loved them… I am had to stop myself from finishing them all so that I could share these delicious cookies! I absolutely loved this recipe, it is just so perfect and has become one I will use again and again! Produced are beautifully soft, yet crisp and even chewy cookies. The cookie dough is fantastic and I will most definitely be using this recipe for any white cookie I make – adjusting the additions 🙂 Thanks so much!
Fantastic recipe! These turned out perfectly.
Hello Danielle!
If I want to make smaller batches for example 16 cookies do I just use a third of the ingredients in your recipe? What about the chilling time, do you keep it for an hour? And how big should I make the dough ball?
Thanks a lot for your advice. I am really excited about making this!
Hi, Fiona! I would actually recommend just cutting the recipe in half and chilling the dough for one hour. You can freeze any leftover cookie dough.
They were delicious but they stayed in a ball shape. They flattened out only a tiny bit like a small fat cookie. I took the little balls out of the freezer and left on the pan for about an hour before baking. Should I have baked them still frozen?
Hi, Cathy! The colder the cookie dough, the less it will spread. I would think that if you let them thaw for about an hour they should have still spread. If you want them to spread more you can thaw the cookie dough overnight in the refrigerator, then bake as directed in the recipe. If the cookies still aren’t spreading very well, you can slightly flatten them before baking too.
Can I use self rising flour? If so, would you still use 23/4 Cup?
I don’t recommend using self-rising flour because it has baking powder added to it.
Can I substitute the flour for a gluten free recipe? If so, what would you recommend? Thanks
I honestly haven’t tried it, so I’m not quite sure. If you do use a gluten-free flour, I would suggest using one that substitutes 1:1 for all-purpose flour.
Can I use chocolate chip instead?
Yes, that’s fine!
Do you pack the brown sugar in this recipe?
Yes, I do.
Finally tried this recipe today. These cookies camme out so delicious and soft and chewy. I needed a big batch recipe so that I can send a few goody bags out tomorrow and this recipe worked perfect even got my little one to go in the kitchen and help we had so much fun and the reward was enjoying a soft chewy delicious cookie thanks for the recipe.
How long can you have frozen cookie dough in the freezer?
As long as it’s stored in a freezer bag/container it should keep for up to 3 months.
I accidentally put in both baking powder and soda. Should I through out the flour mixture?
It may be okay, but I haven’t used baking powder in these cookies so it’s hard to say.
Hi I made the dough but forgot to roll it in balls and freeze it. The dough has been in the fridge for about 4-5 days is it still good and can I still roll them and freeze?
I try to avoid refrigerating cookie dough for more than 3 days. It’s really hard to say though, I would use your best judgement.
I’ve kept cookie dough for 5-7 days before. My fridge is extra cold, but as long as you’re below 40 degrees, you should be good.
Love the way you can increase the amount of cookies you want, and the recipe chanes, however, only the cups change not the grams in brackets.
Hi, Steve! Where are you adjusting the amount of cookies?
Hi, may I use baking white chocolate (chopped) instead of white chocolate chips?
I think that would be okay. Just keep in mind that white chocolate chips have stabilizers in them that help them hold their shape and firm back up better once they cool.
I am excited to make these cookies but I’m the only one in the family that really likes white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. So, I was going to just make a half a batch, but I forgot I was going to do half and I already mixed the dry ingredients (flower, salt, baking soda). I’m wondering, before I go any further in making these cookies, is this the same basic recipe for a different type of cookie? Unfortunately, I don’t have any choc chips on hand so I can’t turn it into choc chip cookies (if the recipe would even be the same)…but I could make snickerdoodle or oatmeal raisin cookies, IF this recipe works the same…like just trading out the white choc and macadamia nuts for raisins and oats? If that works, I’m wondering what the measurements would be for half a batch and can I go ahead and finish making the basic recipe and then divide in half before adding the different ingredients?
Hi, Debbie! Oatmeal cookies, snickerdoodles, etc. are different so it would be hard to do that. You can certainly make the cookie dough, divide it up, and mix in different things that you have on hand (raisins, nuts, dried fruit, etc.).