These white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are soft-baked style with extra chewy centers. Melted butter maintains a delicious buttery flavor while an extra egg yolk adds chewiness. They’re absolutely PACKED with white chocolate and salted macadamia nuts.
Everything Old is New Again!
My website’s archives are filled with over 1,000 recipes. Some of my earlier recipes are total hidden gems, but there are others that I’ve felt needed some work. I’ve been working behind the scenes updating older recipes as I find necessary. Most notable updates: peanut butter cupcakes, monkey bread, and yellow cupcakes.
Today’s white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are part of this project. I craved a thicker cookie with softer, chewier centers and a distinct buttery flavor. There wasn’t much in this recipe that really needed to change, so I just made a couple minor tweaks.
They’re now perfect.
Video Tutorial
These are the BEST White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
And here’s why:
- Major chunks—lots of nuts and white chocolate
- Classic comforting flavors
- Extra buttery
- Soft-baked style
- Chewy centers
- Slightly crisp edges
- Easy to freeze
Re-Testing This Recipe
This recipe is a cross between my coconut macadamia nut cookies and my chewy chocolate chip cookies. Like the original recipe first published in 2012, I use melted butter instead of softened butter. I love using melted butter in cookies because it produces an extra buttery flavor as well as a chewier texture. However, it’s not as simple as swapping melted butter for softened butter. (Of course it’s not. It’s BAKING! So particular!)
You see, melted butter—a liquid—creates spread. If there isn’t enough flour to absorb the added liquid, the cookies will spread all over the baking sheet. On the other hand, if there’s excess flour, the cookies will taste dry. Finding the balance between too wet and too dry is a total roll of the dice! Speaking of dry ingredients, I add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch here. This ingredient adds a little extra softness. I don’t add cornstarch when making the coconut macadamia nut cookies because the coconut acts as a really soft dry ingredient, so cornstarch just isn’t necessary there.
The original recipe also used an extra egg yolk. I love this addition! See my chewy chocolate chip cookies if you’re curious about it. Basically, an extra egg yolk = extra richness and extra chew. Both good things.
Two final changes: I add a little more baking soda for additional volume because the original cookies typically over-spread. I also switch the amounts of sugar. Here we use an equal amount of granulated sugar and brown sugar. In addition to sweetening, brown sugar creates a soft and more flavorful cookie and granulated sugar creates spread. Balancing them helps produce a chewy, yet crispy edge cookie.
Best Macadamia Nuts to Use
I LOVE using salted dry-roasted macadamia nuts in white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. The roasted salty flavor pairs beautifully with the extra sweet white chocolate morsels—you won’t regret it!
3 Cookie Tips to Improve Your Next Batch
- Spoon & Level the Flour: The amount of flour makes or breaks a cookie recipe—literally. Spoon and level that flour or, better yet, weigh your flour.
- Chill the Cookie Dough: Chilling the cookie dough, especially since we’re using melted butter, is an imperative step in this recipe. The colder the dough, the less the cookies will over-spread into greasy puddles. You’ll have thicker, sturdier, and more solid cookies.
- Bake 1 Batch at a Time: You get the best possible results when the oven only concentrates on 1 batch at a time. If you need to bake more than one batch at a time, rotate the baking sheets from the top rack to bottom rack a couple times through the baking process to encourage even browning. And turn the sheets around as well. Ovens have hot spots!
If you can’t get enough of sweet white chocolate, try my white chocolate brownies and white chocolate peanut butter cookies next!
Print
Super-Chunk White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 30 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are soft-baked style with extra chewy centers. They’re absolutely PACKED with white chocolate morsels and salted macadamia nuts. Chilling the cookie dough is imperative, so set aside at least 2 hours.
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons (265g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, melted + slightly cooled
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 heaping cup (210g) white chocolate chips*
- 1 cup (120g) roughly chopped macadamia nuts*
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour into dry ingredients and mix everything together with a silicone spatula until completely combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. (You can use a mixer for this step if needed.)
- Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 4 days. If chilling for longer than 2 hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 20-30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll cookie dough into balls, about 1-1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (I like to use this medium cookie scoop), and arrange 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Silicone Spatula | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- White Chocolate Chips: I usually use closer to 1 and 1/4 cups white chocolate chips, about 210g. For looks, you can press a few extra chips into the tops of the warm cookies when they come out of the oven.
- Macadamia Nuts: I used salted dry-roasted macadamia nuts. You can use unsalted, raw, and/or whichever macadamia nuts you love most. Salted dry-roasted adds incredible flavor though.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Going to make these today or tomorrow. I’ve used your cookie recipes before so I know they’ll be great. Any reason I can’t dip the finished cookie in some “covering” chocolate? Sounds delish!
Well, first, these are absolutely amazing without the chocolate dip. I mean seriously. And I can say that the semi sweet dip added an entirely new dimension. We’re all stuffing ourselves with these cookies after dinner. My 97 year old dad sweats if it was just him the entire plate would be gone! Thank you!
Hi Debbie, you can skip that step for bars.
Thank you! I can’t wait to bake them!
Hi Sallys team! I have 2 questions about the white chocolate macadamia cookies. 1 would I be able to use chopped white chocolate bars? And 2 is there a way to incorporate almond extract?
Hi Delaney, absolutely! You can use chopped white chocolate bars and add a splash of almond extract, too.
Hi from Australia, I baked your white chocolate and macadamia cookies today. Oh, they are amazing and have the perfect texture, softness and flavour. Thank you
Love these, making them yet again.
Have made these several times and they are amazing. Have you ever tried using this recipe to make 1 giant cookie?
Hi John, we haven’t but you could certainly try to use this dough like a cookie pizza. Let us know if you try it!
I want to add dried sour cherries – do I need to change the recipe at all?
Hi MaryAnn! Dried cherries would be great here. We would keep the total amount of add-ins to 2 cups, so reduce the nuts/chips to make room for some dried cranberries. Happy baking!
I use Sallys recipes for basically all of the cookies I bake. Your recipes rock. Before a few months ago I was so intimated by baking because I was never great at it. I have baked over 10 of your cookie recipes and they are ALWAYS a hit. I baked this specific cookie a few months ago for some friends to try and they were so good these are the cookies they request every time we have a get together now. This cookie and your snickerdoodle cookie recipe are the bomb. I even got crazy and wanted to try something different and followed your tiramisu recipe WOW. It turned out amazing on the first round. Recipes are easy to follow, I love the back story you provide for all of your recipes, and it’s awesome you go back to perfect some of the recipes. Thank you for making baking so much less intimidating for new bakers and your recipes are some of the best out there.
I second this, family and friends beg for more of these homemade cookies! Best recipes I have found that have never gone wrong. I always bake mine a little less due to my ovens temperamental nature but they leave the perfect chewy cookie every time. My husband’s favorite is the chocolate chip.
I learned a lot about cookie textures from this recipe! I love Sally’s descriptions and learning the “science” of baking. I never knew corn starch adds extra softness to the cookie…and using extra baking soda to prevent spread if you’re using melted butter. Genius!
I refrigerated the dough overnight and let it sit out for 30 mins before baking and it will was still very hard. I’m wondering if something happened while making the dough because I let the sugar sit in the room temp butter for awhile before mixing and it seemed like it soaked up a lot of the moisture and made it difficult to mix, and the dough was a bit crumbly in the morning. I ended up baking each batch for only 10 mins (2 mins less than the minimum time) and I feel like the bottoms still got a bit overdone. Or maybe I should not have let them sit on the tray after baking for as long. Who knows. The cookies are still delicious and soft, but just a little too crispy on the bottoms. This is definitely a recipe I want to try again to make sure it comes out perfect next time!
Can this recipe be made into a cookie cake or cookie pizza? If so, would I need to add or change anything?
Hi Nancy, absolutely! These posts for cookie cake and cookie pizza will be helpful as a guide. If you have any leftover dough, you can use it to make a few individual cookies on the side.
Hi Sally! Could I brown my butter for this recipe, and if I do would I need to alter anything? I’ve made this a few times and loved it but recently discovered browning butter so I’d love to incorporate it if possible!
Hi Kim, you definitely can, and those would taste amazing! Browning butter does cause some moisture loss, however, so to prevent your cookies from becoming crumbly, we recommend adding in a couple Tablespoons of liquid (such as milk or cream) to the dough to make up for it. Or you could start with 2 extra Tbsp of butter before you brown it. Enjoy!
Hello! I made these today and they were a bit sweet for my liking. I was wondering if I was to decrease the amount of sugar how much can I decrease it by without compromising the cookie?
Also I baked them for about 15 minutes because when I checked them at 13 minutes the toothpick inserted in the center was not clean. They looked very soft. I definitely over baked them. This was my first time making this kind of cookie so I wasn’t too sure what they should look like ayer coming out of the oven. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Hi Kris, while you can certainly try decreasing the sugar, keep in mind that it plays an important role in the overall taste, texture, and spread of the cookies. We’d start small and then decrease more/less for future batches. The cookies will look soft in the middles when done but will firm up as they cool. Hope this helps!
Just wanted to say, I just made these cookies and they’re delicious. None of your recipes I have used have ever failed me! They all have been so good. Thank you.
Great texture and easy to make, but they were very sweet. I followed the directions exactly and weighed the sugars and flour. I would cut the sugar in half next time. 300 g of sugar with the white chocolate was just too sweet for my family
I would suggest just cutting down on the white chocolate if you think they’re too sweet since the sugar plays a huge role in the entirety of the cookie!
Thoughts on using 1 duck egg for 1 chicken egg + yolk?
Hi Becky, you can certainly try that swap. Let me know how they turn out.
I was wondering— is this the same cookie recipe you use for your ‘master cookie recipe’? I remember seeing one where you just switched up the mix-ins for endless variations, but I can’t seem to find that exact version online anymore. Did the name change, perhaps? Or is it the same base recipe you use for the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies? I would love to have that master cookie recipe once again. Thank you so much!!
Hi Cecile, I’m uncertain if I ever published a “master cookie” recipe. The cookie recipe base I use most often is this one, if you’d like to check that one out! It’s very slightly different from the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.
Phenomenal recipe as always! Quick question, I made mine with browned butter and they were a bit crumbly from the loss of moisture. I read your browned butter tips and browned butter cookie tips. Would you recommend using extra butter or a bit of milk to replace the lost moisture? I’m assuming milk but I just wanted to be sure! Thank you!!
Hi Ashley, yes, we’d recommend adding a bit of extra milk. So glad you enjoyed the cookies!
Hi Sally, I have made this recipe and it is fabulous! Do you think it would also work as cookie bars?
Hi Camila, you could try these as bars in a 9×13 inch pan. We are unsure of the best bake time. Let us know how they turn out!
So good! They taste great and soft even days after you bake them.
Hi Sally! I have unsalted macadamia nuts – would you recommend adding salt to the cookie dough?
Hi Kathryn! You shouldn’t need to add more, but you certainly can if you prefer a slightly sweet/salty flavor.
These are my favourite cookies ever! I make a lot of different cookie recipes for my husband, but normally don’t eat more than one. I couldn’t stop myself eating these! I think only about half the batch made it out of the kitchen.
I followed the recipe to the gram. The only thing I changed is that I browned the butter. My cookies were around 60g each and cooked for the recommended time. 100/10. These are going on weekly rotation.
Hi Sally, I was wondering what effect the cornstarch has on the cookie dough?
Hi Sherri! The cornstarch helps to make a nice thick, chewy cookie.
Thoughts on using honey roasted macadamia nuts?
Jessica, you can use unsalted, raw, roasted and/or whichever macadamia nuts you love most. That sounds delicious – let us know if you give it a try!
Hi! I ended up using half regular macadamia nuts and half honey roasted. I ended up thinking I should have done the whole batch with honey roasted! The honey roasted elevated the flavor profile – highly recommend. I did everything else the same except doubling the recipe. I made some for work (I’m known as the cookie lady) and kept some for my family. I consider it a “two birds with one stone” kind of thing.
My 6 year old asked me “Are these cookies from sally’s baking?” I said ‘yes’ and she said ‘please go and put a double thumbs up for this recipe’.
So thank you very much for making my kid happy Sally!
I ran short of white choc chip so added in some chopped white baking choc chunks chunks…worked well.
They turned out sooo good. Definitely a hit!
Used chopped pistachios and turned out just as good, this is my go to cookie recipe always a crowd please!
I haven’t tasted them yet but I figured it was a bit odd that baking powder wasn’t in the ingredients list. Nevertheless I went ahead and made them. I don’t know if my suspicions were correct or if it was something else entirely but the cookies spread and overcooked. I took into consideration that my oven heats up quickly and the dough was still chilled but the dough immediately melted as soon as I popped the tray in. Very disappointed.
Outstanding! Easy to make, and chilling for 1.5 hours was the perfect amount of time to ensure the dough didn’t spread while baking. This is a family favorite!
Would this cookie recipe be good with lemon chips?
Sounds delicious, Carey!
Made these cookies for a family party, and they were gone in minutes. Everyone wanted the recipe.
My new go-to white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe!