These Macadamia Nut Cookies are a crispy yet soft and chewy style cookie. They are packed with large white chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts. Take this classic to a new level by adding the caramel drizzle and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Elevate Your Macadamia Nut Cookies
I know that Macadamia Nut Cookies sometimes get a bad rap but since you are here to make yourself some outa-this-world Macadamia Nut Cookies, I’m going to just go ahead and assume you are as obsessed with them as me. Hope that’s okay.
The cookie dough itself is pretty unique- the dough is mixed *just* enough to get the ingredients sticking together and then it is filled to the brim with white chocolate and macadamia nuts. These cookies are HUGE. We will use 1/3 cup of dough, we are talking gourmet cookie shop type cookies.
Once they are out of the oven, we finish the cookies off by drizzling some Caramel on top with a sprinkle of coarse sea salt. Yum.
You won’t find a better macadamia nut cookie recipe on the planet!
Ingredients for Salted Caramel White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Salted Butter– I always use salted butter, if you only have unsalted, just add an extra pinch of salt to the recipe. Make sure the butter is softened or room temperature before getting started.
- Brown Sugar– Make sure to pack the brown sugar into the measuring cup!
- Granulated Sugar– The combination of white and brown sugar give these cookies the perfect combination of taste and texture.
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Flour– All purpose flour will do the trick! Nothing fancy needed here.
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Chopped White Chocolate- I love the look and feel of chopped up white chocolate, but you can use white chocolate chips instead if you’d prefer. I grab a few bars of the Ghirardelli white chocolate and chop that up for this recipe. You can find these bars next to the cocoa powder in most grocery stored. The bar really gives you that ultra melty chocolate once cooked.
- Chopped Macadamia Nuts- You can chop them as big or small as you like. I generally like to chop them up smaller, so there is more macadamia in each bite.
- Caramel Dip– we are talking about the dip sold in the produce section by the apples. That’s what you’ll be needing!
- Coarse Sea Salt for Garnish
Tips on making the Best White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Measure out your White Chocolate and Macadamia Nuts before starting. It is very important with this cookie to not over mix the cookie dough. We are going to add in the white chocolate and nuts before all of the flour has been incorporated so it is best if you have it all ready to go.
- Bake one batch at a time. I know, I know. Convection ovens exist and they are great. I have one, too! I have found, though, that the cookies bake up more crispy yet gooey when they are baked one tray at a time, in your conventional (not to be confused with convectional) oven.
- Use Apple Dip Caramel. Yes, you heard me right. While ice cream caramel is absolutely delicious, it is just too thin and will cause a sticky sticky mess. Trust me on this one- you want ultra thick apple dip caramel for this recipe.
Can I make these cookies smaller?
Absolutely. While I kind of specialize in the giant, bakery shop style cookie, you can definitely make them a more normal size. 😉 You’ll just need to bake them for a few minutes less. In the printable recipe card, you’ll find good indicators to know when these cookies are done. Watch for the indicators on your smaller cookies to know exactly when to pull them out of the oven.
Why are my Cookies Dry?
I have found that when cookies go dry, that means they were over baked! When dealing with large cookies, it is important to know that the cookies will continue to bake while they cool on that hot pan. So pull them when they still look a little undercooked.
More Bakery Style Cookies
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies with Salted Caramel
Ingredients
- 2 cups (400g) chopped white chocolate
- 2 cups (240g) chopped macadamia nuts
- 1 cup (222g) salted butter
- 1 cup (246g) brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (115g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 1/4 cup (342g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup (98g) caramel dip
- sea salt for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180° C).
- Measure out the chopped white chocolate (or white chocolate chips) and chopped macadamia nuts into a bowl. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until smooth, light in color and fluffy. This will take a few mintues.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix in the egg and vanilla.
- Once completely combined, stop the mixer and add in the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Start mixing slowly, once the flour mixture is about half way incorporated into the dough, pour the white chocolate and nuts into the mixer and allow everything to mix together.
- Stop the mixer as soon as the flour is completely incorporated. Avoid over mixing.
- Measure out the dough into generous 1/3 cup portions or weigh out 6 oz of cookie dough for each cookie. Loosely gather the dough together in a tall 'ball' leaving the top jagged, for texture. Avoid packing the dough together tightly.
- Repeat this with all of the cookie dough.
- Bake at 350°F (180° C) for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookie dough has spread and the edges are turning golden brown.
- Immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, use the back of a metal spoon and push the edges of the cookie towards the center, creating a perfect circle.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 20 minutes.*
- Drizzle the caramel dip on top of the warm cookie and sprinkle a pinch of coarse sea salt on top.
- Serve warm.
Rachel says
Made these tonight and loved them. 😍
Shelbi says
Can cookies be frozen With a seasalt and carmel on top ?
Karli Bitner says
Yes!
Sarah A. says
Hi Karli ! Are the centers suppose to be slightly underdone? I served it to my husband after the 20 minute cooling on the baking sheet and he said the center was still somewhat underbaked. :/ should i wait until they’re completely cool and then warm and serve?
Karli Bitner says
The centers should be slightly underdone when you pull them out of the oven, but allowing them to cool on the pan will continue baking them. They should cool for about 20 minutes.