A classic cookie with a decadent flair, these white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are made with browned butter, toasted macadamia nuts, premium white chocolate, and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. Recipe includes a how-to video!
Gourmet White Chocolate Cookies
These are not your average white chocolate macadamia nut cookies! No, these are decadently buttery cookies enriched with toasty, nutty flavor, sweet white chocolate, crunchy roasted macadamia nuts, and finishing dash of sea salt.
While it may sound complicated, my recipe is actually quite easy to make and doesn’t even require a mixer!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Flavor: Rich, nutty brown butter enriches the cookies and gives them a much deeper flavor that is reminiscent of toffee. It’s our secret ingredient here!
- Texture: Slightly crisp, golden-brown edges with thick, soft centers punctuated with crunchy macadamia nuts and pockets of creamy white chocolate.
- Ease: No mixer needed, since we are starting with melted butter (like when making my butter pecan cookies). Don’t you love it when that happens?
- Chilling: Only 30 minutes to chill, which is just enough time to clean up your countertop, preheat your oven, and prep your cookie sheets.
- Sweetness: White chocolate has a reputation for being super sweet (I talked about this when I shared my white chocolate buttercream), so we’ll use just enough chips to add sweetness without making the cookies cloying.
Ingredients
Most of today’s ingredients are pretty standard, but we do have a few important ingredients that elevate this cookie dough from classic to irresistible!
- Butter. The first step in this recipe is browning your butter. If you’ve never done this before, I walk you through the steps in the recipe and video (just below the recipe). I also have a step-by-step guide on how to brown butter, if you need more help. For extra rich flavor, try using European butter.
- White chocolate. There are a lot of ingredients that I buy generic without issue, but white chocolate is not one of them (and the same goes for baking powder or soda). Ghirardelli is my current favorite brand; you can either chop up a white chocolate bar (my preference for extra melty hunks of chocolate throughout) or just use chips.
- Macadamia nuts. I use roasted and salted macadamia nuts. If yours aren’t already chopped when you buy them, be sure to chop them into chocolate-chip-sized pieces before adding.
- Cornstarch. This is a favorite in so many of my cookie recipes, especially ones that begin with melted butter (like my worst chocolate chip cookies). It helps to keep the cookies soft and prevents them from spreading too much without drying them out (which adding more flour would do).
- Sea salt. This is optional, but I love adding a sprinkle of sea salt to the tops of my cookies just after removing them from the oven.
SAM’S TIP: Your eggs should ideally be at room temperature. To quickly bring eggs to room temperature, place them in a bowl of warm (not hot) water for 15 minutes.
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- Brown the butter: Melt and cook the butter in a saucepan until it foams, sizzles, and turns brown. Remove from the heat and let cool until it is no longer warm to the touch.
- Stir in the sugars, eggs, and vanilla, then set aside while you whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, then fold in the add-ins.
- Cover and chill the dough before scooping and rolling into 1 ½ tablespoon sized balls.
- Bake until the edges just start to turn golden brown, then remove and sprinkle with sea salt. The key to soft and chewy cookies is to slightly underbake them in the oven and finish cooking outside the oven on their baking sheets.
SAM’S TIP: For round, uniform-looking cookies, roll the scoops of cookie dough briefly between your palms before baking. You can also add a few chocolate chips to the tops after they come out of the oven. This will give your cookies a bakery-style look!
Frequently Asked Questions
Adding the sugars when your butter is warm or hot butter will melt them, leaving you with a soupy, greasy cookie dough and ultra-flat cookies.
On the other hand, if you have cookie dough that isn’t spreading enough, you may have accidentally added too much flour to your dough. This is a common mistake; make sure you know how to measure flour properly if this happens to you often.
I suppose you don’t have to! I do have a separate recipe for white chocolate chip cookies that you could try instead.
Yes, though you may need to let it sit at room temperature for a bit before scooping if you do. If you want to freeze the cookie dough, follow the instructions in my post on how to freeze cookie dough.
If you’re a big macadamia nut fan, give my coconut cream pie a try! It uses a macadamia nut-infused crust for extra flavor 🤍
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! Subscribe to my newsletter to be notified of all the newest recipes, and find my free recipe tutorials on YouTube 💜
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (200 g) brown sugar
- ⅔ cup (135 g) white sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups (340 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch cornflour in UK
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cups (170 g) premium white chocolate chips
- 1 cup (110 g) Macadamia nut pieces
- sea salt for sprinkling optional
Instructions
Begin by Browning your Butter:
- Place butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-low heat.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter
- Once butter has melted, increase heat to just above medium heat. Stir the butter and scrape the sides and bottom of the pan frequently with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula – the butter will begin to bubble and pop. Once the bubbling/popping slows, the butter will begin to turn brown (see image). Once it begins to brown, remove from heat and pour into a large heat-proof bowl.
- Allow butter to cool to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe.
Cookie Dough
- Add sugars into cooled browned butter and stir well.1 cup (200 g) brown sugar, ⅔ cup (135 g) white sugar
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.2 large eggs, 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.2 ¾ cups (340 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until ingredients are nearly completely combined.
- Add white chocolate chips and macadamia nut pieces and stir until ingredients are well-incorporated.1 cups (170 g) premium white chocolate chips, 1 cup (110 g) Macadamia nut pieces
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before proceeding.
- 15 minutes before you are ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Once oven is preheated and cookie dough has chilled, drop dough by heaping, rounded 1 ½-Tbsp-sized scoops (50g) onto prepared cookie sheets, placing at least 2" (5cm) apart.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-11 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown (cookies should still be quite soft when you remove them from the oven, and may even appear slightly underbaked in center).
- Sprinkle lightly with sea salt immediately after removing from the oven.sea salt for sprinkling
- Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet.
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Katherine
This recipe looks delicious, I love the addition of brown butter. Will be trying this out tomorrow and updating my review. I appreciate that you included the metric measurements as I exclusively only bake using weight since volume is too varied for me, so thank you for including those measurements! It helps a lot.
Sam
I hope you love them! 🙂
Andrea
These cookies are fantastic! I’ve made them twice now. The second time I toasted the macadamia nuts with a spritz of oil and bit of salt as we love a sweet and salty cookie.
Thank you for sharing this yummy recipe!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Andrea! 🙂
Janet
Hey, I needed nutritional information and found your cookie: white choc macadamia nut cookie. The recipe sounded so good I printed so I could make – the brown sugar sounds intriguing to prep first.
Sam
I hope you enjoy the cookies. 🙂
Maru
hola!
i just made them and they are delicious!
but so greasy is it normal? can it be the quality of butter?
Sam
I’m glad they still tasted good! If the butter was too hot when you added your sugars you may have melted your sugars which can cause this greasy phenomenon to occur. I hope this helps. 🙂
Robyn Marzoni
Love this recipe!! The texture is perfect and of course the flavor is spot on. I’ve never seen a cookie recipe that was made this way. I am baking some more right now. Thank you for sharing!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Robyn! 🙂
Dallas
I am going to try these cookies later on today, but i actually want to ask if you can try making the publix calypso cookies recipe? Ive tried it a million times & all times they fell completely flat & can’t figure out what i’m doing wrong?! And i’ve only found 2 recipes for it. Its got coconut & pecans in it! please please please help! lol
Sugar Spun Run
I have never heard of that cookie before! Sounds interesting, Dallas! I have a full list of sweet treats for this year but I will be sure to add it to my list! I hope that you enjoy the cookies! 🙂
Dallas
I will definitely enjoy them, and thank you!
And I just want to say how amazing all of your recipes are & thank you for sharing them! My daughter & my son sure loves them! ❤️
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Dallas. I am really happy that you have enjoyed my other recipes. 🙂
Laurie
Cookies turned great, exactly as shown in the pictures.
Everything was very well explained in the video and the only tricky thing is browning the butter, it was quite crucial to remove it from the heat at the correct time to prevent it from burning (visibility is a bit difficult with all the foam it produces).
I did have to add an additional 60g of flour because my dough was too runny but I usually have to add additional flour to all my cookies so I guess my flour is just weird.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed, Laurie! Thank you for commenting!
Darlene Benson Griffith
I am stuck at home at want to make the white chip macedamia nut cookie with coconut. I dont have those nuts. i have some pecans and pine nuts. would they do ok for substitute. or any other suggestion of something i might have handy.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Darlene! You are welcome to substitute using whatever nuts you have on hand. The cookie flavor will change based on what you choose but either option you listed will work fine. I hope that you enjoy the cookies. 🙂
Sara
Hi. I tried the Nutella cookie they where amazing. Question if I want to add frozen raspberries can I?
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed the Nutella cookies, Sara! Are you looking to add frozen raspberries to that recipe or this recipe? I haven’t tried it but I think that it should be fine. Keep me posted on how they turn out. 🙂
Sara
Thank you for your reply. Wanted to make raspberries and white chocolate and macadamia. But how much would I use. Should I use fresh or frozen?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Sara! I have not tried it personally. I would suggest dividing your cookie dough in two bowls and testing adding fresh raspberries to half of the batter to see how it turns out. I would start with adding 1/2 cup and see how it does. Fingers crossed that they turn out amazing! Keep me posted. 🙂
Diane
I love your cookie recipes and look forward to trying this one! If I’m leaving the macadamia nuts out, should I increase the amount of white chocolate chips? Your Worst Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe called for 2 cups of chips and it was the perfect amount. What do you think?
Sam
Hi Diane! It’s a personal preference. If I were leaving out the macadamia nuts then yes I would increase the chocolate chips to two cups. Just keep in mind that white chocolate chips are fairly sweet (sweeter than chocolate chips). I hope you love this recipe as much as the others!
David
Best cookies I’ve ever made.
Sugar Spun Run
I am so glad that you enjoyed them, David! Thank you for trying my recipe and for commenting. 🙂
Pilar
As always amazing recipe!! I adapted it to make it Gluten Free, they taste amazing. The browned butter makes sucha difference in taste. Just delicious.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Pilar! I am so glad that you enjoyed the white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
AJ
These look yummy! I’m going to try these this weekend add some coconut.
Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful! I hope that you enjoy the cookies, AJ! Keep me posted on how they turn out. 🙂
Esse
Hiiii Sam! What can i use in place of the nuts? And am I free to leave them out?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Esse! You are free to leave them out. I hope that you enjoy the cookies! 🙂
Caron
These cookies are terrific!! I made them for my husband’s birthday as they are his favorite. I had never browned butter before but it was easy and you can tell it makes a difference in the taste! I’ve tried several of your cookie recipes, everyone who eats them loves them! I always check your site first now for cookie recipes! Thank you!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Caron! Browned butter makes so all the difference, right?!!! I am so glad that your husband enjoyed his birthday cookies. I appreciate you visiting my site and trying my recipes. I am so glad you enjoy them. Happy Holidays. 🙂