Hawaiian Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal, Coconut and Macadamias

If you’re looking for a Royal Cookie recipe, this one is even better! These Hawaiian chocolate chip cookies are perfect for a tropical palate. They are loaded with oatmeal, shredded coconut, and macadamia nuts, with a note of coffee, making them the perfect vacation in a bite. 

I was inspired to create this recipe after our trip to Hawaii one year and finding the most delicious cookies at a tiny little shop off the beaten path. Among all of my Hawaiian vacation inspired cookies, like these tropical rugelach or these macadamia chocolate chip shortbread cookies, these Hawaiian cookies were by far the most popular!

These delicious cookies start with the base from my chewy chocolate chip cookies and then packed with all different kinds of mix-ins – macadamias, chocolate chips, coconut, oats and coffee – making them almost like a kitchen sink cookies but with a tropical twist.

They’re crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle, with lots of textures from the oats and nuts and coconut. I promise you won’t be able to stop at one even though they are large bakery style cookies. If you like the fruity tropical vibe, you could even add mango like these oatmeal mango cookies with coconut and macadamia.

Helpful tools

As with all my cookie recipe, I recommend a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer to make the cookie dough and a large cookie scoop to divide the dough evenly and easily.

Ingredients and Substitutions

As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:

1. Butter – I used unsalted butter but you can use salted butter in a pinch. However, if using salted butter, you may be able to omit the salt called for separately in the recipe.

2. Sugar – I use only light brown sugar in this recipe because I love the flavor of brown sugar and I love my cookies more chewy. You can use dark brown sugar, granulated sugar or a combination of brown and white sugar. 

3. Egg – I use 1 large egg and 1 egg yolk. The egg yolk adds moisture creating a more tender and chewier cookie.

4. Vanilla – use only pure vanilla extract for the best flavor.

5. Flour – simple all-purpose flour will work for this recipe.

6. Salt – I use kosher salt, if you’re using table salt, only use about two thirds as much, or in this case ¼ teaspoon rounded. And if using salted butter, you can omit the salt. 

7. Leavening agents – both baking soda and baking powder are used in this recipe. Baking soda will contribute to browning of the cookies as well as making them more chewy, while baking powder will add a little bit of lift.

8. Coffee – I used instant espresso to infuse coffe flavor into the cookie dough. You could use instant coffee as well, but double the amount to get a stronger flavor. Or you could also use very finely ground coffee, which yields the strongest coffee flavor. However, the issue with ground coffee is that you will taste the coffee granules in the cookies, and if you don’t like that grainy texture, stick with instant espresso or instant coffee.

9. Rolled oats – make sure to use old-fashioned rolled oats and not quick oats, which would disintegrate quickly.

10. Coconut – I used unsweetened coconut flakes. If you substitute sweetened coconut flakes, it would make the cookies a bit sweeter.

11. Macadamia nuts – whenever I use nuts in a recipe, I always toast them in a skillet over medium heat for 3-5 minutes until fragrant before using to bring out their flavor.

12. Chocolate chips – I use semi sweet chocolate chips for this recipe. You can use any type of chocolate but I recommend anything with 50% cocoa or higher. Chocolate chips, wafers, chunks, chopped up bars should all work.

How to make Hawaiian chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal and coconut

The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

First, add cooled melted butter, and brown sugar to your stand mixer and beat with a paddle attached for at least 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Using melted butter here will give you chewier cookies rather than soft cake-like cookies as with room temperature butter.

Next, add eggs, and vanilla to the beaten butter and continue to beat for at least another 2 minutes until light and fluffy again. Don’t be afraid to beat the wet ingredients really well at this stage, even longer than 2 minutes to allow the eggs to emulsify into the butter.

Sift together the dry ingredients, including flour, instant espresso, baking soda, baking powder, and stir in the salt. Add it to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. You may want to stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl in this step to make sure everything is well combined but don’t over mix here.

Finally, add the oats, coconut, macadamias and semi sweet chocolate chips, and just stir to distribute them evenly throughout the cookie dough. 

Divide out all of the dough with a large cookie scoop and refrigerate for at least an hour before baking.

Baker’s Tips

• Don’t overmix – overmixing will further develop gluten in the cookie dough which will make it dry, so make sure not to overmix.
• Chilling the cookie dough – since we use melted butter in the cookie dough, we want to give the fat enough time to solidify before baking so the cookies don’t spread too much. 
• If spreading occurs, do this as soon as the cookies come out of the oven: take a round cookie cutter, larger than your cookies, place it over the freshly baked cookies and swirl it around in a circular motion to gather the cookies up and make them perfectly round.
• Ensure you don’t over bake these cookies to keep them softer and more chewy. They may look slightly underbaked in the middle when you pull them out of the oven but the residual heat will continue baking them.
• Most kitchen sink cookies tend to have sweet and salty mix-ins. Since this recipe only has sweet mix-ins you can increase the amount of salt to ¾ teaspoon for a saltier palate. 

Other mix-in ideas

Use a maximum 3 cups of mix-ins total, like in the recipe. Here are some ideas for variations:

• Chocolate chips – all different kinds from milk chocolate chips to semisweet to bittersweet to white chocolate chips. 
• Nuts – all different kinds of nuts, you can even use flavored or salted nuts.
• Salty snacks – like potato chips and crushed mini pretzels.
• Dried fruits or freeze dried fruits. 
• Candies – chopped up leftover Halloween candies like Butterfinger, Heath bars, Reese’s peanut butter cups, etc.
• Other baking chips – toffee bits, caramel bits, yogurt chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, etc.
• Mini marshmallows

Storage

Room temperature: store these delicious macadamia coconut coffee chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Mine lasted a week and still tasted really good.

Freezer: you can also freeze these cookies for up to 3 months, thaw at room temperature for a few hours before serving. You could pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften and warm them up, they will taste like freshly baked.

You can also freeze unbaked cookie dough balls for 3-6 months. I love freezing the cookie dough because you can pop them into the oven and get freshly baked cookies anytime you want.

FAQs

More tropical inspired cookies

• Coconut Macadamia Banana Cookies
• Chocolate Shortbread with Macadamia Nut
• Guava Cookies
• Brown Butter Macadamia Snowball Cookies
• Coconut Shortbread Cookies

5 from 10 votes

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal and Coconut Recipe

By Trang Doan

If you’re looking for a Royal Cookie recipe, this one is even better! These Hawaiian chocolate chip cookies are perfect for a tropical palate with macadamias and shredded coconut along with a note of coffee, making them the perfect vacation in a bite. 

Servings: 18 cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 14 minutes mins

Total Time: 34 minutes mins

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Equipment

• Stand Mixer
• Baking Sheet
• Large Cookie Scoop
• Saucepan

Ingredients 

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• ▢ 8 oz unsalted butter, 227 g, melted and cooled
• ▢ 1 ½ cup brown sugar, 300 g, packed
• ▢ 1 large egg
• ▢ 1 large egg yolk
• ▢ 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 cup all-purpose flour, 267g
• ▢ 1 tablespoon instant espresso, 4 g
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ ½ cup rolled oats, old-fashioned, not quick oats, 50 g
• ▢ ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes, 30 g
• ▢ 1 cup macadamia nuts, toasted, cooled and roughly chopped, 130 g
• ▢ 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, 193 g

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Instructions 

• Add cooled melted butter, and brown sugar to the stand mixer bowl and beat with the paddle attachment for 2-3 minutes until light in color and creamy.
• Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and continue beating for another 2-3 minutes until fluffy.
• In another mixing bowl, sift together the flour, instant espresso, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir in the kosher salt and give it a good mix to distribute. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture in the stand mixer bowl, stir until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
• Add the oats, coconut, macadamias, chocolate chips, and stir to incorporate. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a spatula and give it another good mix as needed.
• Portion the cookie dough with a large cookie scoop and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Place 6 dough balls on a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart, and bake 1 batch at a time for 14 minutes, until the outer edges of the cookies turn golden brown.
• Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

• You can use a medium cookie scoop to make smaller cookies. Smaller cookies will bake faster. Reduce the baking time by about 3 minutes in this case.
• The cookie dough can be kept frozen once portioned. You can bake from frozen and increase baking time by 1 – 2 minutes.
• If spreading occurs, take a round cookie cutter, larger than your cookies, place it over a baked cookie and swirl it around in a circular motion as if swirling a glass of wine. Make sure to do this right when the cookies come out of the oven and are still soft. This will gather the cookies up and make them perfectly round and a bit thicker too.
• You can substitute 2 tablespoons of instant coffee instead of instant espresso. Use more coffee for an even stronger coffee flavor.

Nutrition

Serving: 74g, Calories: 350kcal

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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