Bring a little tropical sunshine to your holiday baking with these delicious macadamia shortbread cookies! They are everything you love about classic shortbread – rich, buttery and perfectly crumbly – but these are also packed full of sweet, nutty and creamy macadamia nuts; the addition of honey gives them a gentle floral sweetness and helps create a slightly chewy center. You do need to chill the dough, but active preparation time is under 20 minutes for 2 dozen cookies.
This is not my first rodeo with macadamias in shortbread cookies. I’ve made some chocolate chip macadamia shortbread cookies inspired by the ones you can get from Honolulu Cookies Company after a trip to Hawaii a while back. And also a chocolate version of these – chocolate macadamia cookies. But these are quickly becoming my favorite for many reasons below 👇
Trang’s Recipe Highlights
- FLAVOR: These macadamia shortbread are buttery and nutty, with a gentle floral note from the honey. Despite having more sugar than classic shortbread, they have the perfect sweet and salty balance with the addition of salted sugar on top.
- TEXTURE: Crispy at the edges, slightly chewy in the middle thanks to the addition of honey, with a pleasant crunch from the macadamia nuts.
- EASE: Shortbread is super easy! You can even mix it by hand if you don’t have an electric mixer.
Ingredient notes and tips
You’ll only need 8 ingredients for this macadamia shortbread cookies recipe. As always, for the full list of ingredients with quantities and step-by-step instructions, skip straight to the recipe card.
Salted or unsalted macadamias?
Macadamias are the star of our show. I tend to get raw macadamias in bulk at Sprouts. You can also use roasted unsalted macadamias. This gives you better control of salt in the recipe.
But if you can only find roasted and salted macadamias, depending on how salty they are, I would omit some or all of the salt called for in the shortbread dough.
Melt-in-your-mouth texture
Cornstarch gives shortbread cookies a melt-in-your-mouth texture. You can skip it if you don’t have any without needing to make adjustments to the other ingredients, but I really think it makes a subtle yet big difference in the texture.
The effect of honey on browning
Honey gives these shortbread a slight chew and a nice floral note that’s just a little bit different. But it also makes these cookies brown quicker in the oven. For this reason, I lower the baking temperature to 325°F instead of the usual 350°F.
Butter temperature
Butter should be at room temperature but not too soft to the point of almost melted. I always get questions from readers on my other shortbread recipes why their shortbread dough is sandy and doesn’t come together. I suspect this is due to butter temperature being too cold.
So make sure you leave your butter out to warm up well ahead of time. But also be mindful that if it is too soft, the final dough can be a little bit sticky and difficult to handle when you go to roll it up in a log.
I hope you’ll give these a try and share them with your friends and family this holiday season 🙂. I love the combination of macadamias and honey, just like my honey macadamia butter and my honey macadamia pie. And I’m obsessed with the salted sugar topping which gives these cookies a really nice sweet and salty balance! Enjoy!
Hungry for more?
Macadamia Shortbread Cookies Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
For the cookie dough
- 1 cup (144 g) macadamia nuts, raw or roasted and unsalted
- 2 ¼ cup (300 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon (18 g) cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 oz (227 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅔ cup (135 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (80 g) honey
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For topping
- 2 tablespoon (25 g) granulated sugar
- A few pinches of kosher salt
Instructions
- Roast the macadamias – In a skillet over medium heat, roast the macadamia nuts for 3 – 5 minutes until toasty and fragrant. Spread them on a cutting board to cool and then chop into small pieces.1 cup macadamia nuts
- Prepare the dry ingredients – Sift flour and cornstarch into a small mixing bowl, add the salt and stir together. Then add the chopped macadamias and stir to distribute evenly. Set aside.2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoon cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- Cream together wet ingredients – Add softened butter, vanilla, honey and sugar to a stand mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is thoroughly incorporated and creamy.8 oz unsalted butter, ⅔ cup granulated sugar, ¼ cup honey, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Add dry ingredients – Add the flour and macadamias mixture to the creamed butter, stir to combine. Increase the mixer speed and beat until no trace of flour remains and the dough is formed.
- Form the logs – Place a long piece of plastic wrap flat on the countertop. Divide cookie dough into 2 equal portions. Roll each portion on top of the plastic wrap into a log about 6” in length. Wrap it up with the plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. You don’t need additional flour for rolling but you can use some flour if necessary. I usually refrigerate shortbread dough overnight to prep ahead.
- Slice the cookies – Use a sharp knife to slice each cookie dough log into 12 cookies about ½” thick. Rewrap in the same plastic and place them into the freezer while the oven preheats. Or you can store the sliced cookie dough in the freezer for another day at this point.
- Preheat the oven – Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325°F.
- Bake – Place 12 cookies on a large lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Stir a few large pinches of salt into 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a small bowl, sprinkle this sugar mixture on top of cookie dough and bake 1 batch at a time for 25 minutes, until the outer edges of the cookies are golden.2 tablespoon granulated sugar, A few pinches of kosher salt
- Cool – Remove the baking sheet from the oven, but allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet to finish baking from the residual heat for 5-10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Storing baked cookies: store your macadamia shortbread cookies in an airtight container at room temp for up to a week.
- Storing cookie dough: cookie dough can be kept refrigerated for 3-4 days before baking to prep ahead. Or slice and freeze for 3-6 months.
- Baking frozen dough: no need to thaw frozen cookie dough, you can bake directly from the freezer.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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