Take your beloved classic White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies to the next level with brown butter. The nutty, toffee-like note of brown butter enhances the rich, buttery taste of macadamia nuts, and adding the perfect contrast to the creamy sweetness of white chocolate chips.
✨ Trang’s Recipe Highlights
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At my first job out of college, all our events were catered by the onsite kitchen staff, and they always served white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert. You can probably guess which one I always reached for! These cookies have stuck with me ever since—but this version is a serious upgrade. With brown butter and just the right balance of crunch and chew, they’re totally worth the extra effort.
- FLAVOR: These cookies are rich, buttery, nutty, and sweet with a deep caramel-like note from the brown butter.
- TEXTURE: They have crispy edges, soft and chewy centers, with crunchy macadamia bits and creamy melt-in-your-mouth white chocolate chips throughout.
- EASE: A little bit more advanced if you’re not used to making brown butter. Be sure to check out my guide for making brown butter. But other than that, it’s just like any other typical chocolate chip cookies recipe, pretty quick to whip up with a stand mixer or an electric mixer.
What you’ll need
Here’s everything you’ll need to make this white chocolate macadamia cookies recipe along with some notes and substitution tips for the key ingredients. Jump right ahead to the recipe card for the full ingredients list with quantities and step-by-step instructions.
- Two types of sugar: I used both brown and granulated sugar. Brown sugar helps with chewiness while granulated sugar provides crispiness. You can use all brown sugar or all granulated sugar in a pinch if you don’t have one or the other.
- White chocolate chips: any white chips or wafers will work for this recipe. If you want to splurge, you can use real white chocolate baking bars since most white chocolate chips don’t actually contain cocoa butter. I typically buy either Ghirardelli or Guittard brands, but I’ve also used Good and Gather brand for a more economical option and those chips were very creamy!
- Macadamia nuts: you can use raw macadamia nuts or roasted unsalted macadamia nuts. Whether you’re using raw or roasted nuts, I always recommend toasting them in a skillet before using them to bring out their flavor. I don’t recommend using roated salted macadamia nuts, but if this is the only type you can find, make sure to skip or reduce the amount of salt called for in the recipe so the cookies don’t turn out too salty.
Variations
- Don’t like macadamia nuts? This recipe will work with all other type of nuts: walnuts, pecans, pistachios, etc.
- You can swap out white chocolate chips with semisweet or milk chocolate chips, even caramel chips or butterscotch chips like in these Chocolate Butterscotch Chip Cookies.
Hungry for more?
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies Recipe
Take your beloved classic White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies to the next level with brown butter. The nutty, toffee-like note of brown butter enhances the rich, buttery taste of macadamia nuts, and adding the perfect contrast to the creamy sweetness of white chocolate chips.
Equipment
- Silicone Baking Mat
Ingredients
- 8 oz unsalted butter, 227 g, brown half
- 1 ½ cup macadamia nuts, raw or roasted and unsalted, 200 g
- 1 ¼ cup brown sugar, 250 g, both light or dark will work
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, 50 g
- 2 large egg
- 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, 300 g
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup white chocolate chip, 172 g
Instructions
- Brown half the butter – Place 1 stick (4 oz, 113 g) of butter in the stand mixer bowl and heat the second stick of butter in a light colored saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter melts, it will become foamy. When the foam subsides, you will see clear bubbles, start whisking continuously at this point to keep the milk solids from burning. When the butter is caramel in color and smells nutty, turn off the heat and immediately pour everything including the brown solids over the butter in the stand mixer bowl and stir to melt. Set aside to cool.8 oz unsalted butter
- Roast the macadamia nuts – In a skillet over medium heat, roast the macadamia nuts for 3 – 5 minutes until toasty and fragrant. Spread the roasted nuts on a cutting board to cool and then roughly chop. TIP: Even when using roasted nuts, I would still roast it quickly before using to bring out the flavor and natural sweetness of the macadamias.1 ½ cup macadamia nuts
- Cream butter with sugar – Add brown sugar and granulated sugar to the melted and cooled butter and beat with the paddle attachment for 2 minutes until fluffy and lighter in color.1 ¼ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup granulated sugar
- Incorporate the remaining wet ingredients – Add the eggs along with vanilla extract, and continue beating for another 2 minutes until fluffy.2 large egg, 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Mix in dry ingredients – In another mixing bowl, sift together the flour, 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 and stir until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Add mix-ins – Add the white chocolate chips, chopped macadamia nuts, and stir to incorporate. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a spatula and give it another good mix as needed.1 cup white chocolate chip
- Divide the dough – Portion the cookie dough with a quarter-cup cookie scoop and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before baking. TIP: Refrigerating the dough will allow the flour to hydrate properly and the flavor to develop.
- Preheat the oven – Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F when you are ready to bake.
- Bake – Place 6 dough balls on a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart, and bake 1 batch at a time for 14-15 minutes, until the outer edges of the cookies turn golden brown and the middle is still slightly underbaked. TIP: If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking tray at around the 10-minute mark.
- Cool – Set the baking sheet on a wire rack and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Then, move them to a wire rack to cool completely. TIP: The cookies will continue baking with the residual heat while they are cooling on the baking sheet, so don't over bake.
Notes
- Make them smaller cookies: use a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop and reduce baking time to about 12-13 minutes.
- Storage: keep your white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies in an airtight container for 3-5 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for a few hours before serving.
- Make ahead: cookie dough can be refrigerate for 3-4 days before baking or freeze for 3-6 months. You can bake directly from the freezer without thawing. Simply increase baking time by about 1 – 2 minutes.
Nutrition
Serving: 78g, Calories: 376kcal
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!Can’t get enough of macadamia nuts? Try these:
- For a cookie recipe with similar vibe but with a fruity twist, try these Oatmeal Mango Cookies with Coconut and Macadamia.
- If you have a hard time making decision like me, a kitchen sink style cookie is the way to go. You’ll love these Hawaiian Chocolate Chip Cookies – loaded with oatmeal, chocolate chips, macadamias, coconut and a hint of coffee.
- If you prefer simple shortbread style cookies, I’ve got you covered too with these Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies and these Chocolate Macadamia Cookies.
- Or may be you’re looking for a small batch cookie recipe that you can quickly whip up to share with the family, this Chocolate Chip Coconut Macadamia Nut Pizookie is perfect!
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These are an absolute classic and one of my favourite cookies. So yum
I truly believe that WCM cookies are one of the most underrated cookies of all time. These look oh so soft and sweet and delicious. Cannot wait to try!
Karly, you are so right! I’ve always loved them whenever we got them at office meetings, even the non-homemade ones. I don’t know why it took me so long to actually make them myself. These are so good, you won’t be disappointed :). Thanks for stopping by.