Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies are the perfect combination of salty and sweet. Imagine 2 cups of macadamia nuts and white chocolate chunks barely held together with just a couple of cups of cookie dough.

Oh. Em. Gee.

Be sure to use roasted and salted macadamia nuts. They are the perfect foil for the sweet white chocolate. You can use white chocolate chips, however, to take these cookies to the next level, I used white chocolate chunks. I used the Barry Callebaut White Chocolate Chunks from King Arthur Flour.  They are really chunky and uneven, and look great peeking out of the tops of the cookies. You can also buy a good quality bar such as Sharffenberger and chop it into chunks.

I used a tablespoon cookie scoop to form the cookies, and kind of packed the dough in the scoop by hand before dropping the dough onto the baking sheet.

By the way, I like to look at my cookies while they are baking. I'm pretty sure that by looking through the oven window with the light on, I can will the cookies to turn out. Anxiety issues. Just so you know, these cookies stay mounded for a long time, but eventually settle into a cookie shape in about the last 3 minutes.

Note: While my instructions below say bake the cookies one sheet at a time, you can bake these cookies two sheets at a time. I just don't like the whole rotate and switch routine in the middle of baking because I always seem to end up leaving the oven door open too long, letting out all of the heat.

Can I just tell you? These things are ridiculous, in a very good way.

After the recipe, check out what the rest of the members of the Creative Cookie Exchange created for this month's theme, tropical cookies.

Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Adapted from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-your-mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich (definitely check it out!)

Yield: About 33 to 36 cookies. 

Ingredients

2.5 ounces (3/4 cup) rolled oats

3.4 ounces (3/4 cup) unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2.33 ounces (1/3 cup) granulated sugar

2.33 ounces (1/3 cup packed) brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

4.5 ounces (1 cup) whole dry-roasted and salted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

6 ounces white chocolate chunks

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the oats to create a fine flour. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and pulse until blended. 
2. In a medium to large bowl, mix the melted butter with the sugars and vanilla. Add the egg and whisk until creamy. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. When the mixture is cool enough, add the nuts and the chocolate chunks, and mix to combine. 
3. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, but preferable overnight. 
4. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Position a rack in the middle. 
5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it soften just a few minutes. 
6. Line half sheet pans with foil, dull side up. 
7. Drop the dough by tablespoon scoop onto the lined cookie sheet, positioning them two inches apart, 12 cookies per sheet pan. 
8. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time (see note above), for 13 to 15 minutes, until golden. 
9. Cool in the pan on a rack, or drag the foil, cookies and all, to a wire rack so you can re-use the pan. 
10. After the cookies have cooled completely, store in an airtight container for several days, if they last that long. 

It’s that time of year again, the time when many of us want to daydream about being somewhere else. A tropical treat is just the ticket! The Creative Cookie Exchange is going all tropical this February, and that could mean anything from fruit to spices to cut-out cookies. We’ve got you covered! 

• Chocolate Dipped Macadamia Nut Cookies by A Baker's House
• Coconut Mango Butter Cookies by Oven Delights
• Frosted Pineapple Shortbread Cookies by Magnolia Days
• Guava Lava Cookiess by Flours & Frostings
• Hawaiian Raincoast Crisps by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Key Lime White Chocolate Chunk Cookies by 2 Cookin' Mamas
• Lime Coconut Bars with Macadamia Nuts and White Chocolate Chunks by The Spiced Life
• Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Mojito Sugar Cookies by Upstate Ramblings
• Passion Fruit Curd Shortbread Cookies by Live. Bake. Love.
• Pineapple Macadamia Nut Shortbread by Food Lust People Love