White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

I’m not the biggest fan of white chocolate. Never have been. I don’t know why. It’s too strong? Too sweet?

So when I volunteered to make cookies for my neighbor who was in the hospital with a very serious illness (prior to the coronavirus outbreak), and she told me her favorite flavor cookie is macadamia nut white chocolate chip, I was naturally disappointed. Which doesn’t really make sense if you think about it. It’s not like I was making the cookies for my myself. Also, I don’t keep white chocolate on hand (because I don’t like it), and I generally do not have macadamia nuts on hand either.

What lifted my spirits a bit was the thought that I could make a Levain-like cookie in the white chocolate macadamia nut flavor. Every Levain-like cookie that I’ve made has turned out to be pretty phenomenal so I figured this one would turn out about as phenomenal as you can get for white chocolate + macadamia nut.

And I was right. Naturally I had to taste the cookies before gifting them to my neighbor and her family. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really, really, really liked this cookie. Which means that if you are a white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie fan, I think you will really, really, really love this cookie.

ingredients.

1 c. cold butter cut into small cubes
1 c. brown Sugar
½ c. sugar
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
1 ½ c. cake flour
1 ¾ c. flour
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ¼ tsp. kosher salt
2 c. white chocolate chips or chunks
2 c. macadamia nuts roughly chopped

directions.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a large bowl, add flours, cornstarch, soda and salt and stir together to incorporate.
In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and sugar until creamy. It will not be light and creamy like standard cookie dough. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one and scraping the sides and bottom to make sure all ingredients are incorporated. Add vanilla and stir to combine.
Stir in dry ingredients. Mix until almost combined and then stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. Stop mixing when you see no more flour (so long as the chips and walnuts are sufficiently mixed in with the rest of the dough).
Make approximately 8 to 10 large balls of dough with the dough and place on light colored cookie sheets covered in parchment paper. You should have four to five cookies per cookie sheet. They do not spread out all that much but you don’t want the cookies to touch during the baking process.
Bake for 10 to 13 minutes or until golden brown on the top and edges. Let cool completely on the cookie sheets. If you can’t wait for them to cool completely before trying them (Levain serves their cookies warm!), allow to set at least 15 minutes before digging in.