Macadamia White Chocolate Cookies
Macadamias and white chocolate are a match made in heaven. Put them both into a soft, sweet morsel of a cookie and you have yourself the perfect sweet treat. I recently baked these for a long weekend away camping, but have no hesitations to bake another batch promptly for home. I have utilised Thalia Ho’s base cookie recipe and substituted a few ingredients here and there.
Makes approximately 21 cookies Total baking time ~45 minutes
Ingredients
150g unsalted butter, cubed
200g light brown sugar
70g caster sugar (preferably raw)
An egg, cold
280g all purpose flour
2tsp vanilla extract or paste
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
170g white chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 to 3/4 cup macadamias, roughly chopped
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C/ 350 deg F. Line two to three baking sheets with baking parchment paper.
Place the butter in a large glass bowl and heat in the microwave gently until melted. If needed, pause the microwave and stir intermittently. Alternatively, this can be done on the stovetop over low heat in a saucepan.
Into the bowl with the melted butter, add the sugars and beat until combined. Beat in the egg, followed by vanilla extract/paste, until smooth and glossy.
In a separate bowl, sift and whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Tip half of the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients. With a wooden spoon gently fold in until incorporated. Tip in the other half and gently fold until incorporated again. The dough should be soft. Place in macadamias and white chocolate and fold in until they are evenly spread around the batter.
Using a tablespoon as a measure, portion out even sized amounts of dough. Shape them into balls with your hands. Divide the dough between the sheets leaving some space to account for dough spread.
Place into the oven a bake for 10-12 minutes. Halfway through, open the oven door and lift the sheet by a few inches. With a little force, tap it against the oven rack, so that the cookies de-flate slightly. The chocolate should run, too. Close the oven door and continue to bake for another minute. Again, repeat this lifting and tapping process, for a total of 3 more times. The cookies will be golden brown and crisp around the edges, but the middles still soft, when they’re done.
Remove and let stand on the sheet for a few minutes, before transferring the cookies off and onto a wire rack to cool further, before serving.