Some people are cake people. Some people are brownie people. Some people are not dessert people (ew, bye). But I…I am a cookie person. I would choose a cookie over most things. And these chewy white chocolate macadamia nut cookies studded with cranberries and oats are my new favorite. Dense, buttery, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside…I mean I’m drooling.
How to make a chewy cookie:
Ahh the trickiest question of them all. We all know that enviable texture: soft, but not too soft with just enough bite and a crispy edge. Well these white chocolate cranberry macadamia cookies have that amazing texture and we’ll tell you how we did it:
We found a 1.5:1 ratio of sugar to butter, under baking slightly, and an extra egg yolk all help to produce that amazing chewy texture that makes cookies so good.
Why are macadamia nuts so expensive?
Literally WHY. I just googled it and the internet tells me that macadamias take a longer time to grow than most nuts and also are trickier to harvest, meaning they’re handpicked, and therefore pricier.
Like I get it, but if anyone else knows more about macadamia nuts and where I can purchase them for not 23 million dollars a pound please let me know in the comments!
If you don’t feel like splurging on macadamia nuts–I hear you! You could always replace them with a different chopped up nut (I’d recommend walnuts) if you still want that crunch, or you can just omit them and up the other add ins! I will say though, that they truly are so good in this cookie recipe.
How to make the perfect white chocolate cranberry macadamia nut cookie:
Keep all your ingredients at room temperature: this is SO important and will help everything blend together.
Use high quality ingredients: there are some pretty subpar white chocolates out there so make sure you’re using something that isn’t going to dry out in the oven. We love chopping up Ghiradelli bars!
Use old fashioned oats: I cannot stress this enough. Quick oats and steel cut oats. They are just not the same!
Under-bake! This will keep your cookies chewy and soft for days!
So if you’re looking for a pick me up this Thursday (or any day) I’d highly recommend treating yourself to some macadamia nuts and making these amazing white chocolate cranberry cookies.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Scrape down the bowl and beat until everything is well mixed.
Add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the wet mixture and mix until just combined. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and add in the white chocolate, macadamia nuts, cranberries and oats. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the ingredients until everything comes together.
Using a medium sized cookie scoop, drop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets into rounded balls about 2 inches apart each. Bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are just golden brown, but the inside of the cookie is still doughy–it will continue to bake as it cools! Enjoy with a glass of milk!
Absolutely! Just make the cookies as directed and refrigerate the dough for up to 48 hours hour (or freeze for up to 3 months). When ready to bake off, just let the cookie dough balls come fully to room temperature before baking!
Wowowowowowow. I am absolutely speechless.
Theses cookies were phenomenal! I had been wanting to bake cookies like the ones I enjoy at my favorite coffee shop for a while, but I hadn’t found any recipes that convinced me. I saw this one, remembered the walnuts and white chocolate I had around, and magic happened. Thank so much for this top notch creation!
Leave a comment and rate this recipe!
Hi! Can you premake the dough and freeze the raw cookie dough until you’re ready to bake?
Absolutely! Just make the cookies as directed and refrigerate the dough for up to 48 hours hour (or freeze for up to 3 months). When ready to bake off, just let the cookie dough balls come fully to room temperature before baking!
You can find a decent sized bag of roasted macadamia nuts at Costco and they run just under $20
Wowowowowowow. I am absolutely speechless.
Theses cookies were phenomenal! I had been wanting to bake cookies like the ones I enjoy at my favorite coffee shop for a while, but I hadn’t found any recipes that convinced me. I saw this one, remembered the walnuts and white chocolate I had around, and magic happened. Thank so much for this top notch creation!
Hi there! Would steel cut oats also work?
Hi Lindsey! Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend it as steel cut oats can be rather fibrous and tough even when baked!
Looks so good! Could I leave out the oats though?
Yes! You’ll just want to replace it with flour or the cookies will spread too much!
When you say “replace oats with flour” is that a 1:1 conversion. So leaving out 1/3 cup of oats you would add 1/3 cups of flower instead?
Exactly!