The only thing better than regular white chocolate macadamia nut cookies is BROWN BUTTER White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies! They’re thick, chewy, and so flavorful thanks to the brown butter addition. Loaded with creamy white chocolate and crunchy macadamia nuts, these are a classic!
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Do you remember your first Summer job? For me it was working at Subway. Yes, like the sandwich shop. I was freshly 16 and already knew I wanted to do something involving food. <—- That job, however, lasted all of 6 days. Ha.
But still! I learned a lot in those days. I learned that waking up at 5 am in order to make it in on time for the 6 am shift is brutal and not at all something I’m cut out for; I learned the definition of HANGRY (so hungry you’re angry) because that’s pretty much all people are when they’re on a 30 minute lunch break and waiting for you to make them a sandwich; I learned there are these magical things called White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies… and then I quit to spend the rest of my Summer learning how to bake my own. Obviously that last little life lesson was the most important 😉
This recipe is literally the recipe I developed (with the help of my loving mom) when I was 16 – with one little twist: BROWN BUTTER.
Brown butter is something I didn’t discover until my twenties, and I’m pretty sure I’ll spend the rest of my life playing catch up with it. Proof of this can be found in my brown butter blondies, bite-sized brown butter cookies, brown butter raspberry swirl muffins, butter m&m cookies, brown butter honey pistachio cookie bars, brown butter snickerdoodle donuts, brown butter banana bread, and brown butter gingersnaps! <— Told you; I’m OBSESSED!
What is Brown Butter?
Brown butter, simply put, is regular butter – salted or unsalted – that’s been cooked just long enough to toast the milk solids, transforming it into a magically flavorful and delicious sauce. It will be a deep golden brown, like the photo you see below!
For this recipe it’s important to remember you MUST bring your brown butter back to room temperature before using it in the cookie dough. If you don’t, your cookie dough will be gloppy… and gloppy cookie dough does not bake into the thick and chewy cookies we want.
So now that we know what brown butter is – and how we’re going to use it in this recipe – let’s move on to the cookie ingredients! For these cookies you’ll need all the basics (flour, baking soda, salt, butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla) plus two key ingredients that really make these cookies shine: white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. I like to use these Dry Roasted Macadamia Nuts with Sea Salt and these Vanilla Milk Chips, but feel free to use any brand you know and love.
Shape the cookie dough into BIG balls. This helps them bake up ultra thick and chewy! I like to make them just under a 1/4 cup each. Large and in charge 😉
Feel free to add some extra white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts to the tops of each cookie after they’ve baked. I usually press a few of both on top of each cookie right when they come out of the oven. This makes them look extra pretty and taste extra delicious.
Alright-y fellow cookie lovers, go brown some butter and whip up a batch of my white chocolate macadamia nut cookies! It will be the beginning of a strong and wonderful love affair 🙂
More Macadamia Nut Recipes:
- White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie Bars
- Cranberry White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
- White Chocolate Cranberry Macadamia Nut Granola Bars
Brown Butter White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 15 tablespoons salted butter, melted until browned and brought back to room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (plus more ONLY if the dough seems to need it; adding one tablespoon at a time)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups white chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- Place 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat and cook for about 2 minutes – stirring almost constantly – until the butter has browned. Remove from heat and stir in remaining 7 tablespoons of butter; whisk until completely smooth. Place the bowl in the refrigerator or freezer and bring the butter back to room temperature. *You’ll know the butter is at room temperature when you press a finger into the top and it makes a slight indentation. It should be solid but soft.
- Once the butter is at room temperature…
- In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer combine the sugars, vanilla, and browned butter; cream on medium-speed until light and fluffy; about 2 minutes (I highly recommend using a stand mixer/ handheld mixer to help if you have one). Add the eggs and beat quickly – for only about 30 seconds – until they’re just combined. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes, then beat the eggs for another 30 seconds. Using a rubber spatula gently fold in the flour mixture, stirring only until the flour begins to disappear. Fold in white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
- Roll 3 tablespoon sized balls of dough between your palms to form a ball (they should be big; almost a 1/4 cup), then place on prepared sheet (make sure to leave enough room in between each cookie for inevitable spreading). Continue this process until all the dough has been rolled. Place baking sheets in preheated oven and bake for 11-14 minutes, or until golden at the edges but still soft in the middle. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the sheet before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely.
Tay says
Hi! I’m looking forward to making this. The recipe sounds great and the texture that the cookies come out is exactly what I’m looking for. I do have one question. Can I use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar? And if I do, would there be that much difference in flavor and/or texture? Thank you so much for sharing your recipe!
Tom says
Why do you have some many photos and so much explanation? All we want is the recipe.
bakerbynature says
Hi Tom. While you may feel that way, many readers come to my website for the recipe as well as for food photography and tips in baking. You can always scroll directly to the recipe at the bottom of each post. Have a great day!
Sabrina says
I fell in love with this recipe the second I saw it. I love using brown butter as a substitute for normal butter in baking recipes. I just made these but they aren’t as flat and chewy as yours look. They are thicker/plumper/thicker and more cake-y in texture than your beautiful chewy cookies. I’m not sure what I did wrong. I followed the recipe exactly except for using all brown butter instead of the half and half you suggested. It was cooled to room temp though. :-/ Any suggestions or theories as to what I may have done wrong or what typically causes this result in cookies?
Beautiful recipe nonetheless and the flavour is amazing. I have no doubts that this result was entirely my fault and there was an error in my execution somewhere. I’ve noticed this a few times with cookie recipes I’ve made recently.
Vanessa says
Just made these and my coworkers loved them! They came out super delicious! Thank you for the recipe. I followed it exactly.
Marianne Hornung says
Great cookies, very rich. I didn’t have salted butter so I put 1/2 tsp. Pink salt in the melted butter, because I noticed that the recipe only called for 1/2 tsp. of salt. It worked great.
karen says
ok, just made these ~ THANK YOU!! omg, absolutely delicious ~ I was also a browned butter convert and use it for all of my cakes, cookies, everything! These cookies were perfect and for a little more ‘oomph’, i also added about 3/4C of heath toffee bits ~ yum! Thanks again for sharing!
Pauline says
What weight is a cupful ? Or what size cup? I am in Uk.
bakerbynature says
Hi Pauline. A standard US cup is 8 ounces 🙂
Jenna says
White chocolate macadamias nut cookies are one of my favorites, especially in the summer! Love the idea of browning butter, I actually have never done that before! Crazy I know, everyone says how amazing it is and I guess I have find out what all the fuss is about! These look great 🙂
bakerbynature says
Jenna, you’ve got to try these cookies with the brown butter! Brown butter is AMAZING and I just know you’ll love it. Please let me know if you have any questions on how to do it 😉 xo
Erin @ Miss Scrambled Egg says
Wow. These look fantastic. I haven’t had macadamia nuts in forever. I definitely need to try these. 😀
bakerbynature says
Thank you, Erin! These cookies are the perfect way to play catch up 😉
[email protected] says
MMMmmmm! These look so thick and chewy!
bakerbynature says
They really are 😉 Thank you, Tori!