According to the “New World Encyclopedia,” the macadamia nut hails from Australia originally, but once the Europeans discovered them in 1828, the evergreen trees they grow on eventually made their way to Hawaii in 1881.
It wasn’t long before they became a commodity, and while the United States produces quite a few, Australia is still the leader in growing them.
The website “Australian Macadamias” notes that the nuts were considered a delicacy by Aboriginal people and were used in trade and ceremonies for a long, long time. They even had a special legend for how macadamia nuts came to be.
I’ve always loved macadamia nuts. I will sometimes pick them first out of a bowl of mixed nuts, and every time I was ever approached over the years to buy cookie dough from my students, I opted for white chocolate chip macadamia nut dough.
To be honest, most of that dough ended up as a snack out of the freezer, but I really like the baked cookies, too, so I decided to whip up a batch this week—avoiding the temptation to polish off the dough before it made it into the oven.
The recipe I used comes from the blog “Back for Seconds” by Stephanie Brubaker. You can find the original at https://backforseconds.com/the-best-chewy-white-chocolate-macadamia-nut-cookies/2/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.
White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 4 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups macadamia nuts
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until very well combined.
- Beat in the vanilla and eggs until smooth.
- Beat in the salt, corn starch, baking soda, baking powder and flour. Stir in the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
- Drop the dough about two inches apart in about two to three tablespoon scoops onto a baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool for about five minutes and them place them into an airtight container to keep them soft.
I wish I could say more of these cookies made it out of the house to be shared with others than they did, but we thoroughly enjoyed them over the course of the week.
They were a nice change from my normal inclination to make something with darker chocolate or oatmeal, and the taste of macadamia nuts always makes me think about summer, too.
It also makes me thankful to those folks in Australia thousands of years ago who first started harvesting those little treasures so that they made it to my kitchen in 2019.
This piece first appeared in print on April 4, 2019.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
