White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Bake #28 for 2025: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies by Tessa Arias

After I tried White Choc Macadamia Nut cookies at Subway as a kid, they became part of the early days of my baking love - they were possibly my first exposure to the alchemy that is salty+sweet. (Back when their cookies were legit sooo good, remember that?)

When I was browsing my Handle the Heat Ultimate Cookie Handbook, I knew this was one I wanted to try. Unfortunately, the cookbook is currently sold out, but thankfully, Tessa has shared the recipe with all her notes (as usual) on her website!

A couple additional notes from me:

• I prefer salted macadamia nuts, so I cut back on the salt in the recipe slightly to balance it. However, in the end, I wish I had left it AND used salted nuts, which would’ve hit that salty-sweet note a little better for our family preferences.
• I also got whole macadamia nuts and just roughly chopped them myself. Next time, I’ll definitely look for salted & pre-chopped nuts, just to save a step and ensure more consistency.
• Lastly, her recipe calls for fully creaming the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (2-3 min), but I actually prefer a slightly denser cookie for this style, so next time, I may try reducing that time so I’m not incorporating quite as much air.

I hope you try these and enjoy them as much as we did!
And don’t forget to follow Tessa for loads of fantastic recipes & baking science.