These bakery-style white chocolate macadamia cookies are enormous with golden edges and gooey centers. Packed with chunks of white chocolate and macadamia nuts, they rival anything from a famous bakery or coffee shop. 
Why You Need to Make these Bakery-Style White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
If you want a white chocolate macadamia cookie that looks and tastes like it belongs on Instagram, this recipe delivers. The cookies are large and buttery, with melted pockets of white chocolate and crunchy macadamia pieces. They develop crisp, golden edges while remaining soft and gooey in the center. Using white chocolate chunks gives you generous, melty bites in every cookie.
Key Tips with This Recipe
This recipe produces bakery-style cookies inspired by Levain Bakery and coffee-shop favorites: big, thick, and indulgent. If you’ve made softer, chewier white chocolate macadamia cookies before, expect a different, more bakery-like result here.
Important techniques:
- Cold butter. Unlike recipes that call for softened butter, this one uses cold butter cut into cubes. Cold butter releases steam as it melts in the oven, which helps create crisp edges while keeping the centers tender.
- Cornstarch. A tablespoon of cornstarch (cornflour) adds tenderness to the crumb, giving the centers a soft, almost shortbread-like texture that contrasts nicely with the crisp edges.
- Salt and vanilla. Because white chocolate is very sweet, use a generous pinch of salt and a good dose of vanilla to balance the flavor.
- Make them big. This recipe yields eight very large cookies. Form dough balls of about 1/3 cup each (roughly 3.2 ounces or 90 grams per cookie if you use a scale).
Chilling the dough: Chilling is optional but affects shape. If you want extra thick, pillowy cookies like the images, chill the dough balls for 15–30 minutes before baking. If you prefer slightly thinner but still substantial cookies, bake the dough immediately as long as it feels cool from the cold butter.
- Chilled dough = less spread, thicker cookies (15–30 minutes in the fridge).
- Unchilled dough = a bit more spread, still thick if the dough is cool.
Pro tip: Weighing ingredients with a kitchen scale gives the most consistent results—especially for flour. Too much flour leads to dry cookies.
Bakery-Style White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
Fiona Dowling
20 mins
13 mins
45 mins
8 very large cookies
Equipment
-
Cookie sheets
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (208 grams)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (cornflour)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (112 grams), cold and cut into cubes
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (100 grams), light or dark
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, cold
- 2/3 cup white chocolate chunks
- 2/3 cup chopped macadamia nuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat the cold butter cubes with the brown sugar and granulated sugar until combined.
- Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
- With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Stir in the chopped macadamia nuts and white chocolate chunks.
- Form the dough into eight equal balls (about 1/3 cup each). They should weigh roughly 3.2 ounces (90 grams) each if using a scale.
- Place dough balls 3 inches apart on the prepared sheets. The dough should still feel cool; for extra-thick cookies or if the dough feels warm, chill the balls for 15–30 minutes.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 12–15 minutes, or until the tops look set. Optionally press a few extra chocolate chunks on top. Cool the cookies fully on the sheets.
Notes
- Flour: Measure carefully. If you don’t have a scale, whisk the flour, spoon it into measuring cups, and level it off. Too much flour makes dry cookies.
- Cold butter: Use cold butter from the fridge, cut into cubes, as the recipe requires.
- Cold egg: A cold egg helps keep the dough cool for better structure.
- Make-ahead: Dough can be refrigerated up to 48 hours. Dough balls can be frozen for up to 2 months; bake from frozen, adding 1–2 minutes to the bake time.
- Storage: Best warm from the oven. Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.
- Nutrition: Nutrition details are estimates per cookie, assuming eight equal cookies.