More Christmas Cookies: Macadamia Nut Yummies

During my baking frenzy a couple weeks ago a friend of mine asked if I was making white chocolate macadamia nut. I've eaten plenty of these in my lifetime, but never made them, so when I got a few free minutes (my Christmas presents are all bought and wrapped--yeah!), I made a couple batches of these.

I had a bunch of my daughter's friends over last night for "Soup-a-Palooza Dos." I'd held one a month or so ago (and just realized I didn't blog about it...sorry! Will remedy that in the next few days). Anyway, I made these cookies as dessert to go with the soups. They were light and sweet, the perfect compliment, IMO.

I know Macadamia Nut cookies generally call for White Chocolate chips, but I had trouble finding those in the store...for some reason there weren't ANY. So I mixed half white chocolate chips that I had left in my cabinet and half Vanilla Chips, which is what the store had. I think it gave the cookies another dimension of flavor, and each chip was a little surprise, with the two working together nicely. Hence the name "Yummies." :-) You can do a little of both, as I have in my recipe below, or do one or the other (total is one cup of chips)

Macadamia Nut Yummies
Makes 2 1/2 dozen

1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour (plus a little extra if the batter is too wet)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 1/2 ounces macadamia nuts, chopped
1/2 cup vanilla chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, Beat in the egg, then the vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda, then add to the batter a little at a time. If the batter is too moist, add another 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour. You want it pliable but not sticky. Stir in the nuts and chips.

Cut a sheet of parchment paper for each cookie sheet (trust me, it's worth it. You end up with pretty much zero cleanup). Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the ungreased sheets, about two inches apart. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the sheet for one minute before transferring to a wire rack.

I made 2 1/2 dozen with this recipe. You can get more or less, depending on the size of your cookies. Or how much raw batter you eat (not recommended by lawyers, salmonella and all that) while waiting on the first batch to cook ;-)

Shirley