Recipe video above. Copycat of the famous Byron Bay Cookies sold in cafes across Australia, these are big, thick and buttery, and they are crispy but softly textured and they melt in your mouth. White chocolate and macadamia nuts is a classic cookie combination!
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time40 minutesmins
Course: Cookies
Cuisine: Western
Keyword: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Servings: 13
Calories: 313cal
Author: Nagi
Ingredients
175g / 5.5 ozbutter, unsalted, softened(11 US tbsp)
1/3cupbrown sugar
1/3cupwhite sugar, caster/superfine best
1/8tspsalt
2egg yolks(Note 6 for using leftover whites)
2tspvanilla extract/essence
1 1/2cupsflour, plain/all purpose
1/2cuprice flour (sub with plain)(Note 1)
1/2tspbaking powder
100g / 3.5 ozmacadamias, roughly chopped (Note 2)
125g / 4 ozwhite eating chocolate, chopped into pretty small pieces (not baking chocolate, Note 3)
Beat butter, sugar and salt on medium (speed 5) using a hand held mixer for 1 minute until smooth.
Add egg yolks and vanilla, beat for 1 minute or until smooth.
Add baking powder, rice flour and half the plain flour. Beat with mixer on medium speed until flour is incorporated.
Add remaining flour and beat with mixer until flour is incorporated. Add macadamia nuts and chocolate, then mix through with a wooden spoon (dough gets a bit too hard to use mixer).
Scrape mixture onto a work surface, press together and shape into a 22cm/9" log.
Roll up in baking paper or cling wrap, twist ends then refrigerate for 2 hours.
Slice and bake:
Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan).
Line 2 trays with baking paper.
Remove log from fridge, unwrap and slice into 1.75cm / 3/4" thick slices (12 - 13 cookies).
Place 6 on each tray, bake for 10 minutes.
Turn oven down to 170°C/340°F (150°C fan), switch the trays between shelves.
Bake 15 minutes, remove from oven and cool cookies on tray.
Cool fully before serving.
Notes
1. Rice flour - makes the cookie texture slightly more "velvety" just like Byron Bay cookies. Found alongside cornflour/cornstarch in the baking aisle, use leftovers for Shortbread cookies! Sub with normal flour.2. Macadamia nuts - chop these into largish pieces, halves or quarters. You want nice big pieces for optimal eating experience!3. White Chocolate - Use eating chocolate rather than baking white chocolate, it tastes better than cooking chocolate in this particular recipe (only recipe where I recommend this, because white cooking chocolate quality just isn't up to the standard of milk and dark chocolate).Cut smaller than the nuts. If too large, they can make the surface too cracked because there's too much big "stuff" in the cookie. The trick here is to have more bits of white chocolate throughout in smaller pieces (concluded after close inspection of Byron Bay cookies!).4. Customise - switch the macadamias and chocolate for other things of choice, such as chocolate chunks, dried fruit, nuts, caramel bits. 1 - 1.25 cups in total. Or top with M&M's for the Byron Bay "Dotty" cookies!5. Baking notes:
Initial high temp “sets” the cookie so it doesn’t spread everywhere, then we lower it to finish cooking through without the cookie going brown
Bake time time is longer than usual recipes because these are BIG thick cookies!
Cookies do not spread or rise very much
For smaller cookies, reduce the cook time of the lower temp
Different measures in different countries - recipe has been written to cater for different cup sizes in different countries. Only exception is Japan - please use weights.
6. Leftover egg whites –Here’s my list of what I do with them and all my egg white recipes can be found in this recipe collection.7. Storage - keep in a super air tight container for 4 to 5 days, keeps perfectly with no change to texture. Not sure about freezing - will update if I try.8. Nutrition per cookie.