These Levain Bakery-Style White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies are out of this world delicious and surprisingly easy to make! A whopping 6 oz each(!!), they’re HUGE, fabulous, gooey, rich and SO tasty!
Oops, I did it yet again and I don’t regret a gosh darn thing, people.
I made yet another Levain Bakery-style cookie. I am on a roll and I have no intentions of stopping this crazy train. It is on a path of destruction and I cannot be tamed. Then again, do you want me to be? I have yet to receive a complaint about “yet another cookie???” because I tend to avoid negative haters in my life.
I think we often forget about white chocolate macadamia nut cookies as a society and that’s a shame. I remember them being huge at Mrs. Fields stores in the mall and it was always my go-to, but after Mrs. Fields kinda disappeared (or, if we’re being honest, that particular mall became dilapidated and uncool) I stopped getting them. They just aren’t as popular at bakeries or even in supermarkets really.
But I am hereby fixing that because these are a must make and need to be catapulted to the top of your to-bake list if you’re a fan of white chocolate macadamia nut flavors (aka, if you have taste buds, obviously). The combination is just such a classic, nostalgic flavor that hits the spot every single time.
Here’s a few key components to making successful Levain Bakery-Style Cookies:
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch is my number 1 FAVE secret ingredient in cookie baking for a light and tender cookie texture. Each and every time, it yields super soft cookies!
- Cake flour: Cake flour is Levain’s actual secret ingredient for a surprisingly tender crumb in these ginormous cookies. If all all-purpose flour were to be used, these cookies would be more dense and scone-like. Cake flour lightens things up a bit and brings some tenderness and fluff to the texture.
- Extra mix-ins: This recipe has 4 cups exactly of mix-ins which sounds like a lot but remember, the cookies are massive AND the large quantity of mix-ins helps keep the cookie’s structure while also preventing it from spreading too much.
- Brief chill time: These cookies need about 30 minutes to chill for optimal flavor! The brief chill time helps meld the flavors together but also aids in the prevention of spreading. We’re only baking one sheet of cookies at a time for optimal results, so while the one sheet bakes, you’ll keep the remaining dough refrigerated.
And for perfect, bakery-style results, follow these tips!
- Shape: These cookies are shaped very rough and loose. We’re very used to tight, smooth and compacted cookie dough balls made with cookie dough scoops, but these are the exception. The rougher, craggier exterior with a looser pack gives them great texture. For accuracy, I recommend measuring out exactly 6 oz of dough by using a digital cooking scale.
- Size: These cookies are giant, so I recommend only baking 4 cookies at a time on a single baking sheet at one time for best results. It’s best to stagger the cookie dough balls about 3″ apart from one another so they bake consistently, and so when they inevitably do spread a little bit, they don’t glom into one giant cookie.
- Do not over bake!: Over baking these cookies is a cardinal sin! These cookies will have a dry, duller exterior finish to them when they’re finished cooking with a gooey, underbaked center. The key to achieving this is to not over bake them! Everyone’s oven varies in heat levels and baking times, but this should take around 8-12 minutes. For me, it took approximately 11 minutes. I recommend test baking one cookie in the center of a single baking sheet to see what your time will be. Keep in mind, once removed from the oven, the cookie will finish cooking on the baking sheet as it begins to cool down at room temperature.
- Bake one at a time: Remember, we’re only baking 4 cookies on one sheet, one sheet at a time.
These Levain Bakery-Style White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies are nutty, sweet, gooey and so rich and delicious. You’re going to love them!
Levain Bakery-Style White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
These Levain Bakery-Style White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies are crazy good! Intensely gooey and sweet with rich nuttiness from the macadamia nuts and melty pockets of white chocolate chips, done in the signature style of famed NYC Levain Bakery!
Servings: 9 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup COLD unsalted butter, cut into small cubes (226 grams)
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar (approx. 137 grams)
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar (approx. 95 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup cake flour (approx. 121 grams)
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour (approx. 191 grams)
- 2 cups white chocolate chips (approx. 300 grams)
- 2 cups roasted and unsalted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped if large
Instructions
Preheat oven to 410° degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
In a large bowl of a stand mixer, add in the cubed cold butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar and beat on low speed with the paddle attachment for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and continue beating for another 30 seconds. Finally, increase speed to high and beat for a remaining 30 seconds. Mixture will be creamy and combined.
Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Next, beat in the baking soda, cornstarch, salt, cake flour, and AP flour slowly until combined. Lastly, beat in the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and mix until just combined. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to chill.
Using a digital cooking scale for accuracy, measure out a roughly textured, tall ball of cookie dough and place 3″ apart on a baking sheet, only 4 dough balls per sheet. Bake for approximately 8-12 minutes or until cookies appear set (the exterior will be dull and dry looking but centers will be gooey and slightly underbaked. I recommend testing 1 cookie at first to gauge what your ideal baking time is first since there is such a vast difference between oven temperatures and times). Allow cookies to cool for at LEAST 30 minutes on the baking sheets before serving as they are quite fragile when still warm. Remember, cookies will continue to finish up their cooking on the baking sheets as they cool.
Notes
This recipe was tested with Ghirardelli white chocolate chips and Mauna Loa macadamia nuts.
You are going to ADORE these insanely delicious cookies!
Have a super sweet day!
xo, Hayley
