These cookies are surprisingly close to the "ideal" white chocolate macadamia cookie that I've been searching for... especially considering that the recipe hardly resembles any American one. In the place of brown sugar, a mixture of granulated sugar and maple syrup is used, and natron (NaHCO3) is used as a leavener... which is the same as baking soda, as it turns out. I suspect that the unique texture provided by using just soda versus baking powder occurs because the soda requires acidity to react, and since there isn't very much acidity in this recipe, you only get a little bit of a lift, so the cookies are neither flat nor puffy and tall. Which is, as far as I'm concerned, how a WCMN cookie should be.
What these cookies have about them that makes them ideal to me is their texture (soft and chewy!) flavour (the dough is simple and vanillaey, and doesn't cover up the delicate tastes of white chocolate and macadamia nuts) and simpleness to make. The maple syrup doesn't really impart any taste, being more for the texture of the dough, and can be replaced with golden syrup. Like any chip cookie, these go best with a glass of cold milk.
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies II
From Chefkoch.de
140 g. Sugar
1 TBSP Maple syrup, substitute golden syrup or light corn syrup
100 g. Butter, softened
1 Egg
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
200 g. All purpose flour
1/2 Tsp. Natron/baking soda
Scant 1/2 Tsp. Salt
130 g. White chocolate chunks or chips
80 g. Macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
Preheat oven to 160℃.
Combine sugar and maple syrup until homogenous. Add butter, egg and vanilla and beat together well.
Sift together the flour, natron and salt. Add to the sugar mixture until well-combined.
Stir in the white chocolate and macadamias. On sheets lined with baking parchment, scoop teaspoons of dough.
Bake for 15 minutes and let cool before removing from the pan.
Although I usually prefer a completely different genre of cookies (namely butter biscuits, nut-based shortbreads and gingerbread- anything that resembles the Central European Christmas standbys) I still do like the occasional batch of American, chewy, sugary, almost fudgey cookies flavoured predominantly by vanilla, brown sugar and whatever mix-ins are added. Of all the varieties that entails, one of my all-time favourites is the white chocolate-macadamia cookie. I've always been a lover of white chocolate (whose rep is constantly being shredded by sugar-vegetable fat impostors used in glazes and cheaper baked goods) and it pairs well with the subtle, buttery flavour of macadamias, too. Embedded in a soft and tender dough casing and served with a glass of milk, it's not only delicious- it has a matching colour palette. I think it's fate.
However, to find a good version of that cookie is pretty elusive. Ultra-sweet by nature, it walks a fine line on the best of days- there's no dark or semisweet chocolate to balance out the inherently sugary dough. But you also can't just reduce the sugar- it's an integral part of the chewy texture that makes the perfect chip-type cookie, in my opinion (I'm not about the cakey kinds- though a cookie-like cake is fine). I remember eating some really good ones as a kid, but now it seems far harder to match the criteria of the perfect cookie, perhaps because I've become nitpicky and obsessive about the details. I want it sweet, but not too sweet! Made with butter! With lots of real white chocolate and a generous amount of nuts!
I chose this recipe due to the absence of shortening- I never have it around, and didn't want to be stuck with leftovers after using only a small amount for one recipe. While the texture was pretty spot-on with what I wanted, and the cookies themselves were delicious, it still wasn't the ideal white-choc macadamia cookie of my dreams. Had I only imagined such a thing in the sugar-gluttony of my childhood? Could a perfect balance of sweetness, texture, flavour and richness really have ever existed except for in my dreams?
I've come up with a few plans of action to modify my next batch- And I'm determined to succeed. The perfect cookie will evade me no longer! Until then, these ones will go down just fine. Mmmmm.
- Less sugar, or perhaps more butter; so far as chewy texture will remain
- A mixture of AP flour and vanilla pudding powder in place of the flour mix
- A little more salt
- Actual white chocolate chunks instead of chips, since they aren't stabilized for high temperatures and will melt better
White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies I
Adapted from The Chunky Chef
1 1/2 C. AP Flour
1/2 C. Pastry flour
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Tsp. Baking soda
3/4 C. Butter, cubed (170 g.)
3/4 C. Sugar
3/4 C. Dark brown sugar
1 Egg plus 1 yolk
2 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 C. White chocolate chips
1 C. Toasted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (toast 7 minutes at 180℃)
Cream butter and sugars using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer. Add vanilla, egg and yolk.
Sift together flours, salt, and baking soda. Incorporate 1/3 at a time into the wet ingredients with the motor on low.
Add nuts and chips. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 170℃. Form balls with an ice cream scoop or tablespoon and bake 8-10 minutes on parchment-lined sheets, until golden. Let set on sheets.
