White chocolate, cranberry & macadamia cookies

As far as American-style cookies go, these white chocolate, cranberry, and macadamia cookies are my all-time favourite. They are loaded with white chocolate chunks, tart cranberries, and buttery macadamia nuts.

I like to make them at any time of the year but they have a distinctive holiday vibe. You can add orange zest & cinnamon to the mix if you want to amplify this. I would add the zest of half an orange and half a teaspoon of cinnamon to this quantity of batter.

These white chocolate chip cookies have crispy edges and a lovely chewy middle. They can burn easily so be sure to check they don’t from about 10 minutes into the baking time.

step by step image of how to make white chocolate, cranberry and macadamia nut cookies

White chocolate chips are almost impossible to get in South Africa, so chopped-up white chocolate bars work perfectly here. White chocolate isn’t chocolate so I find an everyday brand works well.

step byt step of how to make white chocolate and cranberry cookies

Can you freeze the cookies?

You can double the recipe and freeze off some of the raw cookie dough balls for later use. Simply freeze them on a flat tray then put them in Ziploc bag once frozen for later use. They can be baked from frozen. Just increase the baking tie to 15 – 18 minutes.

These white chocolate, cranberry & macadamia cookies freeze well once baked too. You can even eat them frozen straight from the freezer (don’t tell anyone I said that).

A tray of white chocolate, cranberry & macadamia cookies

Tips and substitutions:

I have made them using pecan nuts before and back at the beginning of my blog days, but I do prefer macadamia nuts. I use raw macadamia nuts but roasted and salted would also be very nice here.
Dried cherries could replace the cranberries in this recipe, just roughly chop them beforehand.
Use ready-made white chocolate chips if you prefer and can get these.
To make these cookies look prettier, reserve some of the cranberries and chocolate pieces aside and place them in the scooped-out cookie dough.
These white chocolate chunk cookies will spread a little during baking. They will have a slightly thick middle section which gives them an amazing chewiness.
Watch them closely while baking to prevent over-browning. Remember that they will carry over cooking slightly after you have taken them out of the oven.
Use a tablespoon-sized small ice cream scoop to make measuring out the cookie dough easier.

This recipe has been adapted from the BBC Good Food

The best white chocolate chip, cranberry and macadamia nut cookie

Other recipes you might like

Alison Romans’ famous salted butter and choc chip shortbread cookies

Espresso choc chip cookies

Gooey oat, fruit & nut bars with dark chocolate

Shortbread biscuit balls with chocolate middles

The best chocolate Nutella brownies

My best baking recipes

Prep Time:15

Cook Time:12

Ingredients

300 gm white chocolate bars cut up into chunks – big and small pieces
100 gm salted butter at room temperature
1 large free-range egg
50 gm muscovado / brown sugar
80 gm caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
180 gm or 1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
50 gm dried cranberries
50 gm macadamia nuts chopped

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 180C / 350F and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Melt 90 gms of the choc in a double boiler, then cool a little.
Using an electric mixer beat the room temperature butter, egg, sugars, and vanilla until creamy.
Beat in the melted and cooled white chocolate.
Stir in the flour, baking powder, cranberries, nuts, and remaining chocolate to make a stiff dough. Reserve a few pieces of white chocolate & cranberries if you wanted to add them on top (optional).
Using a tablespoon measure, drop small mounds well-spaced on a lined baking sheet (silicone baking sheets work really well too).
Bake for 10 – 12 minutes checking from 10 minutes. They are ready when they are light brown around the edges.
Allow the cookies to cool for 1 -2 minutes then put them on a cooling rack. This is quite important as they carry over cooking after baking and can go a bit too brown if left on the baking pan.