Double Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

After college I used to go to my parent’s house every Sunday to do my laundry. It wasn’t that I didn’t have laundry at my apartment, I was just terrified beyond belief of the laundry room beneath my apartment. When my roommate and I moved in, we looked at the dark dungeon of a laundry room and both gave it a definitive “no thanks.” I only used it a few times, and always in the middle of the day, and on my final trip I had a perfectly pleasant conversation with a man who had just moved in…which seems harmless enough looking back, but at the time I was convinced he was going to kidnap me. Yes, my mind is a weird place.

Anyway, my laundry room fear led to several cozy Sundays at my parent’s place. My sister would usually come over too, and we’d fight, as sisters do, over who got to put the first load in. While waiting for our laundry, we’d sometimes watch Grey’s Anatomy on the DVR, but usually we’d make cookies for my dad. Sure, my mom enjoys cookies (as long as they have “nothing weird” in them like peanut butter…crazy lady), but my dad is the one who really treasures baked goods. Now that my sister and I both live in places with in-unit laundry, our weekend baking adventures happen less often than my dad would like. When we do go to my parents place, my dad will inevitably come upstairs and say, “Are my girls baking me cookies? I haven’t had fresh cookies in so long…” Guilt.

A few weeks ago, this same scenario played out, but then my dad reached for a package of store-bought cookies. STORE BOUGHT! That’s what he’s succumbed to? I felt ashamed. It only got worse when he said, “Katie, give these a try. They’re really good.” Oh ARE they…We’ll see about that.

They were good. I hated them for it, but they were really good…disturbingly good, and of course full of the scary ingredients that come in store-bought cookies.

With my dad’s birthday coming up this Thursday, I decided to make him a batch of cookies that would at least keep him away from the store-bought variety for a few days. For this birthday treat, I put my own spin on those boxed white chocolate macadamia cookies he talked up so much. I wish I could say this “spin” was purely out of artistic inspiration, but in the same fashion that my sister and I usually make cookies at my parent’s place, I just went with what I had in my cupboards and made it work.

Double Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Makes 3 1/2 dozen

• 3/4 cup butter, softened and divided
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 ounces good-quality white chocolate (like Ghiradelli)
• 1/2 cup roasted and salted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350.

In one bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.

Combine the white chocolate and 4 tablespoons of butter in a glass bowl. Bring a small pot of water to a simmer, and then set the glass bowl on top of it. Stir the chocolate and butter until they melt, then remove from heat.

In another bowl, cream the remaining butter, and add the sugars, beating until fluffy. Mix in the egg and vanilla, then pour in the white chocolate sauce. Side note: This was the most alluringly creamy cookie batter I’d ever set my eyes on.

Gradually add the dry ingredients, and then fold in the nuts and chocolate. The dough will be very sticky; to make it easier to work with, refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Drop the cookies by rounded tablespoon onto a greased/parchment-lined sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown.

When these first came out of the oven my heart sank as I took in their thinness. I usually like thick, cake-like cookies. Ashamed, I almost didn’t even give the cookies to my dad…but then I tasted one.

I’ve wanted to experiment with using powdered sugar in cookies for a while, and now I’m regretting not trying it sooner. These cookies are so light and airy that you could devour at least 5 of them in 3 minutes. I’m not recommending this, but I’m just saying it’s an option…

Adding the white chocolate sauce to the batter gives these cookies a creamy richness that just melts in your mouth. I also love the contrast of the white chocolate dough with the dark chocolate chunks. However, if you’re not as much of a chocoholic as me, you could easily leave the chunks out and just have a really jazzed-up, nutty sugar cookie…which doesn’t sound half bad.

These cookies come out crisp, and are delicious in that form, but if you want them a bit more tender, simply store them in an airtight container with a piece of bread torn in half. I opted for the bread option, and the resulting cookies were light, chewy, and absolutely perfect. Pick your texture poison and enjoy.

After having a perfectly girly mom and sister date of facials and coffee on Saturday, I handed my mom a container that held half the cookie batch, explaining that this was just to get dad by until his birthday cake on Thursday. When I arrived home, I received a text from my dad that said, “Thanx 4 cookies! They r scrumptious!!!” Please take note of the abbreviations. This is the man who used to need me to add contacts into his phone for him. This is the man who used to send me text messages that were literally blank. Over the past few years his technology skills may have grown, and his daughters may have gotten their own laundry appliances, but goodness the man still loves his cookies.