Milk Chocolate Macadamia Coconut Cookies by Modern Honey

Milk Chocolate Macadamia Coconut Cookies - made dough August 19, 2023 from Modern Honey

1 cup butter, cut into cubes

1 cup brown sugar, packed 

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla 

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups milk chocolate chips

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, mixing to combine after each addition.
4. On low speed, mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt in two to three additions, mixing just until combined. Do not overmix. 
5. Stir in chocolate chips, coconut and macadamia nuts. Portion dough into golf-ball size balls and flatten tops slightly. Evenly space on lined baking sheets. Bake 9-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

I must be on a roll with putting nuts in cookies. But I've long ago made an exception to macadamia nuts since they don't soften in baking like their other nutty (bad pun woefully intended) counterparts. Once they cool, they're as crisp as ever.

I typically pair macadamia nuts with coconut or white chocolate or both. This recipe swaps out the white chocolate for milk chocolate. I'm running out of good quality white chocolate chunks and haven't replenished my supply yet so using milk chocolate chunks was ideal. For milk chocolate, I prefer to buy Trader Joe's Pound Plus milk chocolate bar and cut it into chunks for cookies. They taste and look better than going with chocolate chips.

I liked this cookie. It's got a little more going on than a straightforward milk chocolate chip cookie because of the macadamia nuts and coconut so the purist in me had to adapt. But I like macadamia nuts, coconut and milk chocolate separately and they worked together in this cookie. They also didn't spread much, something I always look for in a good cookie.

The edges were crisp and the coconut adds a little more of that crisp-chewy texture as well as sweetness. You can sub out semisweet chocolate chunks or chips for the milk chocolate if you prefer more chocolate and less sugar (that's not me).