Name: White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Bars
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 9
Ingredients: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted; 1 cup light brown sugar, packed; 1 cup granulated sugar; 2 large eggs, at room temperature; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped; 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

I have been in love with the combination of white chocolate and macadamia nuts since I was a little girl. Every time my family would go to the mall (which was infrequent), my mom would let me pick out one cookie from the Mrs. Field’s counter. I always, always chose white chocolate macadamia. Gooey, sweet, and studded with rich macadamia nuts, it was a flavor we never made or had at home, and so it always seemed so special to me. It still does after all these years, and maybe even more so in these incredibly indulgent, moist and chewy White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie Bars.

What Ingredients Are in White Chocolate Macadamia Bars?

It’s pretty much your standard cookie ingredient list… plus those namesake items. You’ll need:

Butter.
Brown sugar and white sugar.
Butter.
Eggs.
Vanilla.
Flour.
Baking powder.
White chocolate chips.
Macadamia nuts.

How Do You Make White Chocolate Macadamia Bars?

If you’ve baked much before, the process will look pretty familiar except here you’re going to beat together melted butter and sugar rather than creaming softened butter. The melted butter gives you a chewy texture and a more robust butter flavor.

Next, you’ll mix in the eggs and the vanilla, followed by the rest of your dry ingredients. You want to mix the dry ingredients in until they’re just incorporated. If you over beat them, you run the risk of creating a denser, tougher crumb. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the white chocolate and the macadamias as to not break them up too much.

This needs a 9×9 baking pan and they take about 30 minutes in the oven. They’re thick and take a while to cook through in the center, so you might want to give it a little longer, but I like a fudgy, almost gooey texture here. Make sure to let them rest in the pan for about 30 minutes as well to cool so they have some residual baking time.

Slicing them into nine squares works just fine, but they are very rich, so can handle being cut into even smaller portions. (And then you get to share them with more people, and make even more people happy.)