White Chocoalte Macadamia Cookies (Secret Recipe Club)

Once again my Secret Recipe Club assignment has introduced me to another delightful blogger.  Julie, of Julie's Eats and Treats, lives in West Central Minnesota and I feel a little bit of a connection with her as my Dad's family hails from Red Wing, MN, which I'm guessing is not all that far away.  With relatives still in Minneapolis I get occasional winter weather updates and with my San Diego-Sissy skin I'm always somewhat thrilled that I'm not knee deep in snow with wind chills below zero.

Perusing Julie's blog I didn't get far before I stumbled upon her White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies.  Loving of the buttery mac nuts like I do, my hunt for a recipe ended nearly before it began.  Now, that's not to say that there weren't many other recipes that I have tagged to try... just that I couldn't get past this one featuring my favorite Hawaiian nuts.

Remembering Debbie Fields introducing her little cookie shops I have fond memories of discovering how much I love these flavors together.  A job at a department store funded my college education, and I spent many a break popping into Debbie's stores where the cookie I usually purchased was the White Chocolate Macadamia (with the occasional Oatmeal Cookie on the side).

Since those college years I've been on a search for as many mac nut recipes as I can find and I simply couldn't pass this one up.  And... I'm really glad I didn't.  Not really on my pre-vacation diet, I probably shouldn't have made them, but I did cut the recipe in half so as not to overly temp myself with the sweet treats that disappeared from our cookie jar in a flash.

Being a little impatient I have to admit to not following the recipe as I should have and I performed that ever dreaded mistake of reaching for the baking powder in place of the baking soda.  Luckily catching my error before dumping the entire spoonful into the mix, I only dropped about 1/4 of a teaspoon into the dry ingredients.  However, I'm thinking that with the beautiful rise I got out of these guys it may not have been a bad idea.

Slightly crunchy on the outside and chewy inside, these cookies had me reminiscing of afternoons spent with Mrs. Field's.  Julie, truly a pleasure to meet you, I'm so glad you were my assignment!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Julie's Eats and Treats

Ingredients
3 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. white chocolate chips
1 c. macadamia nuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl and set aside. Mix butter with sugars in a different bowl. Add vanilla and eggs and mix until smooth and fluffy.

3. Add flour mixture and combine. Then add chips and nuts.

4. Drop onto greased cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown. The tops might still look doughy but they will cook as they sit on the cookie sheet. Let sit on cookie sheets for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack and let cool.

Note:  I added about 1/4 tsp of baking powder by accident... my cookies did puff more than Julie's, and if that is appealing to you, then you just might want to make the same accident!