There’s nothing like one of these Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies warm from the oven. Sweet chocolate morsels and nuts are baked into soft chewy cookies in this easy recipe. Best served with a glass of cold milk!
For a fun take on macadamia cookies, check out this Macadamia Cookie Pizza. Need something extra easy? Our readers rave over this Macadamia Nut Fudge recipe.
Why this Recipe is Best
These milk chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies are my take on Pepperidge Farm Sausalito cookies. They taste so much better than the packaged cookies that inspired me because they’re homemade with love.
You’ll love these soft, sweet, nutty cookies!
- Copycat Pepperidge Farms cookie recipe.
- One bowl recipe.
- Perfect ratio of nuts to chocolate.
- No chilling the dough.
- Ready to eat in minutes.
Love chocolate? You’ll have to try our chocolate macadamia nut cookies next. Fudgy, chewy, with a crunchy texture!
Ingredients Notes
- Macadamia nuts – My kids prefer most cookies without nuts but they LOVE macadamias. Chop them into fine pieces before adding to the dogh.
- Milk chocolate – You can use chocolate chips, chunks or a bar of milk chocolate cut into small bites.
- Vanilla – For best fragrant vanilla flavor, use a pure extract (not imitation). Homemade Vanilla Extract is extra amazing in these cookies, if you can plan ahead.
- Unsalted butter – Melting the butter first makes these cookies extra chewy.
- Kosher salt – Wondering why I always use kosher salt for cooking and baking? We’ve got all our tips on why we use kosher salt.
Easy Instructions
Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies are a a straight forward drop cookie recipe.
Start by mixing up your dough ingredients in a large bowl. Fold in the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
Then drop the cookie dough by the tablespoon onto a baking sheet. Bake until the bottoms just begin to brown.
Let them cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.
Tips and Tricks
- Press more chocolate chips on top before baking. This is how food bloggers make our milk chocolate chip cookies look as great as they taste!
- Substitutions: Pecans and walnuts would taste delicious as a swap for the macadamia nuts. Feel free to use dark, semi-sweet or white chocolate instead of milk chocolate, if you prefer.
- Crunchy cookies: I love these best when they’re soft baked. For a crispy style cookie, add another couple of minutes to the baking time.
- Freeze: use our guide on how to freeze cookie dough for best practices.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, milk chocolate macadamia cookies are the perfect make ahead cookie. Store the dough tightly wrapped in the fridge until ready to use. For longer storage, you can freeze the raw cookie dough too. I like to freeze the dough in balls so I can bake the cookies from frozen. No need to thaw, just add another 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
Store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They stay good for about one week.
Yes, you can. When baking cookies with salted butter, reduce the amount of added salt in the recipe by half.
More Cookie Recipes
- These Citrus Cookies are soft and chewy and filled with orange, lemon and lime zest! Rolled in sugar for some extra sweetness!
- Butterscotch Shortbread bars: these delicious, buttery cookie bars are simply amazing. The rich shortbread cookies with browned butter and butterscotch chips will keep you wanting more. Plus, they couldn’t be easier to make!
- Lofthouse Cookies
- Whopper Cookie Bars: a malted cookie crust topped with a layer of fudge and chopped Whopper candies! These freeze and become the ultimate chewy malted cookie!
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Snickerdoodles
Milk Chocolate and Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips or bars, cut into chunks, divided
- 1 cup macadamia nuts chopped
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, beat melted butter with sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, until well blended. Slowly add flour, baking soda and salt.
- Fold in all but 1/2 cup of milk chocolate morsels and all the nuts.
- Drop by large tablespoon onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Press a few of the reserved chocolate chips on top. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
Notes
- Press more chocolate chips on top before baking. This is how food bloggers make our milk chocolate chip cookies look as great as they taste!
- Substitutions: Pecans and walnuts would taste delicious as a swap for the macadamia nuts. Feel free to use dark, semi-sweet or white chocolate instead of milk chocolate, if you prefer.
- Crunchy cookies: I love these best when they’re soft baked. For a crispy style cookie, add another couple of minutes to the baking time.
- Storage: store cookies in airtight containers at room temperature for up to one week. Or use our guide on how to freeze cookie dough.
Nutrition
A batch of these Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies makes any day better. You’ll like them even more than Sausalitos!
Y U M ! Pinned 😉 Thanks for another incredible recipe, Aimee! 🙂
Hello – thank you for sharing your recipe. Your pictures really caught my eye so I decided to make these cookies today – I encountered a problem though. The first batch burnt before even reaching the ten minute mark. On the bottom of the cookies? I thought it might be the new roll of parchment paper(?) so I made a second batch lowered the oven temp to 350 and changed the paper I used to a different brand: but the same thing happened again. Any idea where I am going wrong? Did I scoop the cookies too big? Do salted nuts have any influence? Thank you for your help. And thank you again for the recipe. Francesca xx
Do you have your cookie sheet in the middle of the oven? I would check into getting a thermometer for you oven to check the actual temperature. It could also be the cookie sheet you are using, conducting heat too fast and not evenly.
Yes, the cookie sheet was placed on the middle shelf. I was beyond confused; almost certain that my oven was correct as it had not let me down previously, then all was revealed this evening when I was cooking dinner… I found out that a small baking pan had slipped down and was blocking part of the vent in the back of the oven, hence the burnt cookies. Phew! House did not catch fire, oven is still working and your recipe is a success 🙂 My friends at work loved the cookies and did not think they were burnt – I was not going to share them but if I don’t take something in, they moan about being hungry. Hehe.
Thank you Amy.
Yes! I saw these and thought– Sausalito cookies!!!! They are my favorites 🙂 Love your photos here too!
Thanks Ashton 🙂
You know, I usually hate nuts in my cookies, but these cookies with the crumbly looking texture on the outside look so absolutely perfect that I’m pretty sure they could change my mind! I’ve never frozen cookie dough before–so smart and convenient!
Thanks Ari, definitely you need to freeze your cookie dough!!
I really need to make these babies for my hubs. He loves macadamia
Yep, be still my heart–I LOVE macadamia nut cookies! And I love those Sausalito cookies, too. These look awesome! PS, can I live in your cookie jar?
I love macadamia nuts in cookies but I’ve only had them with white chocolate! This will have to change!
Yeah, I’m too cheap to buy those cookies, plus I prefer to have homemade cookies around instead! These are wonderful Aimee!
I could never keep cookies around in a jar, I’d eat them all day. Cookies are my biggest weakness when it comes to desserts. I’d certainly be going after these!
Adding chocolate chunks instead of chips always gives this feeling of decadence to cookies, or maybe its just me. I don’t know. I love your tip for freezing cookie dough scoops. I’d probably be tempted to eat the frozen cookie dough as a treat without baking 😉
Too funny, I feel the same way about chocolate chunks vs morsels!! And for the record, I have eaten the frozen cookie dough 🙂
Your photos are gorgeous…probably because your cookies are! You’ve got one lucky family getting homemade cookies like that every week. I don’t bake cookies enough, and really need to start!
Once you do it every week, and you freeze half the batch, it makes a nice stockpile of flavors in the freezer. So those weeks you want fresh baked cookies, with no hassle, you just pull a bag out of the freezer and you have cookies in minutes! ENJOY.
Oh my! I love the Sausalito cookies from Pepperidge Farm!!!! I can’t wait to try these out. A whole batch is about right, I often bake more to share with my friends and neighbors. Thanks for sharing your recipes. I’m going to check out other cookie recipes that you have.
Sausalito’s are just so good! ENJOY the recipe Amy!
We are so the same person! I love to walk up and down the grocery store aisles looking for things I can recreate at home. Who wants to spend $4 on a package of cookies when you can make 4 dozen for cheaper? Love these fun (and yummy) cookies!!!
We totally are 🙂
Such an awesome idea Aimee! My mom loves macadamia nuts and she’d be gaga for these. I never thought to pre-scoop the cookie dough: it’s like all the ease of Break & Bake Cookies but cheaper, from scratch, and more delicious! 😀
Exactly. Plus, if you’re like me, and bake cookies weekly…you eventually get many flavors in your freezer! It’s nice to have a little stockpile depending on my mood 🙂
I dont know the last time I have bought a package of cookies from the supermarket. Homemade always taste better. I love macadamia nut cookies but hate white chocolate. I am so happy you added milk chocolate instead!
Give these a try, I’m pretty sure you will be happy you did!
I think macadamias are one of my favorite nuts! I need to make more cookies. 🙂
If only macadamia nuts weren’t so expensive I’d put them in everything! Although I do have another recipe coming this week with them….
My morning cup of tea is now looking pretty drab without one of these beside it! Oh well…
Oh dear. I think your cup of tea DESERVES a treat today!
Sausalito are my favorite, so I’m going to have to try these! And btw, my mom does the same thing with freezing the dough in ziplocks and writing the baking instructions on them and you guys have like identical writing. I had to do a double take when I saw your picture because it was so deja vu of one of hers!
Awww how funny is that!!
Sometimes I love making bigger batch size cookies so I can freeze the leftovers – in case of a cookie emergency of course. 🙂 I make white chocolate macadamia nut cookies all the time, but I’ve never subbed milk chocolate. DUH! How good would that be? Ok, I need to try it. These simply sound wonderful Aimee.
Haha, a cookie emergency! I have made the white chocolate too, but when I saw the Sausalito’s I smacked my own forehead. I LOVE the milk chocolate with macadamia! Pepperidge Farm knows their cookies!
My husband is the same way. He looks at the Pepperidge Farm cookies to get cookie flavor inspiration. Then he asks me to recreate them. Haha. These look fantastic!
I love that he finds the flavors for YOU to create 🙂