These gluten free white chocolate macadamia nut cookies just became my favorite cookie of all time - no joke!
Made with toasted macadamia nuts, white chocolate chips, gluten free flour or cassava flour, butter, sugar, and eggs, they're easy to whip up and no one will know that they're gluten free.
Quick Look: Gluten Free White Chocolate Macadmia Nut Cookies
⏲️Ready In: 52 Minutes (40 minutes prep, 12 minutes cook)
🍽Servings: 2 dozen cookies
🥗Nutrition: 273 Calories
🥘Main Ingredients: Gluten free flour blend, Butter, Sugar, Macadamia nuts, White chocolate chips
📋Dietary Notes: Gluten free, Grain free
⭐Why You'll Love It: Buttery and rich, each gluten free cookie is an exceptional treat!
Have a Question? Want a Summary?
Ask AI to summarize or ask a question about this specific recipe!
Disclosure: these buttons are meant to be helpful but I am not responsible for how AI answers.
Hands down, gluten free white chocolate macadamia cookies are the best cookies. I dare you to disagree.
My husband loves white chocolate macadamia cookies and challenged me to make a gluten free version I could whip up whenever. Well, after a number of tests to make sure it's right, I nailed it. These are by far my favorite cookie, and my husband all but inhaled the entire batch.
Toasted macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips plus the soft, buttery, and chewy cookie base make this treat a true winner, right in line with other cookie favorites like Gluten Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookies or Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies!
Jump to:
Key Ingredients
Since I come first from a background of paleo cooking and baking before widening my scope to gluten free baking, my white chocolate macadamia cookies use a different flour than most.
-Cassava Flour: My go-to gluten free flour is cassava flour. While it's not a 1:1 replacement for white flour, I personally think the texture and taste of cassava flour is much closer to flour than most gluten free blends out there, and I use it for Gluten Free White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies too. However, you can use a gluten free flour blend - see notes below or use Gluten Free White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies as a guide!
-Xanthan Gum: Next ingredient of note is xanthan gum. Now, I tried this recipe both with and without xanthan gum, and it definitely helps to keep the cookies tender and chewy. But if you need to omit it, you'll still get good cookies at the end.
- Macadamia Nuts: Make sure you get raw, unsalted macadamia nuts! We'll roast them before baking to get them nice and toasty - but you definitely don't need the extra salt.
- Cane Sugar/Granulated sugar: I know many recipes out there call for both granulated sugar and brown sugar. I didn't find that necessary here. Feel free to experiment with that if you want. Organic cane sugar did the trick for me and I definitely didn't think anything was missing.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Can I use all-purpose gluten free flour instead of cassava flour?
Yes, if you'd like!
Cassava flour soaks up just a little more moisture than most gluten free flour blends, so you may have to increase the amount of flour by quite a bit - up to a cup. Start with ¼ cup and increase 1 tablespoon at a time until a cookie dough consistency is reached.
If, once the batter rests, the cookie dough seems a little too wet to easily make balls, add more gluten free flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
Bake a test cookie and if it spreads too much, add a bit more gluten free flour.
If your go-to gluten free flour blend already has xantham gum, omit it from the recipe - no need to add more.
How to make gluten free white chocolate macadamia nut cookies
Optionally, but recommended: toast the macadamia nuts before making the cookies. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast the macadamia nuts on a baking sheet for 8-10 minutes until they're nice and toasty.
Pro tip: I usually just let the baking sheet cool afterwards and use it for the cookies. No need to wash it off!
Step 1: Mix cassava flour or gluten free flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Step 2: Add butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until it becomes lighter in color and mostly uniform in texture.
Step 3: Gradually mix in the dry ingredients, then the eggs and vanilla until fully combined.
Step 4: Stir in the cooled toasted macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips. Let the dough chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Step 3: Create 1 ½ - 2 inch balls of dough with your hands and plate on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, being sure to space the balls 1-2 inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Step 4: Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Let cool before eating (they'll firm up as they cool).
How to make these cookies paleo
To make a gluten free, grain free, and dairy free version of these white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, you'll have to make a few additional swaps.
Note that I think the recipe as written is the ideal way to make these gluten free cookies, but if your diet restricts you from the way it's written, we'll figure it out!
Cane Sugar: swap with coconut sugar or maple sugar. The cookies will be darker and possibly a little crumbly.
Butter: swap with ghee or vegetable shortening.
White chocolate chips: Enjoy Life and Pascha both make a gluten free/dairy free white chocolate chip! They do, however, have cane sugar and brown rice syrup. If you know of a truly "paleo" brand, let met know. Otherwise, you can make your own white chocolate.
Top Tips from Chelsea
Let the dough rest. Gluten free flours need a little extra time to saok up the fats in cookie dough, so letting the dough rest for 30 minutes is essential!
Toast the macadamia nuts. One of my favorite hacks for incredible baked goods is toasting the nuts before adding to batter. It enhances that nutty flavor. I do it for Gluten Free Zucchini Banana Bread and Spiced Gluten Free Apple Skillet Cake with Walnuts too!
Bake a test cookie. Especially if you substitute gluten free flour for the cassava flour! That'll let you know if you need to add a little more flour or not. It'll only take 12 minutes of your time!
FAQs
Gluten free flours don't soak up moisture as readily as gluten-laden flours (especially fats, like the butter in cookies). Letting the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking cookies gives the flour a chance to do its thing!
I learned this tip from a cookbook and have seen it in practice over the last few years. The cookie dough will definitely benefit from the rest time!
I got my best results with cassava flour, but if you prefer to use a gluten free flour blend, go for it! I like Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour, but most 1:1 blends should work.
You'll likely have to add more gluten free flour than cassava flour. Start with ¼ cup and gradually add more as necessary. Make sure to bake a test cookie before an entire tray; if the cookies spread too much, add a little more flour.
A couple factors might be at play here, from a too-warm oven to too much sugar. Your oven may run hot or you need to move the oven rack a little further away from the heating element.
If you still have batches to go, you can refrigerate the dough to help prevent the rest of the cookies from spreading too much.
To troubleshoot, if you didn't level your sugar measurements or you measured with your heart, you may have ended up a little heavy-handed!
Finally, not all gluten free flours are the same. If you subbed a different 1:1 gluten free flour blend, it may simply have ended up short
If you have the opposite problem of cookies that don't spread at all, you were probably a little heavy-handed with the flour. Next time, make sure to spoon and level for best results!
In the meantime, you can try turning the oven temperature up by 25 degrees. Bake the cookies directly on a greased sheet pan (not on parchment paper) to promote spreading. Or, you can press your cookie dough balls down gently with the bottom of a glass before baking to get 'em started.
More gluten free cookie recipes
I've got quite a few gluten free cookie recipes here on Chelsea Joy Eats - while a big focus of mine is high protein weeknight dinners, I think decadent treats have a place in everyone's life!
Did you try this gluten free white chocolate macadamia cookie recipe? I'd love to hear what you think! Please leave a comment and rating or tag me on Instagram - I appreciate your feedback.
Print📖 Recipe
White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies (Gluten Free)
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 52 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen cookies 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Buttery and nutty, white chocolate madamadia cookies are a hidden gem! This recipe uses cassava flour - my go-to for gluten free and grain free baking, but you can swap all-purpose gluten free flour if you'd like (see NOTES).
Ingredients
- 7 ounces macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
- 2 cups cassava flour (see Notes for GF flour blend substitute)
- 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum (optional, but recommended)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 16 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups cane sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Toast nuts: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the macadamia nuts out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, giving the pan a good shake halfway through, until the macadamia nuts are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, combine the cassava flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, and kosher salt. Stir until uniform.
- Cream butter and sugar: Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat at medium speed to cream the butter and sugar together for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is fully incorporated and light in color.
- Mix cookie dough: Turn the beater to low and gradually add the flour mixture, stopping the beater to scrape down the sides as necessary. Be careful not to pour the flour onto the beater while it's on! Finally, add the eggs, beating just until incorporated. Turn off the beater. Fold in the cooled macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips with a large spatula. Set the dough aside for 30 minutes before baking - I find this step crucial for most gluten free recipes to allow the liquid in the recipe to permeate the dense cassava flour.
- Bake cookies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using your hands, form 1 inch balls of dough and place them about 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Let the cookies cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool. Repeat as necessary in batches to use all of the dough.
Notes
- To use gluten free flour: Substitute a gluten free flour blend (I like Bob's Red Mill GF 1-to-1 Baking Flour), omitting the xanthan gum if your blend already has it. You may have to increase the amount of flour by up to 1 cup; start with ¼ cup and add 1 tablespoon at a time until the proper "cookie dough" consistency is reached. Not a bad idea to bake a test cookie before baking an entire batch!
- Use coconut sugar: You can swap cane sugar for coconut sugar if you'd like, but I definitely preferred the flavor of cane sugar!
- Rest the dough: Don't skip this step! Rest the dough for at least 30 minutes. For cassava flour, I prefer to let is rest at room temperature. If using a gluten free flour blend, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes (this helps prevent too much spreading).
Chelsea Joy says
Just a classic. My husband now requests these regularly!