Low FODMAP white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies. Crunchy on the outside and chewy in the centre, studded with white chocolate chunks and crunchy macadamia nuts and a hint of vanilla. Double the recipe and keep an emergency stash of dough balls in your freezer at this time of year. Last minute plans? Bake them from frozen, adding just a couple of extra minutes to the cooking time. Your friends won’t be any the wiser!
This recipe took quite a bit of trial and error. To get started I reached for my dark chocolate chip miso cookie recipe. That recipe makes quite a big batch, so knowing that these cookies would be sweeter and I’d want them to be smaller, I halved the quantities. For the first batch I tried 60g cookies, but they were still a little too big, so I went down to 50g. I knew the amount of chocolate was just right, so I kept that at 150g but switched to white. Macadamia nuts aren’t cheap and often come in 100g bags, at least in the UK, so I started with that amount and thankfully that was just right – though you could use 150g if you’d like. Because I removed the miso I upped the butter quantity, just a little bit, then because salt is key for balancing out the sweetness, I made sure to keep that, along with the delicious sprinkle of flaky salt that goes on top. Last but not least, I found that baking them at 170C instead of 160C, allowed them less chance to spread. See how much difference it makes below.
With my dark choc chip miso cookies I like to bang the baking tray on the counter after cooking, to create ripples in the cookie. This time though, because I wanted the cookies as little fatter and less thin, banging was off! Instead, once these golden beauties are baked, let them cool for a few minutes on the tray, before moving to a cooling rack. Very good with a glass of cold milk FYI.
Low FODMAP white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie recipe notes:
- This recipe was slightly revised on 03/11/21 to switch from a large egg to a medium egg, reduce the flour from 250g to 230g and up the vanilla extract from 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon. A friend who owns chickens recommended only buying medium or mixed weight eggs as large eggs can be problematic (more info here). That’s what I’ll be doing from now on and will update my recipes as I go!
- Dried cranberries are low FODMAP at 15g so you could add in 100g to the recipe and keep things low FODMAP
- Adding in some light brown sugar as well as the caster sugar helps to add not only colour but a bit of structure and a delicious caramel flavour to these cookies
- If your cookies aren’t as round as you’d like when they emerge from the oven, the back of a metal spoon or a large round cookie cutter is a great tool to nudge them carefully into shape
- I know chilling the dough overnight seems like a faff, but it allows the gluten free flour to hydrate, stops the cookies from spreading too much and makes them chewier – don’t skip this step because I promise it’s worth it for a superior cookie!
- Make sure to give the cookies lots of room on your baking sheet
Higher FODMAP:
- If you don’t need to make these gluten free, use 250g plain flour and don’t use any xanthan gum. I’ve found that gluten free flour naturally leads to a crunchier cookies so they might be a little softer round the edges
Ingredients
230g gluten free plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
120g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g light brown sugar
120g caster sugar
1 medium egg
1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
150g white chocolate, chopped into rough squares
100g macadamia nuts
big pinches of flaky salt
Method
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and xanthan gum.
In a separate bowl, combine the butter and sugars and beat, using an electric mixer, until smooth, lighter in colour and just turning fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add the egg, beating again until combined, then mix in the vanilla. Sift over the flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Add in the white chocolate and macadamia nuts and mix for a further few seconds until evenly distributed.
Chill the dough anywhere from overnight-24 hours. This helps the gluten free flour hydrate, stops the cookies from spreading too much and helps with their chew – don’t skip this step!
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 190ºC, 170ºC fan, gas 5 and line two baking trays with baking parchment. Use your hands or an ice cream scoop to form balls of dough, about 50g per cookie.
Bake six or so cookies per tray for about 12-13 minutes, or until golden around the edges but still a little paler in the middle. Allow to cool for a few minutes before sprinkling with a little flaky salt and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
These cookies will keep for up to four days in an airtight container. You can also freeze any left over dough (emergency cookie dough is the best ever). Place the dough balls into a tupperware box or ziplock bag – just try and keep them from touching if you can, so they don’t stick together.
On emergency cookie-needing days, bake as above, adding a minute or so onto the baking time. Dough will keep in the freezer for a couple of months.
