Almost eleven months ago, we celebrated our third wedding anniversary by getting veggie burgers and tater tots at a drive-in restaurant and using something called a Groupon for the first time (maybe you've heard of it?) to go to one of those paint your own pottery places. I'd been wanting to go to one of those places since I was about ten.
After taking a solid twenty minutes hemming and hawing over what we were going to paint together - something for the baby? something to hang on wall? - we decided to paint a cookie jar, with the agreement that I would always keep it filled with cookies. Amen.
The other day, I realized the cookie jar had been empty for quite some time. A travesty! And breaking one of my marital vows. This was unacceptable.
I'd been wanting to make some kind of cookie with macadamia nuts for a few weeks after compulsively buying a bag of them at Trader Joe's. I adapted a recipe and made some tasty little cookies.
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| The ingredients. Everything I have is from Trader Joe's or the bulk foods store. |
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| What, you don't take photos of your ingredients for a recipe next to an old record player while your son eats a teething biscuit in the corner? :) |
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| Chopping up macadamia nuts is hard. The little buggers slide around. |
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| I've only been able to make cookies ONCE without eating some of the cookie dough.This was certainly not that time. |
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| The little cuties all lined up and ready to go in the oven. Love my Silpat, man. |
They are delightful, just soft enough, with big yummy chunks of nuts and chocolate. I love almond extract, so I put some in most of my cookies - it really makes them tasty.
They're delicious with some coffee or a cup of iced chai.
Macadamia Chocolate Chip Cookiesadapted from here
Makes 2 and 1/2 dozen2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup milk (cow or non-dairy)
1 tablespoon ground flax seed
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or more vanilla)
1 1/3 cups unsalted, chopped macadamia nuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350F.Beat together oil, sugars, milk, flax seed and extracts. Add flour, baking soda and nutmeg slowly until well mixed.Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Dough will be extremely thick and sticky. (Eat some.)Drop tablespoon-sized portions onto a parchment paper-lined (or Silpat!) cookie sheet. Keep them roughly 2 inches apart.Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes after removing them from the oven – this lets them set. Cool completely on a wire rack.
