A Little Sweet, Little Savory
For a simple, balanced flavor sweet treat.
I don’t know about you, but I love subtle flavored cookies. Especially ones with a little added crunch. These white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are ones that I always fall back on when I’m craving a nostalgic sweet treat. Some coworkers of mine had been requesting another batch of cookies since our current work season started at the beginning of April.
This past winter, I had brought in some classic sugar cookies and they were obsessed with them. Every time I bumped into them they were asking about the next batch. I love being able to share my creations with people I spend my time around AND experimenting in the baking department too. The recipe I used is incredibly reader friendly and modifications make it a no brainer. Just for enjoyment by yourself, with your family or friends, for gatherings, or even as gifts.
Baking, A Love Language
One of my favorite human experiences is seeing people experience something they’re excited about first hand. When it comes to baked goods, that first taste is the tell all. The way their faces light up when they see the full container, the reaction of their senses being taken over – how the baked goods look, the smell that lingers, how their entire bodies sink into immediate comfort after that first bite. All of these individual moments run through my mind while I’m in the kitchen filling a recipe with intention and love and bringing it to life.
This can go for anything that comes out of the kitchen. Bringing a simple sharable bite to a gathering. Preparing an intricate dinner menu with courses to fit a theme. Sharing leftovers from one of my childhood favorite meals. Even some out of the ordinary recipe I’ve been wanting to try from Pinterest.
A Short and Incomplete List of Favorites I’ve Shared With Coworkers + Friends:
- Broccoli Cheddar Soup
- Strawberry Mango Salsa
- Horstman Family Chili (from childhood, with personal preference modifications)
- Caramel Swirl Cheesecake (first ever attempt)
- Classic Sugar Cookies
- Banana Bread Muffins (and banana bread simple syrup)
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Apple Cinnamon Bread Muffins
Baking isn’t ONLY for the people that fill my life either, it’s a calming act of being present too. For ME. Whenever I feel like I’ve gotten into a mental funk, I know that it’s because I haven’t been present enough with myself and the kitchen always saves the day. I immediately eliminate distractions from social media, notifications, and even anything that is causing any sense of discomfort in my personal life. My focus is entirely consumed by the ingredients sprawled across the counter and the steps to take to get some delicious creations.
People connect over food. We find commonality over likes and dislikes. We feel seen when someone remembers our favorites. Or even puts in effort into something we are / were craving in a past encounter. A simple “Hey, I thought of you”.
Always Asking for Cookies
Let me set the scene of the sugar cookies. It was winter time at the ballpark (I work at a baseball stadium). We had just started our first winter season EVER – Holiday Lights: A Walkthrough Experience. The snow had started accumulating on the field. Christmas lights LITERALLY everywhere. Classic Christmas jingles filled the concourse. Movies, cocktails and activities completely took over what’s usually full of beer, brats and baseball.
The Christmas season was coming to an end. I had hosted MY first cookie exchange with my friends. I had come home from my parents with a brand new KitchenAid stand mixer, and was craving a little something sweet. Who else loads up on the cookies during the holiday season?!
On my first free day, all I could think about was trying something out with my new mixer. Every other recipe I had created was with an electric hand mixer. And BOY was it a world of a difference. I figured I would start with something incredibly simple in case I needed to make some changes or fix any mistakes. Enter in SUGAR COOKIES.
Sugar cookies are so, so simple. I think the only thing I changed in the recipe to be a little creative was splitting the vanilla extract measurement and doing half vanilla extract and half almond extract. (I love adding almond for a subtle nut flavor).
Originally I had brought in one smaller container with about half of the cookies, and I kept half at home. After the first day I ended up bringing in the rest to share because they were just too good. (And honestly, I can’t and probably shouldn’t have a whole batch to myself). Coworkers came into the bar regularly to fill up on the cookies until they were gone.
What to Bake
Since the only treat one specific coworker had from me were sugar cookies, I decided to keep the flavor profile similar and not completely overwhelming of flavor. (We love those kinds of sweet treats too). White chocolate macadamia nut cookies have a subtle balance with the sweetness from the white chocolate chips and the buttery texture of the macadamia nuts.
I headed to Pinterest RIGHT AWAY to see what I had saved in my ‘Baked Goods’ board and voila. We get White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies from House of Nash Eats!
Gloomy Afternoons Are For Baking
Honestly, this recipe was insanely simple. I DID in fact remember to pull the butter out of my fridge in the morning to let it soften. After checking the recipe earlier in the morning, I ran to the grocery store to make sure I had everything I needed. The only ingredients I didn’t already have on hand were the white chocolate chips and the macadamia nuts. (I love to keep the baking essentials around JUST IN CASE I get a random sweet craving).
Now that I have my beautiful KitchenAid standing mixer (thank you momma for the tear jerking Christmas gift), mixing everything together isn’t as much of a process as it used to be. And I’m so grateful that she remembered that I had been wanting one for such a long time. I think the most challenging part of the whole recipe was mixing in the add-ins once the dough had come together.
One thing I learned from this recipe specifically is how SOFT the macadamia nuts are. I bought a bag of dry roasted and salted macadamia nuts.When I poured them onto the cutting board I definitely thought that they were going to be much harder to break into smaller pieces. But the buttery texture holds true, even to a knife.
I Want to Hear from YOU!
What do you always bring to the gather? Do you have a favorite memory of sharing something with your loved ones from your kitchen?
