Thursday 1 March 2012

White Chocolate Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies

Vegan White Chocolate Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies

Cookies so posh I had to bring out the good linen!

Vegan White Chocolate Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies



Ah, the white chocolate macadamia nut cookie - a classic! I can't believe it's taken me so long to make these since falling in love with the Sweet William Vegan White Chocolate Buttons but better late than never ;-) For me these were just screaming out for a subtle hint of lemon and it works so well here. All of us loved these, even my boy who usually shuns anything with nuts in it. They taste outrageously good - these are definitely going on the regular cookie rotation! 

For these I used my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe but swapped the white and brown sugar with golden caster sugar and of course swapped the plain chocolate chips for white chocolate buttons and macadamia nuts and added some lemon zest. Now, different brands of vegan margarine will give you different results here, the first 2 times I made these I used "Sunlite" Spread available here in Ireland and I got a softer fluffier cookie and is the one you see in the photo here. The 3rd time I made these I used Vitalite and got a thinner, slightly crisper cookie, more like my traditional Chocolate Chip Cookie. Both versions were still absolutely delicious (I couldn't choose a favourite) but just so you are aware that different vegan butters will yield different results.

Also, as golden caster sugar is probably one of those "weird UK/Eire ingredients" I did test these with regular granulated sugar and they turned out just fine, in fact I'm sure any sugar will work here.

White Chocolate Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies - makes about 18

180g vegan butter (3/4 cup)
140g golden caster sugar (2/3 cups) or regular granulated sugar.
200g plain flour (1 1/2 cups - level)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp fine lemon zest, generally from 2 lemons, I use a microplane grater.
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g vegan white chocolate buttons, chopped (2/3 cups) I like to break the buttons into quarters.
80g chopped unsalted macadamia nuts (2/3 cups)

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a couple of baking sheets with baking paper. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. In a large bowl beat together the vegan butter and sugar until light and well blended. Add the lemon zest and vanilla extract and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix with a spoon until it just comes together. Add the white chocolate and macadamia nuts and stir until evenly mixed. Drop by a tablespoon onto the lined sheets a couple of inches apart and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until lightly golden at the edges and firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and leave on the tray for a couple of minutes then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

Vegan White Chocolate Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies

 Now lay out your best linen, get a large pot of Earl Grey tea on and call the neighbours over to impress them :-) 

Vegan White Chocolate Lemon Macadamia Nut Cookies


Nutritional Information: per cookie, will vary on brands used.

Calories: 168
Protein: 1.7g
Fat: 9g
Sat Fat: 2.6g
Fibre: 1g
Carbs: 20.7g
Sugar: 11g
Sodium: 111mg

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Cranberry White Chocolate ShortbreadBig Chocolate Chip Orange Cookies





7 comments:

  1. You don't know how much this is heaven to me, or would be if present.

    Out on the weekend: http://tinyurl.com/cmtf4dh

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  2. Haha, excellent! Good thing I was planning on these making a trip over to you then ;-)

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  3. I keep hoping that if I wish hard enough, I'll finally have access to some vegan white chocolate.
    Those sounds fantastic! I would love to be a guest at your house for tea and cookies :)

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  4. Thanks Maggie! Hope you can find some - they are great in baking :-)

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  5. "Good thing I was planning on these making a trip over to you then ;-)"

    I would officially tipex out the existing description under God in my dictionary and replace it with 'Ms Maple Spice'. Or insert a new entry for Wonder Woman.

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  6. :-D

    It gets worse....or better ;-)

    I now have two more variations of these ready to blog and send over as well!

    The latest one my personal favourite to date...nothing like being on a cookie baking binge :-)

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