I grew up loving white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies, but these days I generally find them a bit too cloying for me. Turns out, the tartness of the rhubarb and juiciness of wild strawberries is a perfect foil to this nostalgic cookie’s decadent sweetness.
a rhubarb (and strawberry) macadamia nut cookie
makes around 12-14 cookies
As wild strawberries and rhubarb are in season at the same time (and both are easy for me to find), I like to pop strawberries on top of the cookies just before baking, as well as rhubarb. If you can’t find wild strawberries near you, sticking just to rhubarb is just as nice (though you could also use some cut-up cultivated strawberries too).
Note that this is a recipe that requires patience — the dough needs to chill overnight, and then chill again after shaping. Expect to wait at least 12 hours between mixing ingredients and sampling your first bite.
ingredients
• flour all-purpose or a 50:50 mix of spelt and all-purpose, 120 g + 1 Tbsp
• baking soda, ½ tsp
• baking powder, ¼ tsp
• salted butter softened, 85 g
• brown sugar, 60 g
• white sugar, 60 g
• vanilla, half a pod, or 1 tsp ground, or 1 Tbsp extract or sugar*
• egg room temperature, 1 large or very large (approx. 65g whole)
• quality white chocolate bar roughly chopped, 50g + 15 g for the topping
• whole salted macadamias roughly chopped, 40g + 15 g for the topping
• fresh rhubarb sliced into small cubes, 80 g + 20 g† for the topping
• sea salt fine or ground, ½ tsp
*if using vanilla sugar, reduce white sugar quantity to 48g instead of 60g
†you can swap out some or all of the 20 g of rhubarb topping for wild (or cultivated) strawberries
method
1. In a medium bowl, mix 120g of flour with ½ tsp baking soda, ¼ tsp baking powder, and, optionally (if using unsalted butter and unsalted macadamia nuts), ½ tsp salt.
2. In a large bowl, beat together 85g softened butter with 60g brown sugar, 60g white sugar, and the seeds of half a vanilla pod / one teaspoon ground vanilla / one tablespoon vanilla extract or sugar (if using vanilla sugar, reduce the amount of white sugar used to 48 grams). Keep beating with a whisk until pale and fluffy, around 4 minutes, then whisk in a large egg until the ingredients are evenly mixed.
3. Using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Once combined, add in 50g of roughly chopped white chocolate, 40g of roughly chopped macadamia nuts, and 80g of rhubarb, previously sliced into small cubes and tossed through one tablespoon of flour. Cover the bowl with a large plate, then transfer the cookie dough to the fridge to chill overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
4. Shape the dough into cookies that are approx. 2 tablespoons each in volume or 35g each in weight (lightly greasing a spoon and your hands in olive oil is helpful for this step). Make little golf balls of dough, then flatten them into thick discs onto a parchment-lined baking sheet — you should get around 12 or 14 cookies.
5. Evenly divide 15g of roughly chopped white chocolate, 15g of roughly chopped macadamia nuts, and 20g of cubed rhubarb and/or wild strawberries and/or cubed cultivated strawberries onto the tops of each cookie, then return the cookies to the refrigerator while you preheat the oven to 175°C/347°F for at least 30 minutes.
(Note that you can freeze individual cookies at this step by tucking them onto little squares of parchment paper and laying them flat and apart in a resealable container before freezing.)
6. Bake the cookies in batches, at least 5cm / ∼2″ apart, until the cookies have spread, slightly puffed, and the edges are golden, around 12-14 minutes. If baking from frozen, expect a few additional minutes of bake time. Carefully transfer to a cooling rack and leave to set and firm into their final texture for at least 20 minutes before enjoying.
