Macadamia Nuts and Cookie Exchanges….! Yes, I know that most cookie exchanges take place around Christmas time….and as I have stated in previous posts, (click on this link for more details:_Christmas in April)…. I have hosted many, many of these great parties, where each person brings a dozen cookies of one kind ….times the number of guests. Example: 15 guests = 15 dozen cookies.
I know this is January and believe it or not, I have several posts needing finishing touches on oodles and oodles of recipes so forgive me if this recipe hits the boards just a little bit late.
Of course these macadamia nut cookies can be made all year ’round! But the background on this cookie comes from a fond Christmas memory of a cookie exchange I had many years ago…. and this what I want to share with you today.
Let me tell you about my friend from New Mexico…..her special name from me is Mustang Sally .…if you follow my posts, you know that I give special names to all my friends…you know, to protect the innocent or, or or…whatever!
In the days BTC… (before the Captain), Mustang Sally and I would leave our work places and go out to eat and we could make it an all evening project. Sometimes, we ended up singing Karaoke or we just hung out with friends. And she made me laugh. She has a wonderful sense of humor and it is contagious when you are around her. Sally lived in an apartment complex that had a gate with a code that I could never get to work…. and you don’t know how many times I tried to yell into that little speaker (it didn’t work for me either as I sat outside those iron gates) and I would end up calling her on her cell phone to give me the code…again! Or to come rescue me. (Personally, I think she kept giving me the wrong code just to see my reaction! haha)
Anyway, about 15 years ago, (give or take a year)….she decides she is going to make Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Cookies for one of my Cookie Exchange Parties.
I can remember our conversation when Mustang Sally rang me up, as if it were yesterday!!…Oh, by the way… don’t ask me what happened yesterday, because I most likely will have to be given a few hints. 🙂
Sorry, I digress a bit, but I know you will forgive me, ….you always do, my dear readers.
So, Sally calls me and she is excited about the recipe she is going to bring and she asks me if I know if anyone else is bringing Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Cookies…. and I assure her that no one has even mentioned a Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Cookie and that her recipe sounded completely sinful and delicious. I couldn’t wait to try her cookie and her enthusiasm was catching which always makes the Season even more pleasurable.
Picture This: Middle of December. Finally, the evening arrives for the Cookie Exchange Party and all the guests were arriving with their dozens and dozens of cookies. The large crock pots of warm wassail sent their cinnamon-y spice fragrance all through the house. I also had fudge and finger foods to munch on and Holiday decorations in every nook and cranny. I mean, it was Christmas!!!
As the ladies arrived, some were carrying large, red and green cellophane covered baskets with plates of their cookies tucked inside. Others had card board boxes protecting their perfectly decorated cookies that had been gingerly placed in Holiday printed plastic bags. By the way, did you know that the “baggie people” decorate their seal-a-ble baggies with snow flakes, holly berries, Santas, reindeer and all sorts of Holiday stuff around the Holidays? Soooo clever, even back then….but sorry, I got a bit off track.
Soooo Sally arrives with her cookies and they were beautifully presented and as she placed them on the Poinsettia tablecloth along with all the other cookies. She mumbled under her breath something I couldn’t hear. I approached her and she looked me straight in the eye and she said “I am so sick of these cookies….I had to make so many batches of these cookies as each batch only made 20 or so cookies……I don’t know how many I ended up making, but if I never see another macadamia nut in my lifetime, I will be happy” Hrummph! she snorted, as she huffed over to sit with the other ladies!
Now, you have to know Mustang Sally, as she is one of the funniest people I know….and it was the way she talked about those cookies that will remain imprinted in my brain for the rest of my life. It made me laugh and I still smile everytime I take out my cookie recipe file and I come to her red-bordered Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Cookie recipe ….and I remember that night in December. It is events like this, that endear our friends to us, isn’t it?
Below, is the very same recipe card that she attached to each and every dozen of her cookies. (Don’t ya love that little reindeer with the extra long nose?…, I think he looks more like a dog than a reindeer, which makes him even more likeable).
Aside from all that….these cookies are sooo good. Just as long as I don’t have to make 12-15 batches of them at one time. I still don’t know what Sally’s issue was with these cookies, unless it is the “chunking” of the white chocolate, or chopping the macadamia nuts or perhaps it was the stiffness of the dough. Or perhaps it was just her way to make light of a situation that required a lot of labor. Whatever it was…her pretended disdain for these cookies, just made them taste even better. Thanks Mustang Sally! Luv ya!
I followed Sally’s recipe, but I did make my cookies a bit smaller in size
The handy dandy printable recipe is below.
Blessings and Hugs…..
- 1 Cup of packed brown sugar
- 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 Cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1/2 Cup of shortening
- 1 Teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg
- 2 1/4 Cups all purpose flour
- 1 Teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 Teaspoon salt
- 1 package (6 oz) chocolate, or white chocolate baking bars cut into chunks
- 1 jar (3 1/2 oz) macadamia nuts coarsely chopped
- Heat oven to 350
- Beat sugars, butter, shortening, vanilla and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with a spoon
- Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff)
- Stir in chocolate and nuts
- Drop dough by level 1/4 cupfuls or #16 cookie ice-cream scoop about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet
- Flatten slightly with fork.
- Sprinkle with sugar crystals as desired.
- Bake 13-15 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft).
- Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from baking sheet to wire rack.
- I followed this recipe exactly, except that I used almond bark for the white chocolate and pressed a few more chunks on top of the cookies before baking
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