When I do monthly donations, my goal is to present something tasty and unique. First, I had to take inventory of what I had on hand. There were two items I previously had bought in bulk-macadamias and dates. That is how I arrived at these MacDate cookies. They are a crispy, flat cookie that has chopped dates, white chocolate and salted macadamia nuts. These cookies give you something healthy, salty and sweet.
I did not use white chocolate chips in this recipe because most of them have palm oil as an ingredient. Instead, I used Ghirardelli white chocolate bars. It has real cocoa butter in it and no palm oil, so it is a much better form of chocolate.
Note that this recipe yields about 6 dozen cookies.
MacDate Cookies
by flourtrader
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups chopped dates
3/4 cup chopped salted macadamia nuts
12 oz chopped white chocolate
1 cup or 2 sticks of butter (room temp)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and both kinds of sugars using an electric mixer set at medium speed. This should take about 30 seconds to a minute, depending on how soft your butter is. The batter will be light and fluffy when thoroughly mixed.
Add one egg to the batter and beat for 30 seconds. Continue with this process until all eggs are incorporated into batter. Then blend in the vanilla extract, beating with an electric mixer at low speed. Set aside.
Take another bowl and sift together the flour, salt and baking soda. Using a wooden spoon, fold this dry mixture into the sugar batter until no dry streaks remain. Then stir in the dates, macadamias and white chocolate.
Drop batter by rounded teaspoons onto baking sheet, spacing 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies turn a pale golden hue. Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.
