Filled with tropical coconut and macadamia nuts, this twist on chocolate chip cookies will make you think you magically transported to a Hawaiian bakery. These chocolate chip-coconut-macadamia nut cookies are perfectly soft and chewy, simple to make and give you a taste of the tropics any time of year. What's not to love about that?

A chocolate chip-coconut-macadamia nut cookie with a straw and milk.

Baking cookies is one of my favorite kitchen pastimes. Maybe it’s because I have fond memories of baking cookies with my mom, especially around the holidays. Whatever it is, baking cookies makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, and these chocolate chip-coconut-macadamia nut cookies definitely give me that happy vibe with their island-inspired ingredients.

Coconut and macadamia nuts --- could there be a more perfect tropical cookie? Call me biased but I don't think so.

Expert Tips and FAQs

My mom and I usually baked the classic Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie. I love the prominent buttery flavor of Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, so these cookies are based off that classic recipe with a few changes I've incorporated over the years for best results.

Now, I don’t mind somewhat flat cookies. I find most overly puffy cookies to be too dry, but I like a little lift. Nestle Tollhouse cookies can be on the flat side if you're not careful, so some of these changes help give this recipe the perfect height. I also included a few ingredient tweaks for a richer flavor.

Here’s a rundown of all the changes I now make to the Tollhouse recipe for the perfect cookie.

Replace light brown sugar with dark brown sugar for a richer flavor.
Add cornstarch to help prevent spreading.
Up the vanilla extract from 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoons.
Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes before baking and keep chilled as the cookies bake.
Form cookie dough into golf-size balls rather than 1-inch balls.
Top each dough ball with additional chocolate chips for a prettier presentation.
Bake the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet to prevent overspreading. This also allows you to easily move the cookies soon after baking to prevent them from continuing to bake on the sheet.

With these changes, you’ll get the perfect cookie base, which you can customize with your favorite mix-ins. White chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, crushed pretzels, orange zest, your favorite dried fruit or nut — seriously, you have so many possibilities.

A pile of chocolate chip cookies with coconut around it and a glass of milk.

Perfect Pairing

I love pairing cookies with beer. In fact, I love it so much that I did a week of holiday cookie and beer pairings leading up to Christmas last year on Instagram. I feel extra excited about today’s pairing.

These cookies are made for a big bourbon barrel-aged stout. Not only are bourbon barrel-aged stouts perfect with many desserts but the barrel also tends to lend a coconut flavor to the beer. You may have noticed by now that I love mimicking flavors. With that in mind, bourbon on its own isn’t a bad choice either.

For wine, a Madeira is perfect with these chocolate chip-coconut-macadamia nut cookies. Madeira has a caramel-like backbone to it, which is great with the dark brown sugar. You may also pick up some nutty notes for a delicious match with the coconut and macadamia nuts.

Baking a batch of fresh cookies is always a good idea, so please give these chocolate chip-coconut-macadamia nut cookies a try. Please let me know how you enjoyed this chocolate chip-coconut-macadamia nut cookie recipe in the comment section and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter. You can also catch me on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Cheers!