Sunday, October 11, 2009

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

I LOVE Subway's cookies, especially their White Chocolate Macadamia Nut. From the little research I did online, I discovered they use Otis Spunkmeyer dough, which is an amazing frozen ready-to-bake dough that you can usually only buy from fundraisers, or in huge $200 units from food suppliers. So, I analyzed Otis Spunkmeyer's recipe for ingredients and nutrition, and decided that this recipe came the closest. I was really happy with it, though if I had higher quality white chocolate, and I think it would have been spot-on.

Ingredients
1 cup margarine, softened (yes margarine, not butter!)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs (these need to be at room temperature)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (12 ounce) package white chocolate chips (go to a specialty store if you want the good stuff!)
1 1/2 cups chopped dry roasted macadamia nuts (make sure you toast them a little first)

Directions
1) Don't preheat your oven yet, since you'll be chilling these before baking.
2) Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
3) Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla and beat well.
4) Blend in flour, baking soda and salt.
5) Stir in white chocolate chips and macadamia pieces.
6) Cover dough and chill for 30 minutes (this really helps the cookies spread the right amount)
7) Preheat oven to 325.
8) Scoop onto un-greased baking pans.
9) Bake for 12-15 minutes (bake until just browning on the edges--don't over bake!).
10) Let cool on pans for about 5 minutes before taking them off.

**To keep ready-to-bake dough in your freezer Otis Spunkmeyer style, spray a cookie sheet and scoop dough remaining dough out, then flatten each scoop slightly. Freeze on tray. When frozen, transfer to freezer container. To bake: 325 for 13-16 minutes. I love doing this because I can rarely enjoy day-old cookies anymore! It's also great if you need to take a meal to someone, because you can make them in a pinch, or just give the dough as a gift!