Chocolate Chip Macadamia Crunch Cookies

Bakery-style chocolate chip cookies with chopped macadamia nuts, milk chocolate chips, and a splash of buttermilk that most chocolate chip recipes never use. The buttermilk does two jobs: it tenderizes the gluten so the cookies stay soft, and it brings a faint tang that keeps the milk chocolate from tasting one-note sweet. Old-fashioned oats fold in for chew without making these taste like oatmeal cookies.

Butter-flavored shortening instead of plain butter is a deliberate choice. It gives the cookies that puffy, cakey lift bakery cookies have, and the texture stays soft for days instead of going crisp. If you want the flavor of butter cookies plus this texture, use half butter and half shortening.

The half-hour chill on the dough matters. Cold dough spreads less, which means thicker cookies with chunky edges instead of flat lace.

Pro Tips

• Cream the shortening, sugars, eggs, and buttermilk for the full 5 minutes. Underbeating gives flat cookies
• Toast the macadamias in a dry skillet before chopping for deeper, butterier flavor
• Use an insulated cookie sheet or double up two regular sheets so the bottoms don’t scorch
• Pull the cookies when the centers look just barely set. They keep cooking on the hot pan

Variations

• Swap milk chocolate chips for white chocolate for the full Hawaiian-style cookie
• Add a half cup of toasted shredded coconut for a tropical riff
• Substitute toasted pecans or cashews when macadamias aren’t around