You would never in a million years be able to guess that these divine cookies are gluten free and vegan! They are soft, chewy, and packed full of roasted macadamia nuts and dark chocolate chips. Preheat your ovens and get ready to bake the BEST vegan macadamia nut cookies!
Today I bring you two pieces of exciting news: these incredible cookies and WE’RE GOING TO HAWAII!
The past month has been a crazy one scrambling to coordinate flights and making travel itineraries. Now that plans have settled down we’re ready to share this exciting announcement with everyone. The two of us will be spending about a month this summer in Hawaii!
We start our Hawaiian episode at the beginning of May in Honolulu. Escaping to a tropical island with my best friends has always been a distant dream, something that we would maybe accomplish 10 or 20 years down the road. But the stars, and our schedules, aligned and we were able to make this dream come true this year! Booking flights and accommodation was a gong show since there was less than 2 months before our departure and prices go up around that time. Once that was confirmed, the excitement continued to circulate through our nervous systems and Hawaii dominated our thoughts and consumed our attention for at least a week afterwards. This made studying for midterm exams that much more difficult; I would procrasti-plan the activities and sightseeing stops instead of memorizing Freud’s theories.
As spring warms up the local temperatures in Vancouver, my anticipation for the Hawaiian sun on my back continues to grow. After a week of snorkeling the shores of Oahu, catching up on all the vitamin D we miss out on the 49th parallel, and consuming copious amounts of acai bowls, the group splits up, and that’s when the radiant adventures begin.
I will be hopping over to the Big Island for a month-long internship, while Chew will be off to Maui for a few weeks of backpacking in the wilderness. It’s slightly frightening to think we will be alone on separate islands in the middle of the ocean for such an extended time. No car, no bike, no reliable bus system… Just me, my backpack, and the island. The internship I will be doing is one where I will be in the kitchen a lot working with produce grown on site and learning to be a part of the Hawaiian permaculture system. I won’t be able to do nearly as much exploration as Chew since I work five days of the week, but living in a tropical rain forest for a month will surely be a transformative experience. On my days off, I’ll venture to the farmers’ market in Hilo and wander around town. Thankfully, the rest of my family will touch down in Hilo on the last day of my internship and we will be able to explore the Big Island for one more week. I’m especially excited to search for pods of wild dolphins, hike an active volcano, and see the Milky Way from Mauna Kea.
Since we’ll either be on a mountain or in a rain forest, both of us will be relatively absent from the online world; what does this mean for the blog? I will have regular access to a community kitchen so there is a chance that I will be able to publish some recipes during my month on Big Island. Before we embark on this epic journey, we will try and have some content in queue so that May won’t be completely dead. We will do our best to keep ya’ll updated via Instagram and Facebook as we travel the Hawaiian Islands. When we return home in June, we plan to document highlights from our trips in blog posts. Hopefully those posts will be helpful if you ever visit Hawaii.
Now onto the second news item: THESE PHENOMENAL COOKIES. Even if I must say so myself. White chocolate macadamia nut cookies have always been a favourite in my family. I wanted to bake a cookie that had the same look and texture as store-bought ones; cookies that spread in the oven and bake up with crisp edges with a chewy centre. Who would’ve guessed that it could be achieved with oat flour and no animal products?! Unlike the store-bought ones, you’ll get a big crunchy piece of macadamia nut in each bite. This buttery soft nut is truly delightful.
You can be quite certain that we will be making many more batches of these cookies and sharing other flavour combinations in the future. Until then, enjoy the taste of Hawaii in these divine gluten free and vegan macadamia nut cookies!
- 1 tbsp ground chia seeds + 3 tbsp water
- ⅔ cup vegan margarine*
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar of choice (I used a mix of brown and white)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp sea salt (omit if nuts are salted)
- 2¼ cups oat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup roughly chopped roasted macadamia nuts
- ¾ cup vegan chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with a non-stick silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Make a vegan 'egg' by mixing the ground chia seeds and water in a small bowl. Let it gel up while you start the cookie dough.
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until homogeneous. Add the vanilla extract, salt (if using), and vegan 'egg' and mix until even and smooth.
- Add the oat flour and baking soda and mix until fully combined. Fold in the macadamia nuts and chocolate chips.
- Portion out cookie dough using a muffin scoop (or 12 massive cookies) or a cookie scoop (for 16 smaller cookies) and flatten until about ¾" thick. Arrange cookie dough balls at least 1½" apart on prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned, just before the centre is set. Cool on the pan for 5 minutes and then enjoy!
Recipe adapted from our Vegan Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Well now that my mouth is watering…I better go make these. Thanks. a lot. (lol…really though, thanks! these look so good!) And HEY, I’m in Vancouver too!
Hello fellow Vancouverite, we love connecting with local foodie friends! Never say no to a good cookie or you might regret it 😉
I made this recipe and baked a few cookies then froze the rest of the dough. The cookies came out crispamd crumbly. Any idea of what I could do differently (add something to the dough? Bake shorter period of time?) for my frozen bath or another batch?
Your oven may be hotter than ours so even though oat flour cookies typically require more oven time, it is possible your cookies got a few too many minutes! It’s difficult for me to estimate how long the cookies would take if you started with frozen dough, but they should look a wee bit soft in the middle when you take them out. The hot cookie sheet will continue to cook them. Hopefully this helps!
These are exceptionally good cookies!!
I substituted the chia seed with 1/2 cup of applesauce, and sugar with Monk fruit sweetener.
Let them cool to set, otherwise they crumble.
I froze them in freezer bags and take out what I need on a daily basis. They are delicious with my coffee.
Thank you for posting this recipe.
Can vegan butter be used instead of margarine? How much of each sugar do you use? And can cane sugar be used instead? I love using it in my gluten-free vegan baking.
Hi Winni, sorry for the late reply. You can use vegan butter and I typically use half coconut or brown sugar and half cane sugar, but you can use all can sugar if you want.