Paleo Macadamia Cookies
Looking for a paleo cookies recipe? These macadamia cookies are my go-to healthy snack. Loaded with good fats, from coconut oil and almond flour and super crispy, with a great nutty and buttery flavor thanks to the macadamias!
Let’s begin with the story of how these delicious Paleo Macadamia Cookies came to life. One morning, I received an email from Laurie at Palaios asking me if I would be interested in a pantry hamper full of paleo goodies.
Hem…why, OF COURSE I am! But that’s not what I said, because I’m a polite girl – most of the time. And so a few days later I received a 4 kilos package full of deliciousness. Wait, what?! 4 kilos is like 9 pounds aka A LOT.
9 pounds of goji berries, cacao nibs, coconut flour, almond flour, trail mix, sun-dried tomatoes and…macadamia nuts (among many others things that I won’t list here because I don’t want to be boring)! As soon as I saw these nuts, I knew I wanted to make some sort of paleo cookies recipe with them.
Because cookies are good – and they’re even better when paleo and studded with macadamia nuts.
And I’m gonna have to stop you right there if you think this paleo cookies recipe is exclusively for the cave(wo)men out there. No, no, no they’re good for anybody!
When I made them the first time, I knew paleo folks were going to love these crunchy macadamia cookies but I wasn’t positive about all the others. I loved them, Solal loved them too but I needed another neutral taste tester to be sure.
And my non-paleo friend Bee was just the person I needed for that! I made her a batch and she ate several paleo macadamia cookies in just a few hours and even took the leftovers home. I think we can call this paleo cookies recipe a WINNER!
Thanks to my friends at Palaios – the paleo supermarket for sending me this great selection of ingredients to try!
If you tried this paleo cookies recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe below and let me know how it went in the comments – I love hearing from you! You can also follow me on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook for more deliciousness and behind-the-scenes!
Paleo Macadamia Cookies
Looking for a paleo cookies recipe? These paleo macadamia cookies are my go-to healthy dessert or snack. Loaded with good fats, from coconut oil and almond flour and super crispy, with a great nutty and buttery flavor thanks to the macadamias!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup macadamia nuts whole raw
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 cup desiccated coconut unsweetened fine
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup coconut oil melted
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp water divided
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 320F/160C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
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Arrange macadamia nuts on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let them cool and chop them roughly.
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Reduce oven to 250F/120C.
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In a large bowl, combine almond flour, desiccated coconut, macadamia nuts and ginger.
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In a small saucepan, combine honey and coconut oil and melt gently.
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In a small bowl, mix baking soda with 1 tablespoon water. Add to honey and coconut oil. Once the mixture froths up (this will happen almost instantly), remove from heat and pour on the wet ingredients. Add 1 tablespoon of water and mix well.
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Using a medium cookie/ice cream scoop (or about 1 1/2 tablespoons), form about 12 cookies. Arrange them on the lined baking sheets and flatten them using the back of the scoop.
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Bake for 25 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely before transferring them to a plate or a container.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from Taste.com.au and The Healthy Chef
These sound absolutely scrumptious! I have no excuse for making them, but I’m definitely keeping this recipe. I don’t think you could come up with a more perfect set of ingredients.
Haha sometimes, I just create myself a good excuse to eat cookies. As long as they’re relatively healthy, of course 😉
These look delightful! Where can I find desiccated coconut? Can’t wait to find that ingredient so I can make these! xox
Thanks Michelle! You can find desiccated coconut in any supermarket, usually in the baking aisle.
Thanks for this recipe! They turned out great and they’re just the right amount of sweet!
Yay i’m really glad they turned out great for you Tennille!
These are awful. I don’t know what it is about the recipe but it sounds good but doesn’t taste good. They do not thicken for you to scoop out and they do not brown. Mine came out as white as the nuts. All you taste is flour. Gross.
Hey Courtney, I’m sorry they turned out bad for you. I’ve received a lot of positive feedbacks about this recipe, people love it! Did you follow the recipe to the T or made any changes? I would love to help you figure out what went wrong on your side.
PS: I’m wondering if you would have said that to my face? I’m always happy to get feedbacks on my recipes, even when they didn’t work as expected, but your comment was just plain rude. Especially when I’m sharing my work for free.
Your recipe is amazing Marie. Thank you
Thank you! Glad you loved these cookies 🙂
I think because there isn’t any binder as such (like eggs or chia seeds) the mixture is supposed to be crumbly, but I have done an awful lot of paleo baking and I know to literally squish a mixture together for it form a cookie.
Also, all ovens are really different – I have learnt that my current oven needs 5-10 degrees less than a recipe calls for and a previous oven of mine required 10-15 degrees more than a recipe called for.. Also it took me long time to work out fan vs no fan for different recipes.
And I ate the mixture raw and it didn’t taste floury at all, so maybe your ingredients are different to others – I know that when I buy coconut flour from the chemist it makes beautiful pancakes, but coconut flour from elsewhere, the pancakes are just gross and floury (same recipe!), so I pay extra to buy a better coconut flour..
So there could be a number of factors as to why your batch didn’t turn out!
I must admit, paleo baking takes awhile to perfect as it’s very very different to “regular” baking.
Good luck!!!
Thank you Belle, and I agree 100% with you. Unfortunately, using different brands can lead to completely different results when baking paleo treats. I’m thinking the issue could come from the almond flour you’re using? Or maybe you used coconut flour instead of desiccated coconut (they’re not the same) ?
Marie,
I would have absolutely told you that they were gross, if they were. I wasn’t trying to be rude, just honest. I followed the recipe to a T. Not sure why mine came out white and yours (in the picture) came out brown. They were so dry, they kept falling apart when trying to put them on the cookie sheet. I do appreciate you sharing recipes. I would rather be honest than have people make it as well, spend a lot of money on the Macadamia Nuts and have it turn out inedible.
My family and I are new to paleo and sugar free and these cookies have become my kids new favorite! Easy to make, delicious and perfect for the lunch box! Thanks for sharing – will be checking out your other recipes.
Yay I love it when I can help families with my recipes! I’m so happy to know your kids love these cookies. Thanks for letting me know Kylie 🙂
Hi there when you measure out coconut oil do you melt it first then measure 1/4 cup or scoop out 1/4 cup then melt. Sometimes my mixture when using coconut oil in baking are very wet so just curious what the best way to measure is thanks x
Hi Meg! I measure the coconut oil when it’s melted. Most of the time it’s quite warm in my kitchen so the coconut oil doesn’t get a chance to harden! Hope this helps 🙂
OMG!!! Yum, yum, yummy.. YUMMY!!
Lovely ingredients and what an amazing result!
To be honest I was worried about the 120c setting, only because I rarely make anything that requires the oven to be so low.. But this recipe worked perfectly 🙂
I took them out at 20 minutes though and I may have eaten a bit of the raw mixture hehehehehe!!
So happy you loved them Belle! And eating some raw dough is exactly what you’re supposed to do haha. Thank you!
Sadly mine were so crumbly and white they just fell apart, the mixture taste amazing tho, I have just re mixed them with two eggs and I’m rebaking them so fingers crossed!
I’m sorry to hear that Mel! Did you follow the recipe as written or substituted an ingredient? I hope the second batch will be a success 🙂 Let me know!
I am pleased to say my third round of these is yummy yum I changed coconut oil brands and used a bit more almond flour and a bit less dessicated coconut as I found my coconut was so dry and the results are scrumptious
YAY! I’m glad to hear that Mel 🙂
Could I add dried cranberries to this recipe?
Hi Laura, I think you could but you would need to reduce the amount of macadamia nuts to make sure the cookies don’t fall apart. Maybe use 1/2 cup macadamia and 1/4 cup cranberries? It sure sounds delicious! Let me know if you try 🙂
i just made these cookies….. they were absolutely delicious and so easy to make. I followed the recipe to a T, except I didn’t have any ground ginger, I used cardomon instead. I found them perfect. I will definitely make these again.Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m glad to hear that Eleni, thank you for letting me know 🙂 And enjoy!
These look deliciously amazing! Love paleo cookies even more than the “real” thing. Give my sea salt and dark chocolate chunk paleo cookies a shot 🙂
http://www.thepaleopanda.com/heavens-best-paleo-sea-salt-and-chocolate-chunk-cookies/
OH MY GOODNESS! I love these! I’m paleo, and am constantly searching for beautiful paleo recipies to quench my need for sweet food – and these… These are amazing. Everyone should try these, words can’t praise enough!
Thanks so much Lisa!! Love your enthusiasm 🙂
I just made these and they turned out perfectly… I don’t know which is more delicious, the finished product or the raw cookie mix. Just a quick question – I’m trying to cut back on sweeteners in general, so would like to make these but half the quantity of honey. I’m worried this will make the mix too dry – any tips in terms of what I can replace it with?
So happy you loved them Sue! Humm that’s a tricky question. You’re right, you need the honey to bind the dough together… Maybe you could use rice malt syrup? It’s still a sweetener but much lower in fructose than honey.
I want to make these cookies but my husband hates shreaded coconut. Can I make a substitution?
Coconut is one of the most important ingredient in this recipe so I would recommend using another recipe if your husband doesn’t like it.
These look so good – crispy and nutty and buttery, all at the same time! Cannot wait to try them myself!
Love these cookies to bits, thank you x
Aww so happy to hear Melissa, thanks a lot!