Lime-Coconut White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

White Chocolate Chip Cookies with Macadamia Nuts are a favorite, and adding coconut and lime gives them an extra tropical flair. These cookies are chewy with soft centers and studded with those buttery macadamia nuts. Fresh lime zest gives them some bright flavor and shredded coconut adds even more texture. These are a favorite when you want a cookie that’s a little extra special and they’re super easy to make!

cookies on a cooling rack

Ingredient Notes

  • Flour
  • Baking Soda
  • Salt
  • Butter – unless you have a food intolerance, I recommend real (salted) butter. This recipe uses melted butter, but you don’t want it piping hot! You’ll want to microwave until just barely melted and then let it cool for a few minutes before using it in your recipe.
  • Brown Sugar – use light brown sugar for this recipe.
  • White Sugar
  • Egg – you’ll use one large egg, plus one additional egg yolk.
  • Vanilla Extract
  • White Chocolate Chips – you could alternately chop up a bar of white chocolate.
  • Macadamia Nuts – look for macadamia nuts in the snack section of the grocery store. They usually sell them in small bags or tubs for snacking in the perfect amount. If you find a good priced package that’s plus or minus an ounce of the 5oz this recipe calls for, that’s totally okay.
  • Shredded Coconut– I use the bagged shredded, sweetened coconut found in the baking aisle of the grocery store. If you’d prefer to use a natural unsweetened shredded coconut, I’m guessing that would be okay too since there’s plenty of sweetness in the cookie.
  • Lime Zest – I love both the color and flavor of fresh lime zest in this recipe. If I’ve been short, I’ve also sometimes tossed in some True Lime, which helps to amp up that lime flavor. If you love lime, feel free to add lots of zest, if you want just a hint, you can add less! You won’t be using the lime juice in this recipe, so put those in an airtight container and squeeze them on some tacos for dinner.

How to Make Coconut White Chip Cookies

  1. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
  2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix melted butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.
  3. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. 
  4. Add dry ingredients; mix until combined.
  5. Add white chocolate chips, coconut, macadamia nuts, and lime zest.  Mix to distribute.
  6. Scoop cookie dough into large balls and bake!

These cookies will be soft in the centers and nice and chewy on the outer part. Make sure you read my tips below for cookies that look as beautiful as they taste!

Stack of cookies

Baking Tips for extra pretty cookies!

  • For good looking cookies, add a few extra add-ins on the tops on your dough balls as well. You’ll notice on the cookies in the photos below, I placed a few nuts and chips on top before baking, as well as sprinkled a bit more lime zest right before they went in the oven.
  • Immediately after cookies come out of oven, take a metal spatula and gently tap the edges in toward the center of the cookies to round out the edges into perfect circles. They not only look prettier, but create a lovely crackly outer edge and puff up the centers a bit after spreading during baking.

Storing and Other Tips

  • Store cookies in an airtight container for 2-3 days. 
  • Freeze well-wrapped cookies for up to 3 months. 
  • Flash freeze dough balls and then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 months.  Defrost in fridge before baking, or bake directly from frozen with a few more minutes added to baking time. 
stack of cookies with white chocolate chips

Lime-Coconut White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

5 from 12 votes
A classic macadamia nut cookie with a twist of shredded coconut and fresh lime for a uniquely flavorful cookie that's chewy on the outside and soft in the center.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 27 minutes
Servings18 Large Cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 cups All Purpose Flour (260g) Spooned lightly into measuring cup and leveled with a knife
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 12 tablespoons butter (1 ½ sticks) melted and slightly cooled
  • 1 cup brown sugar (200g) packed
  • ½ cup white sugar (100g)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 egg yolk in addition to the 1 full egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 5 oz dry roasted macadamia nuts
  • 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
  • 1-2 tablespoons lime zest zest from 1-2 limes

Instructions

  • Heat oven to 325 degrees.
  • Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
  • Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.
  • Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. 
  • Add dry ingredients;mix until combined.
  • Add white chocolate chips, coconut, macadamia nuts, and lime zest.  Mix to distribute.
  • Scoop cookie dough into large balls (about 2 oz (4 tablespoons each)) and place on parchment lined baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.  Tip: For pretty presentation add a few extra chocolate chips (and/or nuts and coconut if you have extra) on the tops on your dough balls.
  • Bake until cookies are set around outer edges, yet centers are still soft and puffy, and appear slightly under-baked, about 12-14 minutes (all ovens are different, keep an eye on them!)  
  • Tip: Immediately after cookies come out of oven, take a metal spatula and gently tap the edges in toward the center of the cookies to round out the edges into perfect circles. They not only look prettier, but create a lovely crackly outer edge and puff up the centers a bit after spreading during baking.

Notes

  • Of course you can feel free to make smaller cookies.  This recipe will make about 30 smaller cookies (approximately 2 tablespoons of dough)
  • Store cookies in an airtight container for 2-3 days. 
  • Freeze well-wrapped cookies for up to 3 months. 
  • Flash freeze dough balls and then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 months.  Defrost in fridge before baking, or bake directly from frozen with a few more minutes added to baking time. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 338kcal, Carbohydrates: 37g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 21g, Saturated Fat: 11g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 8g, Trans Fat: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 42mg, Sodium: 174mg, Potassium: 125mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 24g, Vitamin A: 264IU, Vitamin C: 0.3mg, Calcium: 45mg, Iron: 1mg
Course: Desserts
Cuisine: Hawaiian
Keyword: Lime Coconut White Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies
Calories: 338kcal
Author: Sara Wells
Cost: 10
Did You Make This Recipe?Snap a picture, and hashtag it #ourbestbites. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @ourbestbites!
woman in denim shirt holding a salad bowl
Meet The Author

Sara Wells

Sara Wells co-founded Our Best Bites in 2008. She is the author of three Bestselling Cook Books, Best Bites: 150 Family Favorite RecipesSavoring the Seasons with Our Best Bites, and 400 Calories or Less from Our Best Bites. Sara’s work has been featured in many local and national news outlets and publications such as Parenting MagazineBetter Homes & GardensFine CookingThe Rachel Ray Show and the New York Times.

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Questions & Reviews

  1. Guess what song is bouncing around in my head now?
    “She put the lime in the coconut, she drank them both up
    She put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up…”

    Perhaps this cookie could relieve her belly ache. Ah, you’re probably too young to even know this song.
    Have a great time with your presentation tomorrow! You’ll do grrrrreat!

  2. Oh, no! It’s 87 degrees here in San Diego; too hot to be baking. You’re killing me! I will be trying these when it cools down a little!

  3. I now want to go to town so I can get the stuff to make these, they look and sound great!

  4. My new sunday cookie recipe this week! YAY!! Can’t wait to see you saturday morning at Time Out For Women!!!

  5. OH MAN!!! I think adding the lime zest is brilliant! My favorite cookies just got better. 🙂

  6. Welcome to Orlando. In the 80s here. Enjoy your time. I’ll be baking your cookies while you’re being a tourist!

  7. These look delicious – I am most definitely giving these a try this weekend! Spring is just beginning to arrive here and what better way to celebrate than white chocolate, coconut and lime?? (I can’t believe I just said that…me being a die-hard dark chocolate girl and all. An Easter miracle perhaps?) 🙂

  8. I am usually not a white chocolate/macadamia nut kind of girl, but for some reason this recipe has haunted me all morning! I finally broke down and went to the store to buy ingredients, which is SO not me to be such an impulse baker. Anyway, I am cooking them right now, and between the toasted macadamias, toasted coconut, and lime zest my house smells A.MAZ.ING! I can’t wait to try these! Anyway, thanks for a delicious recipe!

  9. These sound so good – I just wish I was a bigger fan of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies! Maybe if I chopped up the nuts…. And it’s not even that I don’t like macadamia nuts! The combination has just never been a favorite. I’ll have to think about a little tweak because the fresh lime zest and toasted coconut in it sounds divine! Have fun in Florida! 🙂

  10. I just used coconut oil for the first time last time I made chocolate chip cookies, I bet it would be great here too subbed for the butter or part of the butter. Keeps the cookies nice and chewy even after they cool.

  11. Just had to let you gals know how much I love your blog! I hadn’t stumbled across it until my mother-in-law gave me your cookbook for Christmas. I can honestly say that I haven’t made anything that I didn’t find there or on the site since January. Teeny-bit obsessed. Cookies with lime-zest? Wouldn’t have tried it if I didn’t know you can be trusted. But of course they were delicious. 🙂

  12. Wow, these look amazing. How ingenious you are! I have to limit myself to baking only once a week (usually on the weekend) because I will eat way too much of whatever I make. These may very well be this weekend’s treat. Thanks!

  13. Do you have a tutorial or instructions on how to toast coconut? I’ve never done it before but I agree, it seems like it would add so much to the cookies!!

  14. These look and sound amazing! I love lime! And coconut! And all that other cookie goodness, too! Thanks!

  15. White chocolate macadamia nut cookies are my ALL TIME favorite. These look phenomenal! I will have to try them.

  16. Ohhh! You are speakin’ my language! LIMES…COCONUT!! Those are two of my favorite things on Earth! Thanks!

  17. Alejandro Ispani, 12 tablespoons of butter is one and a half sticks or 3/4 cup. Hope that helps.

  18. I love the tropical twist to an already delicious cookie. The creativity of the two of you never ceases to amaze me. I may have discovered your cookbook before my daughter, Vendy, but I’m so glad she told me about your wonderful place here!

  19. 12 tablespoon of butter? can you give that in some other measure please? grams? ounces? thanks!

  20. I can’t wait to make these. These are my ABSOLUTE favorite cookie-and the bonus–my kids don’t like macadamia nuts. I will definetly have to hide these from myself. Thanks so much!!

  21. I am so excited about these! I will for sure be making these this weekend. I love white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and I’ve tried to make them on several occasions, but the recipes never have quite the right flavor I’m looking for. You two always seem to have just what I’m looking for! You guys are the best! Enjoy Orlando 🙂

  22. These cookies look amazing and sound perfect for beautiful spring-like weather. I cannot wait to try them.

  23. Holy cow! I love you!! I have been eating a tub of fundraiser white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie dough for the past couple days. When it finally runs out, I can instead make these yummilicious things!!! Yeah!!!