If you have ever opened a small white pastry box from Big Island Candies in Hilo, this is the cookie inside. Hawaii macadamia nut shortbread is a four-ingredient cookie: butter, sugar, flour, and salt, plus one essential addition that makes it Hawaii's — a generous handful of toasted, salted macadamia nuts folded through the dough. It is buttery and sandy in the way Scottish shortbread is, but the toasted mac nuts push it somewhere richer and more savory.
The cookie became iconic because the ingredients line up with what the Big Island has always grown well. Macadamia nuts arrived in Hawaii from Australia in the late 1800s, commercial orchards followed in the 1920s, and by the late 20th century most of the U.S. crop was coming out of the Big Island. Bakeries like Big Island Candies (founded in 1977) and Honolulu Cookie Company built entire businesses on this one recipe. Make it at home and it will taste like a souvenir tin from a Hilo airport gift shop, which is the highest compliment.
At a glance
20 to 24 cookies
20 minutes
1 hour chill, 22 minutes bake
Easy
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, softened to cool room temperature (this matters — melted butter will make a different cookie)
- ½ cup (60g) confectioners' sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup (140g) toasted, lightly salted Hawaii macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (Mauna Loa or Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company are the supermarket-grade Hawaii brands)
For finishing (optional)
- 2 tablespoons turbinado or coarse sanding sugar for the edges
- Flaky sea salt for the tops
Equipment
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment (or a hand mixer, or a wooden spoon and patience)
- Plastic wrap
- Sharp knife
- Two rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper
- Wire cooling rack
To serve
- With Kona coffee or hot tea
- Dipped in white chocolate or dark chocolate ganache for the gift-tin look
- Crumbled over vanilla ice cream
Method
- Toast the nuts (if not pre-toasted). Spread the macadamia nuts on a dry baking sheet and toast at 325°F for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden and fragrant. Watch them. Mac nuts have a high oil content and go from golden to burned in about 90 seconds. Let cool completely, then roughly chop. You want a mix of larger chunks and smaller bits; the small bits melt into the dough, the larger chunks give the cookie its signature crunch.
- Cream the butter and sugars. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the softened butter, confectioners' sugar, and granulated sugar on medium for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla and beat to combine.
- Add the dry. With the mixer on low, add the flour and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together — do not over-mix or the cookies will be tough. Stop the mixer, add the chopped mac nuts, and fold them in by hand with a spatula.
- Shape and chill. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and shape it into a log about 2 inches in diameter and 10 to 12 inches long. Wrap tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Overnight is better. The cookies bake up with sharper edges and a finer crumb after a long rest.
- Slice and bake. Heat the oven to 325°F. Roll the chilled log in turbinado sugar if using, then slice into ½-inch-thick rounds with a sharp knife. You should end up with somewhere between 20 and 24 rounds depending on how tightly you packed the log. Place on parchment-lined baking sheets about an inch apart; these cookies do not spread much. Sprinkle the tops with flaky sea salt if using. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the edges are just barely golden and the centers are set but pale.
- Cool completely. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes — they are very fragile right out of the oven. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The texture sets up as they cool: sandy, buttery, tender enough to break with your fingers.
Notes from a local cook
Hawaii mac nuts, not generic. Hawaii-grown macadamia nuts come from brands like Mauna Loa, Hamakua, and MacFarms, sourced from Big Island orchards with a much longer history than the brand name itself. In my own kitchen, the Hawaii nuts taste creamier and sweeter than the cheaper imported nuts in the bulk bin; the imported ones taste flatter to me. That is opinion, not lab work, but the nut is one of four flavors in this cookie and a better nut shows. If you cannot get Hawaii mac nuts, the cookie still works. Lean a touch heavier on the vanilla.
Lightly salted, not heavily. Pre-roasted lightly salted macadamia nuts are ideal. Heavily salted cocktail nuts will make the cookie taste savory in an off-balance way. If you can only find raw mac nuts, toast them at 325°F for 8 minutes and toss with a small pinch of fine sea salt while warm.
The chocolate version. Once the cookies are completely cool, melt 4 oz of good white chocolate in a small bowl over simmering water, and dip half of each cookie in the chocolate. Set on parchment to firm up. This is the gift-tin style Big Island Candies sells as their dipped shortbread.
Storage. These keep beautifully in a tin at room temperature for two weeks. They also freeze well, both the unbaked dough log (wrap in plastic, then foil; thaw 30 minutes before slicing) and the finished cookies (in a freezer bag, up to 3 months).
While You're on the Islands
Eat it made by someone else. The Big Island bakery worth planning a trip around is Big Island Candies in Hilo. Their flagship product is the chocolate-dipped macadamia nut shortbread, and the factory viewing window is free and open to walk-up visitors. On Oahu, Honolulu Cookie Company runs multiple Waikiki locations plus a counter at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. See our guides to Big Island dining and Oahu dining for full Hilo and Waikiki food itineraries.
Buy the ingredients fresh. A bag of unsalted, freshly roasted macadamia nuts from a Big Island roastery beats anything bagged at a mainland grocery store — grab one before you fly home, even if you don't bake until you're back.
Bring It Home
What to stock up on before you fly home: a bag of Hawaiian macadamia nuts travels well, or skip the trip-home step entirely — both Big Island Candies and Honolulu Cookie Company ship their finished cookies internationally if you'd rather just order the real thing.
Where to find island bakeries
