Although most years I struggle deciding on a Valentine’s Day gift for my husband, this year I KNEW: Honolulu Cookie Company macadamia nut shortbread cookies! Well, I thought I knew, until I saw that shipping from their online store costs more than the actual cookies themselves. Jeremy loves those cookies, though, and we had no plans to travel to Hawaii for the foreseeable future. So, I got down to work to create my own copycat recipe for the Honolulu Cookie Company’s famous butter macadamia cookies!
The real question: does it actually taste like Honolulu Cookie Co.?
Both Jeremy and I think the flavor of the macadamia shortbread cookies from this recipe taste just like the ones from the stores. HOWEVER, there is a slight difference in texture. We felt that the Honolulu Co. cookies were crisper and crunchier. These homemade shortbread cookies, on the other hand, had a softer crumb. They’re buttery and velvety smooth and crumble so finely in your mouth they practically melt, but they’re NOT cakey or chewy at all. I’m team crumble over crisp any day, could you tell? I only feel the difference is worth mentioning because my mom has said she likes the crispier cookies better. Whatever.
What makes these cookies so perfectly crumbly? A secret ingredient!
EGG YOLKS! Egg yolks is what gives these cookies that softer crumb. It also makes the dough easier to roll out and cut into shapes. Because is it even a Honolulu Cookie Co. cookie without that pineapple shape? A traditional shortbread recipe, like my pumpkin spice cookies, uses only flour, sugar, and butter. That kind of dough is best for slice and bake cookies. So if you have an egg allergy or you’re not going to cut out pineapple shapes, feel free to omit the egg yolks. You should still be able to roll the dough into logs and slice into circles, and you can get a crispier snap to your cookies. The ingredients list for the Honolulu Cookie Co. cookies does include eggs, though! So I highly recommend following the recipe as written.
One last note about the ingredients and equipment needed before you get started.
At the time I went grocery shopping, the only macadamia nuts available were already salted. If that’s the case for you, make sure you taste a macadamia nut before cooking to see how salty they are. You can adjust the amount of extra salt in your dough as needed. If you manage to find unsalted nuts, you’ll probably want to increase the amount of salt in the recipe to 3/4 tsp.
Oh, and you’ll need a food process or blender or something that can grind those nuts into a coarse flour. Grind too much and you’ll end up with macadamia butter. Grind too little and your cookies will still taste great, but they’ll have larger chunks of macadamia nut that aren’t present in the Honolulu Cookie Co version.
For the chocolate dipping sauce, you’ll see I have vegetable shortening listed as an ingredient. The shortening helps thin out the melted chocolate so you don’t get a thick, clumpy crust over your cookie. I don’t use shortening often, so I understand if you don’t want to buy a whole tub just for this. I’ve heard you can substitute vegetable oil or butter, but since I haven’t tried it myself, do so at your own risk. Or omit it altogether. One half cup of chocolate chips plus two teaspoons of Crisco was enough to dip about 8-10 cookies for me. If you’re only using one type of chocolate, you can double that amount.
Lastly, my cookies are a little larger than the Honolulu Cookie Co. version. Do you know how hard it is to find a pineapple cookie cutter that’s exactly the right size? I ended up with this set of fruit cookie cutters from Amazon (Disclaimer: this is an affiliate link). The pineapple is 2 by 3 inches, but I actually wound up really liking this larger size. Who doesn’t like a bigger cookie?
Alright, hopefully I didn’t forget anything. If you make these, let me know how they turn out! Have suggestions on how to make the cookies taste more like the original? Or requests for additional Honolulu Cookie Co. flavors? Let me know in the comments! Happy baking!
Macadmia Nut Shortbread Cookies (Honolulu Cookie Co Copycat)
Equipment
- Pineapple cookie cutter (optional)
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (two sticks) softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup macadamia nuts
- 2 cups bread flour
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 cup chocolate chips of choice for dipping
- 4 tsp vegetable shortening (e.g. Crisco)
Instructions
- Grind macadamia nuts in food processor until they reach the texture of coarse sand.
- Cream butter, sugar, and salt in a mixer.
- Add egg yolks and mix until homogenous.
- Add flour and ground macadamia nuts. Mix until well incorporated.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in fridge to chill for at least half an hour but up to overnight. I pat my dough into a flat disc shape before chilling to make rolling out the dough easier after it's cold.
- When ready to bake, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper (or a silicone mat) and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Roll out the dough to approximately 1/4 inch thick.
- Use a pineapple cookie cutter (or other shape of choice) to cut out cookies and arrange on your baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Watch carefully as baking time will differ depending on the oven and type of baking sheet used.
- Allow cookies to cool to room temperature. If dipping in chocolate, heat chocolate and shortening in microwave at 30 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate is smooth. For both milk and white chocolate dip, I used 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 2 tsp of Crisco in each bowl.
- Dip pineapple cookies in chocolate dip, using a spoon to cover all desired areas and scrape off excess chocolate. Place bake on baking sheet to set.
- When chocolate has hardened, eat and enjoy!
43 comments
Is the half cup of macadamia nuts before or after they are ground?
After! But I actually measured out a half cup before I ground them and measured how much of the ground macadamia I got from that after and they’re very close, so you won’t mess up the recipe either way. Thanks for asking!
How many grams of macadamia nuts? Then you
Hi Valentina, I’m so sorry but I didn’t weight the macadamia nuts while doing this recipe. Next time I make it, I’ll measure and update the recipe.
[…] Honolulu Cookie Company Copycat Recipe […]
[…] flavor. Shortbread’s buttery goodness wins me over every time. I based this recipe off my Honolulu Cookie Co. Copycat shortbread, so go give that one a try […]
On a recent stay in Waikiki, I visited the Honolulu cookie Company several times. While in the ABC store I noticed they had unsalted macadamia nuts on sale. I googled the recipe and came across yours. Scooped up a bunch of nuts and I’m just waiting for the weather to break here on the East Coast. I’ll get back to you in a few weeks. I’ll start with your recipe and then move onto the lemon, the coconut and then the mini chocolate chip. It’s obvious I’ve tried all the flavors the store had to offer.Thank you for posting this recipe.
You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy it. I’ve made this recipe and also added in ground kona coffee to make the kona coffee version.
Oooh I loved the Kona coffee flavored ones … how much coffee did you add?
I can’t remember because I was silly and didn’t write it down, but I’m guessing a tablespoon!
The Kona Coffee ones are my favorite too. Thanks for posting this recipe.
Prayers for Maui. Heartbreaking 💔
Finally had a break in the weather and made your cookies today.For the first batch I added lemon extract and for the second batch I added coconut extract. Out of laziness I used Target’s Good and Gather candy coating. For the lemon cookie I added the lemon extract to the white chocolate and for the coconut I added the coconut extract to the chocolate coating. The short bread was out of this world. My family members that were in Hawaii with us all came to sample the cookies.Everybody thought your recipe was a perfect copy cat. Spent the day eating the cookies and reminiscing about our visit to Hawaii. The confectionery sugar and bread flour are what gets the cookie right. You truly deserve five stars. Bravo!
I’m so happy your family enjoyed them! The lemon and coconut ideas sound great; I’m going to have to try them next time!
Mochi Mommy, my sister just came back from her vacation in Hawaii. She spend a couple of hours at the Honolulu Cookie Store. She gave me a box of these fantasy cookies. She also gave me a bag of Kona Coffee. So, this morning I had the best coffee ever, and almost ate all of the cookies. Now that I have your recipe, Ill be baking these as soon as I get the macadamia nuts. Thank you for sharing recipe.
You’re so welcome! I hope you like it!
If I wanted to make their guava version would you alter anything or just add some guava paste?
Hi Jaci,
If it’s only about a tablespoon or so, it should be fine. If it’s closer to 1/4 cup, you’ll probably need to increase the amount of flour so the dough isn’t too wet to roll out. Let me know how it goes!
Will be trying this recipe for Xmas cookies this year – so not in a pineapple shape. After having 1 of these on the plane my hubby is addicted. We bought a box in hawaii which we ate, and had to buy another box to bring home lol. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out and tasting them!!!
What will be the difference if I end up using all purpose flour vs bread flour?
Hi, sorry for the late reply. The texture may be slightly different – less held together. But honestly, I’ve made it with all purpose flour recently, and it’s a very minor difference. I’d probably need a taste test side by side to notice.
Can you make this recipe using a gluten free flour such as bob’s red mill gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour?
I’ve never tried it, so I really don’t know, sorry. If you try it, let me know.
I’ve been to Honolulu twice and both times I bought the the Honolulu cookies. I got so addicted to them! My favorite one was the pineapple macadamia flavor. I would really like to try your recipe but I wonder how I can add the pineapple flavor to these cookies.
Hi Denise,
If you can get your hands on some freeze dried pineapple, I think that would be the easiest way to add in the pineapple flavor! I would try blending about 1/4 cup of the freeze dried pineapple and adding the powder to the flour. I don’t think that’s how the Honolulu Cookie Co does it, but it might be the most convenient for home bakers.
[…] Honolulu Cookie Company Copycat […]
DANGER! These cookies are incredible tasting!!!!! I love the light airy texture and softness of the delicate cookie. I don’t care to use cookie cutters, so I placed half in the plastic wrap and formed it into a 2-inch round roll and the other half in a 2-inch square roll as I refrigerated them. Then I sliced the rolls into 1/4 thick cookie pieces. I used a round spoon handle to make a slight indentation in each cookie slice to hold a small amount of jelly. I used guava jelly for one half and mango jelly for the other half. The jelly bakes up nice and firm when cooked/cooled.
YASSS glad you liked it, and thanks for the tips! Adding guava and mango jelly is genius.
Made these today for the first. My new Granddaughter is from Hawaii, so her birthday is coming up this week and wanted something special. So I made them to surprise her, she has to have gluten free replaced the flour with Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour Gluten Free. Just had to add 1/2 cup extra works great. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Brenda, Thanks for the tip! Glad it worked out!
Just got back from Maui and can hardly wait to try these. Question…did you use salted or unsalted Macadamia nuts?
Unsalted! Hope you enjoy them!
I wanted to make my own so i don’t spend so much money at HCC every time I go home to Hawaii. Now I make this every year now for Christmas cookie boxes and everyone loves it! They’re definitely becoming my favorite cookie to make. Thank you thank you!
Thanks so much for taking the time to give feedback! I’m so glad you like it!
[…] the sugar cookie dough was based off my roll out shortbread cookie dough that I used for my Honolulu Cookie Company copycat recipe. For these matcha cookies, I wanted something a little less dense and crisp, so I tweaked it […]
They were a big hit at my niece’s SpongeBob theme birthday and my friends loved them too. I used the sea salt mains loa Mac nuts and salted butter but no salt. I would like to try to color the dough maybe for fall and Halloween and Christmas cookies.
Hi there! I’m using this recipe to make some shaped shortbread cookies for haloween cookies and I’d like to omit the mac nuts, do you think that will alter the crumb over much? Do you have any opinions on what I might be able to substitute instead?
Hi Amanda! You can use my “roll out shortbread” recipe instead. It’s very similar to this but with no nuts.
[…] Honolulu Cookie Company Copycat Recipe […]
I haven’t made yet but plan to. Finally found a pineapple cookie cutter . Can you freeze the cookies? And if so should you chocolate dip before or after freezing?
Hi Joy, yes, you can freeze the baked cookies or even the unbaked dough. I recommend chocolate dipping right before you are ready to eat them (i.e. after defrosting).
I was inspired to make these and compare to the Honolulu cookies we have in the house. Wow. Your recipe did not disappoint! I didn’t have macadamia nuts so just skipped them this time and added a splash of vanilla. My family taste-tested side by side and both agreed that while these were more buttery than Honolulu Cookie Co, they were very close in texture and flavor, despite the omission of macadamia nuts. I will definitely make again, and will perhaps try a bit of pineapple extract. Honestly, I didn’t really miss the nuts myself. The flavors was fantastic and the dough was so easy to work.
Just recently returned from another trip to Waikiki always spend a fortune on the cookies to bring back as gifts. My favourites are the coconut and the coffee.
Have made your recipe and I won’t be spending so much on cookies any more. Very close to your recipe, thank you. We are at 3000 feet so lowered the temp by 20 degrees. $1:20 each.
Thanks for the info about high altitude baking temps! Glad you liked the recipe!