I had my late-night baking craving last night.

This usually comes about once a month. It’s always past 9:00 p.m. when I find myself alone in the kitchen and in the mood to bake anything. It’s not a craving to eat - just the craving to bake.

I mentioned baking cookies to my boyfriend Chad yesterday and he mentioned his favorite cookie - white chocolate macadamia.

It was 9:30 at night when I decided to try a new recipe for this favorite. Let’s just say within 20 minutes I had cookies made, cooling on wire racks, and I was cleaning up my kitchen. Late-night bake sessions come and go preeetty fast.

But, it was a good feeling this morning to package up a few of these cookies for Chad and even send a few to friends.

I prefer using lightly salted and roasted macadamia nuts in these cookies for an enhanced flavor. And a very good quality white chocolate bar.

Roasted Macadamia & White Chocolate Cookies

1 ½ cup all purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick) at room temperature
½ cup white granulated sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup roasted macadamia nuts, chopped
4 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Chop the nuts and white chocolate and set aside.
- In a mixer, blend the sugars and butter until creamy, about a minute or two. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until completely combined. Add the flour mixture at a low speed until just combined. Add the nuts and white chocolate to the mix at a low speed and stop when just combined.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop out tablespoon-sized cookie dough on parchment-lined cooking sheets. Bake for about 9-10 minutes, rotating sheets half-way through baking. Let cookies cool on the sheets for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. This will make about 2 dozen cookies.

My late-night baking tip: Use parchment paper on your cookie sheets! I admit, I never used to do this in my earlier baking years. But, it brings very minimal clean up and the cookies will never stick!

The last thing you want to do at night is scrub hot cookie sheets, right?