Vegan White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
I can still remember the days when it was trendy for young people to meet at fast-food chains or go out to eat there together. After a party, a quick stop at McDonald's was somehow mandatory, wasn't it? Nowadays, I have to think pretty hard to remember the last time I ate at a fast-food chain. But when I go there, it's crazy to see that the classics from back then are still available today. I didn't go to Subway too often, but when I did, one of their cookies usually ended up on my tray.
The four cookie varieties from back then are actually all still available today: chocolate chip, double chocolate, chocolate chip with rainbow candy, and white chip macadamia nut. They also added a new raspberry cheesecake cookie, but for our fast food theme week, we opted for the good old white chip macadamia nut cookies. Our vegan version is made with simple ingredients you should be able to find in any supermarket.
The only difficulty with this recipe is getting vegan white chocolate chips. If you're lucky, you can find them online, but if you're not, here's a trick: buy or order a vegan white chocolate bar, melt it over a pot of simmering water, then fill the melted chocolate into a piping bag or bottle, and dab little dollops of the chocolate onto parchment paper. Once the chocolate chips have cooled, you can easily remove them from the paper and store them in a sealable jar.
For this copycat recipe, we tried to mimic the original Subway cookies as much as possible. We stuck to the exact weight of 45g and added the chocolate chips and chopped macadamia nuts to the dough instead of topping the cookies with them. For me, biting into the cookies was definitely a little flashback to my youth. We hope you feel the same way!
Vegan White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 200 g (1.66 cups) flour
- 100 g (0.5 cup) brown sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 8 g (1.5 tsp) vanilla sugar
- 8 g (1.5 tsp) baking powder
- 2 g (0.5 tsp) baking soda
- 50 g (0.25 cup) applesauce
- 125 g (1 stick) vegan butter (room temperature)
For the add-ins:
- 75 g (2.66 oz) macadamia nuts (roasted & salted)
- 100 g (3.5 oz) vegan white chocolate chips
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F (circulating air). In a bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, salt, vanilla sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Add applesauce and vegan butter (room temperature) and stir to combine until a cookie dough forms.
Roughly chop the macadamia nuts and together with the vegan white chocolate chips fold them into the cookie dough.
Use an ice cream scoop to form balls of the dough weighing approx. 45 g / 1.5 oz each (this is how much the Subway cookies actually weigh). Arrange the scoops of cookie dough on a lined baking sheet but keep enough space in between them. Bake the baking sheets of cookies one at a time for approx. 12 minutes. Halfway through the baking time, flatten the cookies with a spatula or similar.
Tip: When the cookies come out of the oven, they're still very soft. Let them cool on the baking sheet for at least 5-10 minutes before carefully transfering them onto a plate.
