Vegan & Gluten-Free White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies with a Lemony Twist
I have a problem. I have eaten six of these white chocolate macadamia nut cookies within the last 24-hours. I can’t stop! Since going dairy-free about a year and a half ago, white chocolate chips have been on the back of my mind. Finding vegan white chocolate chips at the grocery store is nearly impossible, and they usually never taste as good as the real deal. However, I decided to try out the new Pascha white chocolate baking chips, and I can confirm that I am one happy camper! When they arrived on my doorstep yesterday morning, I wasted no time and headed straight to the kitchen to make a batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. Oh, and these have a little twist to them that makes them taste heavenly and fresh!
Yesterday was the perfect day to bake cookies.
After running four miles in the southern humidity, I was ready to blast the air and stay inside the rest of the day. Good thing I finished when I did because it started pouring five-minutes after walking through the front door. I quickly showered, turned on a chill baking playlist, and started gathering my go-to ingredients for gluten-free, vegan cookies. Because I was out of vanilla, I decided to use almond and lemon flavor, which ended up being a complete game-changer for this recipe. I don’t think I’ll ever make these cookies without those two flavors now! They paired perfectly with the white chocolate and macadamia nuts, making these cookies the perfect fresh and citrusy combo for summer!
I usually welcome swaps in recipes, but I’m highly against leaving out the almond and lemon flavors! I promise you’re going to love it. I haven’t had them with the vanilla yet, and I’m sure they’ll turn out great, but I’m on team citrus for the summer!
LET’S TALK SWAPS
I know sometimes we have to make swaps when we don’t feel like running to the grocery store, or for other reasons. I’m hoping you can stick to this recipe, but here are some swaps just in case you need to make those changes!
INGREDIENT SWAPS
Flour – 1:1 with almond flour. You may need to add less, or more depending on the thickness of the batter.
Monk fruit – I’m all about monk fruit sweetener right now. I’ve been using in most baked goods and my afternoon lattes. It’s the closest to sugar! You can replace the monk fruit sweetener with your choice of sweetener. – if you use a liquid sweetener like honey, agave, or maple syrup, you may need to add more almond flour if using that replacement.
Brown Sugar– I used the Truvia brown sugar to keep the sugar lower. You can use regular light brown sugar if you wish to.
Macadamia Nuts – Can be omitted to keep the recipe nut-free if you wish!
White Chocolate Chips – any kind will work. I used the White Chocolate Pascha Baking Chips They taste even better after being baked. I wasn’t sure how I felt about them when I ate them straight from the bag, but after tasting them baked into the cookies, I could hardly tell the difference between these dairy-free white chocolate chips and the dairy ones. I bought eight bags of them, so I hope you’re ready for an abundance of white chocolate chip recipes!
Lemon & Almond Flavor – You can replace this with vanilla, but it will make me sad! I’m JK, I’m sure using vanilla will be just as good!
Vegan Butter – you can use any butter, but do not replace with an oil. That will not work.
If you don’t eat as much batter as I did, this recipe will make 24 cookies! I measured 1/4 cup of the batter for each cookie.

Vegan White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsps Ground Flaxseeds
- 4 Tbsps Warm Water
- 4 Ounces Vegan Butter I used Earth Balance
- 1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar I used Truvia Light
- 1/3 Cup Monk Fruit Sweetener or your choice of sweetener
- 1 Tsp Lemon Flavor
- 1 Tsp Almond Flavor
- 1 3/4 Cups Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour
- 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
- 3/4 Cup Chopped Macadamia Nuts
- 3/4 Cup Vegan White Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350-degrees.
- In a small bowl, Mix the water and ground flaxseed together. Set aside.
- In an electric mixer, cream the butter until lump-free. Mix in the light brown sugar, monk fruit sweetener, lemon flavor, and almond flavor.
- Mix in the flaxseed mixture.
- Sift together the flour, sea salt, and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the electric mixer by the spoonful until it's completely incorporated.
- Fold in the white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.
- Scoop 1/4 cup sized dough balls onto an ungreased baking sheet. Press down slightly to help the ball form a cookie.
- Bake 13-14 minutes. (keep an eye on them because all ovens cook differently) Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack with a spatula!
I’m excited to bring a batch of these to Caitlin tonight! She also eats gluten/dairy free, so I think she’s going to love these! ❤️ I am so excited for you all to try this recipe! 😃
Questions for you!
- White chocolate or Dark chocolate?
- What white chocolate recipe should I make next?
- Favorite cookie flavor ever?
Okay these look amazing and I think I’m going to have to make them!
Yes! They are so good! 😊 I hope you love them!
Mmm, sounds like a dream! 🙂 Love all your recipes, Taralynn! Thank you! ❤️✨
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Thanks so much, Charmaine!
These look amazing!!
1. White chocolate!
2. Ooh, what about a copycat (healthier-version) of Reese’s white chocolate peanut butter cups? I think those would be delicious.
3. This is a basic answer, but chocolate chip, haha.
Thank you, Ashley!
I thought the same thing when I saw those at the gas station yesterday!!
Can’t go wrong with chocolate chip!
How many calories?
How many calories?
I didn’ do the nutrition on these! You can use an online calculator if you need to know macros 😀
The cookies turned out great! Could you make an orange cranberry combo?
Ohhhh what a great idea!
Can I use whole wheat flour?
Yes! 🙂
Yum!
😊
yes i love this recipe from brazil