If there was one quintessential childhood cookie for me growing up, it was the white chocolate-macadamia nut cookie from Subway(eat Fresh). Whenever we had field trips, my mom would get me a footlong Italian sandwich with one of those cookies, so I always looked forward to field trips for that very reason. Even as an adult, while I was working at a hotel in LAX, we worked next to a Subway, so whenever I wanted to treat myself(or namely to destress), I would go there and get a white chocolate-macadamia nut cookie. What is beautiful about that combination is that both ingredients are buttery, but macadamia nuts are salty and crunchy, while white chocolate is sweet, and depending on the temperature it is served at, gooey when warm or crunchy while cold. In either case, the flavor is very comforting to me, and it helps me forget how challenging life can be(which is why I probably ate my weight in them while working at that LAX hotel since the nature of that kind of environment was very high-speed, high-demand). That is to say, it made sense to use that cookie flavor in a scone, especially since I was experimenting with sourdough scone dough and wanted to make some sweet ones that were inspired by some of the cookies I love to eat and bake! For this recipe, I did use my sourdough starter, since this recipe was intended to use it up. However, my blog does have a scone dough recipe that does not use sourdough starter, so you can totally take that dough(take out the black pepper and cheese though since it was cacio e pepe-flavored) and just add white chocolate and crushed macadamia nuts to that instead! Overall, these scones were delicious, and they tasted exactly like that Subway cookie that was so nostalgic to me. So if you want to forget how sucky adulting, or just life-ing in general, can be at times, make these scones!

Makes 16 scones:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
8 tbsp unsalted butter, kept cold
a pinch of salt
2oz buttermilk
4oz sourdough starter
1 egg
4oz white chocolate chips
2oz chopped up macadamia nuts

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, butter, and salt until a fine powder forms. To that, mix in the buttermilk, starter, and egg to form a dough. Cut the dough into 2 parts. Mix together the chocolate and macadamia nuts. Place 3/4 of that mixture onto one part of the dough and layer onto that the other part of dough. Press the remainder of the mixture on top of the dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least 10 minutes.

For the final baking:
All-purpose flour
1 egg yolk
Sanding sugar

Lightly flour a surface and then transfer your chilled dough onto it. Roll the dough to be roughly 1 inch tall. Using a 2-inch ring mold that is dusted with flour, cut out scones from the doll. With any scraps of the dough, press them together gently and re-cut with the ring mold as necessary. Transfer the scones to a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet, spacing them to be 2 inches apart. Brush beaten egg yolk on top of each scone. Sprinkle sanding sugar on top of each scone as well. Refrigerate the scones for another 20 minutes. Then bake at 425 degrees F for 10 minutes, then lower the oven to 375 degrees F and bake for another 6 minutes. Allow the scones to at least partially cool before attempting to eat.