Preheat oven to 350F.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roughly chop your macadamia nuts. Set aside 1 ¼ cups in a small bowl, and set aside the remaining ¼ cup in another bowl.

Roughly chop ¼ cup of dark chocolate chips, and add these to the reserved ¼ cup of nuts.

In a stand mixer or with a handheld electric mixer, cream together the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth and well combined. Mix in the eggs, one by one, and the vanilla extract. Beat well until thoroughly combined.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, 1 tsp salt, and baking soda.

Slowly mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, a few spoonfuls at a time and stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat until all ingredients are combined, but do not overmix.

Add the 1 ¼ cup (whole) dark chocolate chips to the bowl and mix for about 3 seconds. Then add the 1 ¼ cup of chopped macadamia nuts to the bowl and mix for about 3 seconds.

If using a stand mixer, remove the bowl from the base. Continue mixing the chips and nuts into the dough by hand until they are incorporated, but do not overmix.

Use an ice cream or cookie scoop to scoop dough onto the prepared baking sheets. These cookies spread in the oven, so start with 5 scoops per sheet until you see how they bake up.

Press pieces of reserved chopped chocolate chips and nuts into the tops of the dough scoops.

Bake cookies at 350F for 10-12 minutes, or until mostly golden brown.

Remove cookies from the oven to wire cooling racks and immediately sprinkle the cookies with the sea salt flakes (the amount you use is up to you!).

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to wire cooling racks to cool completely.