Nut Toffee Bars

It feels like the seasons are changing and I try to find recipes that reflect the sunnier days that we are having. Of course, next week may be rainy and gloomy, so it’s hard to know what direction you should go! Most of the recipes that catch my interest and more appropriate for fall, but I did recently try to sort recipes that I have saved to remind myself of these spring-friendly recipes.

This week I am still sticking with my tried and true- so this is an oat bar topped with toffee, chocolate, and nuts. I had all of these ingredients on hand (generally speaking) so they were quick to make. This recipe originally called for sliced almonds, which is a logical ingredient to pair with toffee chips, but I didn’t actually have any almonds. I had almond flour, but no almonds, which I found shocking. I did have pistachios, so I used those instead.

The base of these cookies can be mixed by hand, and it is really rare for me to find a recipe that doesn’t require my stand mixer. You then just top with the toffee bits, chips, and nuts and cover everything with sweetened condensed milk. That tends to make things super sweet, so I try to use it sparingly. These baked up well and were easy to cut (always a plus). They have a nice sturdy base, and the chocolate and toffee flavors shine through and the nuts add a nice crunch.

Nut Toffee Bars
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 cup rolled oats 
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter 
1 cup toffee bits
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup pistachios/sliced almonds
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, oats and salt. Stir in melted butter and mix well. Press the mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the base with toffee bits, then chocolate chips, then the nuts. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the bars.

Bake for 30 minutes, until lightly browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool completely before removing from the pan, peeling away the foil and cutting into bars.

Recipe from Lil’ Luna

Lemon Pistachio Biscotti

I recently bought a small bag of lemons, as I was making a recipe that needed a decent quantity of lemon juice. I never know how many lemons I would need, so I bought a bag that would have more than enough. I was good, and ended up with a few lemons left. I went looking for recipes, and realized that I hadn’t make biscotti in a while. I like making biscotti as it comes together easily. 

Now, I will admin that I don’t like super dry, crunchy biscotti. When you make your own, you can adjust to your own taste! The baking times mentioned below are guides, and I tended to use the shorter of the baking times. That is especially true for the biscotti once they are cut into individual cookies. I think I baked the cookies about 6-8 minutes per side. They were crunchy, but not too crunchy.

I think that lemon pairs wonderfully with pistachios, and I was so happy I had recently picked up pistachios at the store. I always think that I have pistachios, but then I check and often I had already used them. For once I was proactive and stocked up ahead. While biscotti are never my favorite, I really like the pistachios in these cookies. They add a good crunch, with the biscotti themselves being ever so slightly softer. I have made a few recipes with lemon and pistachios, I should look and see what other recipes are out there. 

Lemon Pistachio Biscotti
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3  eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 cup salted pistachios

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Heat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and whisk again; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, eggs, and sugar on medium until light. Add the lemon extract and mix to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Fold in the pistachios with a spatula. 

Shape the dough into a log, about 4” wide and 1” tall. The length of the log will vary, probably 15” to 18”.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. 

Transfer to a cutting board and cut the log into ¾” slices. Place the cookies on the baking sheet cut side down. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, then turn the cookies and bake an additional 10 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool before icing.

Once cool, make the icing: in a medium bowl, whisk the powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add additional lemon juice until the icing is the correct consistency. Allow the icing to set before serving. 

Recipe from Lord Byron’s Kitchen

Sicilian Pistachio Cookies

I had recently purchased a lemon for some recipe that I ended up not using, so I knew that there was some cookie out there that I could make. I had found this recipe a while ago, but when organizing recipes, I moved it up as something that I did not want to forget about. This uses lemon and is also gluten free, which I try to do once in a while. I find that the best gluten free recipes are the ones that use ground nuts or almond paste rather than completely relying on gluten-free flour mixture. 

I had everything on hand, although I wanted to double the recipe so I picked up additional pistachios. This recipe originally called for raw pistachios, and those are hard to find. I ended up using lightly salted pistachios, and I think they were good for this recipe. They sell pistachios in an astounding number of flavor varieties, which are interesting but probably not the best choice for this recipe. 

I almost doubled the recipe, although I was a little shy of the amount of pistachios I needed. Since you use the same amount of sugar and pistachios, this wasn’t much of a problem and I adjusted. While I have gluten in my kitchen, I do my best to reduce the chance of cross contamination. I use (disposable) parchment and I have separate measuring cup for gluten free recipes. These cookies are light as a feather and have a lovely crunch. Don’t be tempted to bake them for “one more minute” or they will get too browned on the bottom.

Sicilian Pistachio Cookies
150 grams pistachio nuts
150g grams sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1 egg white
Powdered sugar

Place the pistachios in a food processor with 2 tablespoons sugar. Pulse until the mixture becomes a fine powder. Add the remaining sugar and process to mix. Transfer the mix to a large bowl. Add the lemon juice and zest and the egg white. Stir until it becomes a paste. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape the dough into 1” balls. Roll the balls in powdered sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets. Don’t crowd the cookies or make them too big as they do spread while baking.

Bake for 10 minutes. Allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack.

Recipe from Cuisine Fiend

Spiced Pistachio Cookies

My husband occasionally finds recipes and sends them to me, and that is the case with this recipe. It was originally called a gingerbread pistachio date sugar cookie, and that sounded so good. I pinned the recipe, but my pin got a little strange, so I found a different link that worked better. The original recipe was in grams and milliliters, and while I do prefer using grams while baking, it may not be familiar to everyone. I have used a combination of grams and volumetric measures.

I love pistachios and try to always keep them on hand. The spices used in these are also something that I use all the time. I have another recipe that called for dates, so I recently stocked up on those. This recipe, however, doesn’t use dates but uses date sugar. I think I may have had date sugar after visiting a date farm years ago, but no longer. Molasses was the suggested substitution, so I used that.

These come together quickly, although I think it took just as much time to adapt some of the measurements to teaspoons. The dough is very sticky, and refrigeration is a must. I refrigerated the dough for about two and a half hours, and it was still fairly sticky. I found that the cookies spread quite a bit, but the flavor is fantastic. Perhaps I used a heavy hand when adding the spices, but I’m not complaining! These are perfect for fall, and they smelled out of this world while baking.  

Spiced Pistachio Cookies
240 grams flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger 
½ teaspoon cloves 
1/2 teaspoon salt
180 grams butter, room temperature
100 grams sugar
115 grams brown sugar
5 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 egg
120 grams pistachios 
Cinnamon sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until fully incorporated. Add the egg, molasses, and vanilla and mix on medium again to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. When the dough is cohesive, remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the pistachios with a spatula.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll the balls in cinnamon sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of space between the dough balls.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack.

Recipe from Bengingi

Pistachio Cookies

When I was choosing cookies to bake for this week, I was looking at two different recipes. Both used pretty classic ingredients, which I had on hand. When I bake, I usually get all of the ingredients out on the counter, so they are there and ready to go. That helps also to discover that I don’t really have a necessary ingredient. For this week, I got out items for these cookies, but also some items only used in the other cookies I was considering. Hmmm.

In getting out the ingredients, I was sure that I had a new bag of pistachios. I got through baking spurts with them, and I thought I had used up my supply and bought more. I guess I hadn’t. I did have just enough left for the ½ cup used in this recipe, but that squashed my idea of adding extra pistachios to this recipe. I was so flustered that I forgot to chop the nuts, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. 

Thankfully I had recently purchased pistachio pudding mix, so these would be subtly flavored with pistachio. They came together quickly, and I didn’t need to refrigerate the dough, despite the warmth of my kitchen. I thought that I had to roll these in sugar before baking, and I did, but that was actually part of the other recipe I was considering. It helped make lovely, rounded cookies, so no worries. As expected, these have a subtle, buttery pistachio flavor. They are just wonderful. 

Pistachio Cookies
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 & 1/4 cups flour
3.4 ounce box pistachio instant pudding
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pistachios
Additional sugar, if desired

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, pistachio pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until the flour almost disappears. Add the white chocolate chips and the pistachios and stir on low, just until the dough comes together. 

Scoop the dough into 1-1/4” balls. (If desired, roll the balls in additional sugar before baking.) Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Bake until the cookies are light and golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from BellyFull

Browned Butter Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

This is the final recipe that I made with the bag of cinnamon pistachios that I purchased during the holidays. I feel like making three recipes was a victory! Some of the recipes that I found are quite similar, but there are little nuances to set them apart. This one uses browned butter, which does add an extra layer of flavor. It looks a lot like a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but it is more than that.

I have used browned butter in a number of different recipes. It’s frustrating that I can’t provide times for how long the butter will take to brown, but there are so many factors that make a difference. I will say that if you step away from the stove for even a moment, your browned butter will become burnt butter and that’s not good at all. I’m not sure why this happens, just be careful! You could also simply melt the butter, but that wouldn’t impart the same flavors.

Yes, I suppose this is a traditional chocolate chip cookie, but it has some extras. I used dark chocolate chunks and not milk chocolate. I felt this would pair better with the cinnamon pistachios. You really could use any type of chocolate, because it is the pistachios that make the big difference. There are lots of interesting flavors of pistachios out there on the market, and this cookie would lend itself to all sorts of flavors.

Browned Butter Chocolate Pistachio Cookies
½ cup butter
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 ⅓ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup chocolate chunks
¾ cup cinnamon pistachios, roughly chopped

First, brown the butter. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Once the butter melts, continue cooking, swirling the pan frequently, until the butter browns and smells nutty. Watch carefully so that the butter doesn’t burn. Transfer the browned butter to a separate dish to cool slightly.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a larger mixer bowl, combine the browned butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Mix on medium to combine. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again to incorporate. With the mixer running on low, add the flour and baking soda. Stir in the chocolate chunks and cinnamon pistachios with a spatula.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for about 10 minutes, until the cookies are browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Kale Junkie

Chocolate Cherry Cinnamon Pistachio Cookies

Another recipe that I found where I could use the cinnamon pistachios was this chocolate chip cookie recipe with dried cherries and pistachios. This comes from a blog that focuses on bread and sourdough items. I edited this recipe a little, based on the ingredients that I had and the attempt to make a fairly standard cookie.

This recipe initially called for sourdough starter discard, which was not something that I had on hand. I have never had good luck with sourdough starter! Later I found out that this is something that my friend at work has, since her husband bakes sourdough bread. Of well, it was not a large quantity, so I omitted it from the recipe. I am not sure what the sourdough discard would add to the cookies, maybe a little more flavor? It wasn’t something that you traditionally see in a recipe.

This cookie started as a chocolate chip cookie, and the original recipe had you sprinkle the cookies with chopped pecans and then top them with dried cherries. I decided to add the pistachios and dried cherries to the cookie dough, which makes for a very chunky cookie, but they were great. A couple of cookies really spread around the edges, but that was just a few. The rest baked up without issue, and just looked wonderful. The cookies are chock full of add-ins, but that just makes these cookies interesting.

Chocolate Cherry Cinnamon Pistachio Cookies
1 cup butter, melted
200 grams sugar
70 grams brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
275 grams flour
300 grams chocolate chips
50 grams cinnamon pistachios, chopped
1 cup dried cherries

In a large mixer bowl, mix together the melted butter, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Once the mixture is cohesive, add the eggs and vanilla, beating on medium-low to combine. Stir in the flour and the chocolate chips. Once the dough is almost uniform, add the pistachios and dried cherries and stir in low until the dough comes together.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and shape the dough into 1-1/4” rounds. Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet, leaving space between the cookies.

Bake for 11-13 minutes, until the cookies are browned around the edges and set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Art, Bread, Love

Cinnamon Pistachio Biscotti

My husband and I often pick up special ingredients at the store when we see them. Then we have to figure out what to make with those ingredients. Sometimes it isn’t too difficult, but for this particular ingredient, we had to think a little more. We had bought cinnamon pistachios, which naturally goes into any number of recipes, but we wanted to make a couple different things with the pistachios.

We both looked online and found a few recipes, including this recipe for biscotti. I will say that biscotti can be awfully dry, so I don’t usually bake mine quite as long as the recipe states. For this recipe, I used cinnamon pistachios in place of the cinnamon and plain pistachios. I still added some ginger, because I love ginger, but it’s up to you. I left out the cloves; that seemed like too much. Don’t skip the cinnamon chips. They really do add a lot!

Since I want to make multiple recipes with the cinnamon pistachios, I ended up making half of the recipe of biscotti, instead of the full recipe that I have here. Biscotti is quite forgiving, and you can mix it up somewhat depending on what you like or don’t like. I really liked the flavor of this biscotti, which is different for me! The cinnamon pistachios are excellent, and I am glad that I have more to use in another recipe!

Cinnamon Pistachio Biscotti
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup chopped pistachios
1/3 cup cinnamon chips

4 ounces white chocolate
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the eggs, one at a time, then mix in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Once the dough is almost together, stir in the pistachios and cinnamon chips.

Divide the dough into two halves, shaping each half into a log about 12 inches long and about 3 inches wide. Place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until firm and lightly browned. Allow to cool 15 minutes.

Slice each dough log cross-wise into ¾” thick slices. Place the slices flat on the baking sheet.

Bake for an additional 10-15 minutes. Remove from the oven; the cookies will firm up as they cool

Melt about 4 ounces of white chocolate with 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cooled biscotti. Allow the white chocolate to set before serving the biscotti.

Recipe from Italian Food Forever

Pistachio Cookies

I wanted to do something for St. Patrick’s Day, although having the holiday on the weekend is a little bit different. I’m not one to go to a bar all that much anyway unless they also have great food. My husband and I went out on St. Patrick’s Day to an Irish place once and it was absolutely insane, and we’re not interested in doing that again.

These cookies get their green color (somewhat) from the pistachios, which are tinged green. If you don’t care about the color of the cookies, you can keep them as is, but I did add some green food color to enhance the green. The icing is a parchment color, so I decided to add some green sprinkles to gild the lily even more. Those aren’t necessary but they added some fun.

These cookies are simple to put together, and just need to chill for the shortest amount of time. They are very similar to a Russian teacake/Mexican wedding cookie except for the inclusion of pistachios. The icing is quite different, a browned butter powdered sugar icing that is very flavorful. I liked the icing thinner, so I added more cream than the recipe specifies. These are tasty little cookies, not surprising as Russian teacakes are one of my favorites! I don’t think these are going to last very long!

Pistachio Cookies
130 grams pistachios
1 cup butter, room temperature
90 grams powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
281 grams flour
1-2 drops green food coloring

4 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
120 grams powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons milk/cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Place the (shelled) pistachios in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped and you have about 3/4 cup finely chopped pistachios. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter powdered sugar, vanilla and almond extract on medium until creamy. Gradually stir in the flour, mixing on low and the stir in the chopped pistachios and food coloring. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill 30-60 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 14 minutes, until just beginning to brown. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the icing: in a small saucepan, place the butter. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. The butter will melt and then foam and then will begin to brown and smell nutty. This will take about 5 minutes. Once browned, immediately remove from the heat. Cool 5 minutes and then add the remaining icing ingredients: powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. If too thick, add additional milk, or if too thin add additional powdered sugar.

Dip the cookies in the icing or drizzle onto the cookies. Allow the icing to set before serving the cookies.

Recipe from Sally’s Baking Recipes

Lemon Pistachio Cookies

I had a small amount of pistachios left so I went looking for recipes that called for a small quantity. At first, I had found a bar cookie recipe that I was going to make, but I had made a lot of bar cookies lately so I looked at what else I had saved. I came across this recipe, which called for a small amount of pistachios. The original recipe called for orange juice and zest, but I used the lemon I had on hand (that also needed to be used).

This recipe was called a holiday cookie, and I find that puzzling. Some cookies are clearly for the holidays: gingerbread people, eggnog cookies, and peppermint creations. But a pistachio citrus cookie? That doesn’t seem quite right to me. I think that many people don’t bake much at all, therefore almost any cookie they make is a holiday cookie as that’s the only time they bake cookies. I bake all the time, so I don’t follow those same parameters.

This is a refrigerator cookie, which I love to make as each part of the recipe is quick. I made the dough and got it chilling. The original recipe suggested chilling overnight, but my cookies were very firm after a few hours. I sliced and baked them- no issue at all. I glazed the cookies by dunking the tops of the cookies in glaze, and that was very efficient. I sprinkled the pistachios on the cookies after icing 6 of them- otherwise the glaze sets to much and the nuts don’t stick. These cookies have the bright zing of lemon paired with a crumbly/crunchy cookie texture, which can’t be beat!

Lemon Pistachio Cookies
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup pistachios, finely chopped

2-1/4 cups powdered sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
2-3 tablespoons milk
Additional chopped pistachios

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the egg, lemon zest and vanilla and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and cornstarch. Stop the mixer, then add the chopped pistachios, and mix just until the dough comes together.

Divide the dough in halves. Shape each half into a log, about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the dough logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 4 hours, until very firm.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and discard the plastic wrap. Cut the dough into 1/4-1/3” slices. Place on the prepared baking sheets and reshape the cookies to be round if needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until they begin to brown on the bottom. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Ice the cookies when they are cool.

Once the cookies are cool, make the icing: in a medium bowl combine the powdered sugar, juice of a lemon, and 1 tablespoon milk. Whisk until an icing forms, adding more milk if required, to achieve a spreading consistency. Glaze each cookie and then sprinkle with additional chopped pistachios.

Recipe from Lorraine Caland via Taste of Home

Goji Berry, White Chocolate, and Pistachio Cookies

I still have a quantity of goji berries, so I keep looking for different recipes that use these berries. When the weather starts getting warmer here, refrigerator cookies are ideal for me to make. I can make the dough, which takes about 10 minutes, and then keep the dough into the refrigerator for a day or two and then bake them up when it is convenient. This recipe, which combines goji berries, white chocolate chips, and pistachios, sounded great.

When I made these cookies, I had little issue. The dough was dry so I added an egg yolk to help it come together. It makes just under two dozen cookies, so I made the dough and shaped it into a log, ready to bake at a later point. Now, I guess I have gotten less discerning in choosing cookies, as the rule for refrigerator cookies, which need to be sliced, is to make sure none of the elements are too large. That proved to be tricky for these cookies!

When I tried slicing these cookies, they were very crumbly. Every cookie I had to press together and reshape, but in the end, they looked fine. I think I would chop the goji berries, but I think the pistachios were fairly hard and the white chips were large, so I am not sure what I could do there. Do they make mini white chips? That would be handy. These cookies have a good crunch, and if you don’t have goji berries, almost any dried fruit will work. These cookies aren’t overly sweet, which makes it perfect to pair with your morning tea.

Goji Berry, White Chocolate, and Pistachio Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup goji berries
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup pistachios
Egg yolk, if needed

In a larger mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium until light. Add the flour, goji berries, white chocolate chips, and pistachios and stir on low until the dough comes together. If needed, add an egg yolk to help the dough come together.

Shape the dough into a log, about 1-1/2” in diameter. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or longer.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Cut the dough into ¼” slices and place on the prepared baking sheets. Reshape the cookies as needed, if crumbly.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until lightly golden. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Paint, Pencil, Pastries

Apricot and Pistachio Biscotti

Apricots are an ingredient that I don’t always have on hand, but right now I have a small quantity that I don’t want to go to waste. Mine are already chopped, so that can be limiting, as some recipes call for whole dried apricots and others want them to be chopped. This recipe for biscotti uses a small quantity of chopped dried apricots, and biscotti are usually quick to put together.

The method for assembling biscotti can be different. Since it is a dry cookie, it doesn’t rely on creaming the butter and sugar then adding the flour. You could likely mix them that way and they would still turn out, but this has you add the dry ingredients and mix-ins and then add the eggs and orange juice. I’m not at all a baker who follows fussy recipes, and I follow the given recipe, but I also feel that my baking instincts are pretty strong.

This is a slightly smaller recipe and you make one log of dough instead of two, which is good. It can be hard to shape two pieces of dough into the same size, so you don’t have to worry about that. I roughly follow the size guidelines, but shaping them differently will just need slightly different baking times. I tend to like biscotti that isn’t so dry, so I tend to bake mine a little less, but it purely depends on your taste. My not-quite-so-dry biscotti

Apricot and Pistachio Biscotti
1-1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup of pistachios, roughly chopped
½ cup dried apricots, finely chopped
2 eggs, beaten
Juice and zest of half an orange
Additional flour

Heat the oven to 320 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder and mix on low. Add the chopped pistachios and apricots and stir on low to incorporate. Add the beaten eggs, orange zest and juice and mix until the dough comes together. The dough will be sticky.

Shape the dough into a log about 4 inches wide and 12 inches long. You may need to use additional flour to successfully shape the dough.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until set and a golden crust starts to form. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and allow the biscotti to cool, about 30 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Transfer the biscotti to a cutting board and cut into pieces about ½” thick. Place the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes, then turn the biscotti over and bake for an additional 10 minutes. The cookies will be dry. Cool the biscotti completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from Finding Time for Cooking

Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m still working through all of the decadent treats that are in the house after the holidays, but I am trying to get back into the swing of baking! I had some pistachios on hand that I wanted to use in a recipe, so I looked to see what I could find. I marked a number of recipes and now I am probably going to have to buy more pistachios to try all these recipes.

I didn’t make changes to this recipe, although I did use a mix of white and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I started out making these cookies with my regular cookie scoop, which holds about 2 teaspoons and the first batch of cookies were so tiny! They are also really puffy, which I wasn’t expecting at all. I was expecting a crinkly cookie, and that was not what came out at all.

The Internet provides all sorts of answers about why cookies may be puffy, but I am not sure. Most of the reasons center around the butter, whether you have too much or too little, and the temperature of the butter. This recipe uses melted butter, which I have used before and didn’t have any problems, so I don’t know. Somehow the ratios weren’t quite right, so they cookies are smaller and pale. While they don’t look perfect, they are very tasty! I like the pistachios combined with the chocolate. Now I just need to find the right ratios for these cookies…

Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter, melted and slightly cooled
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped salted pistachios
3/4 cup mixed white and semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, and sugar and beat on medium to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Fold in the pistachios and chips with a spatula.

Drop the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets, using 1-2 tablespoons per cookie.
 
Bake the cookies for 10-14 minutes, until lightly browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from 100k Recipes

Pistachio Cherry Meltaways

Christmas Cookie #2! I have a couple of recipes planned this holiday season that are variations of the Russian Teacake/Mexican Wedding Cake, which is a shortbread cookie with nuts, covered in powdered sugar. Russian Teacakes are one of my favorite cookies ever, but they are so easy to make. This is a variation, with chopped maraschino cherries and pistachio pudding mix. Yum!

These cookies are not difficult to make, but the dough is quite sandy. Trying to gather the dough together into a whole in order to wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate was challenging. The dough did firm up and was less crumbly when shaping into balls, but it’s a strange balance between the cold dough and the slipperiness of the cherries. The cherries retain some moisture, no matter how much you drain them.

I shaped the dough into balls, the best I could, but they flatten/spread while baking. They had a little too much butter, which you can see when the cookies come out of the oven with lacy edges. I let my cookies cool about 10 minutes before covering with powdered sugar, and that’s best. The warmer the cookies are, the more the powdered sugar melts into the cookies. These cookies are soft, but they are so good! The pistachio flavor is a favorite, and paired with the cherries is so seasonal. If there was ever a time when I wanted a Grinch Christmas plate, this was it, but I had to make do with the green plate I had.

Pistachio Cherry Meltaways
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup powdered sugar
3.4-ounce package instant pistachio pudding mix
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
Green food coloring (about 2 drops)
1/2 cup maraschino cherries, dried and chopped finely
Additional powdered sugar

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until light. Add the powdered sugar, pistachio pudding mix, and flour. Stir on low to combine. Add the almond extract and food coloring and stir to incorporate. Fold in the chopped maraschino cherries, taking care not to over mix.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set. Roll in additional powdered sugar after the cookies have cooled 10 minutes, and then place on a wire rack.

Recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I have been trying to keep my Pinterest recipes organized, but I have to say that I don’t do the best job of that. The main improvement that I have managed is to create a board of things I have made, and once I make a recipe, I move it to that board. I know there’s a way to mark what you’ve made, but that didn’t work for me. It does help a lot, although every once in a while, I find a recipe to make that I’ve already made. This recipe was in my folder for items I’ve made, but I can find no trace of making them, so I don’t know…

I had some roasted, shelled pistachios and I’ve been eyeing different recipes that call for what I have. My husband also recently mentioned that the can of mixed nuts that we had only had the nuts he didn’t care for as much. I had hoped I would have enough pistachios for both the pistachios and the pistachio butter, but the butter I made was primarily almonds, with some pistachios thrown in for good measure. To make the butter, simply grind the nuts in a food processor until finely ground and begins to look like coarse peanut butter.

I hadn’t planned to refrigerate the dough, but I find that cookies taste a lot better if you actually follow the instructions, so I refrigerated the dough overnight. These cookies bake up like chocolate chip cookies, although I find them to be a little softer. Allowing the dough to refrigerate lets the pistachio flavor come through, which I like. These cookies used dark chocolate baking chunks, which can be very powerful! If you prefer a sweeter cookie, I am sure they would work just as well with regular chocolate chips.

Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup pistachio butter
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
½ cup roasted, shelled pistachios

Make the dough: in a large mixer bowl beat the butter, pistachio butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again on medium to incorporate. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. When the flour is almost incorporated, stop the mixer, add the chocolate chunks and pistachios, and mix on low until the dough comes together. 

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. 

Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop the dough into the prepared baking sheets, using about 1-1/2 tablespoons per cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are puffed. The cookies may look slightly underdone. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Recipe from Sugar Hero

Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

This week, several of my coworkers and I got together and met in person! We are vaccinated, and it was fantastic to see everyone. Two folks started working with us during the pandemic and it was the first chance I had to meet them. I’m so glad that they are part of our team! It was also a wonderful opportunity to bake for them. I now have different coworkers who are gluten and dairy free, so I wanted to make something that everyone could eat.

I had come across this gluten free cookie, and it looked fabulous. It’s hard to go wrong with chocolate and pistachios. I used a standard gluten free flour mix that is available at grocery stores, and it is good to check your other ingredients, just in case. I have different measuring cups that I use for gluten free flour, to do the best I can. I used vegan butter, as my house is so warm that coconut oil would have been problematic. I melted down dark chocolate chips, and in this case, I checked to make sure they were gluten and dairy free. Chocolate often contains dairy. I checked with folks to see if eggs were ok, and they were, so that was good. I find that trying to replace eggs in recipes is difficult.

These cookies are a simple, soft chocolate cookie, topped with melted chocolate and pistachios. The dough is quite soft and remain soft after baking. The original recipe had you dip the cookies halfway in the melted chocolate, but that usually ends up in a big mess for me. These are delicate cookies, so the drizzle worked better. This recipe made just over two dozen, which is a good amount to share. I think my cookies are smaller than the original, but I prefer that. These cookies are intensely chocolate, and the crunch of the pistachios is lovely.
 
Chocolate Pistachio Cookies
1½ cups gluten free flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup coconut oil or vegan butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

4 ounces dark chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
¼ cup pistachios, finely chopped

In a medium bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the vegan butter and sugar on medium until well combined. Add the egg and vanilla and stir on low to incorporate. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the gluten free flour mixture, mixing just until a soft dough forms.

Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes.

Heat the oven to 356 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, using about 1 tablespoon of dough for each cookie.

Bake for 7-9 minutes, until the cookies are set. Allow the cookies to cool before proceeding. The cookies will likely flatten while they cool.

Once the cookies have cooled, make the topping. In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate and vegetable shortening, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate is smooth, drizzle the chocolate over half of each cookie and then top the chocolate with chopped pistachios. Allow the cookies to set before serving.

Recipe from Wholesome Pattisserie

Ginger Curd Bars

A while ago, I made cookies with ginger curd. The original recipe had called for lemon curd, and I wanted to try something different. I had seen raspberry curd online, but at the British shop we go to I found ginger curd. It was absolutely perfect in those cookies. So good, that I picked up another jar of the curd when I was there. I knew I wanted to use the ginger curd for other recipes.

I knew that the curd would work well in a bar cookie, so I looked at the list of recipes that I had saved in Pinterest, and I found a recipe that I could adapt. The original recipe called for orange marmalade and was topped with sliced almonds. You could certainly use those ingredients instead, as I know that ginger curd isn’t going to be something that you can find at the store with much ease.

I love any bar with a soft filling on top of a crunchy shortbread crust. Theses cookies are very thin, so don’t worry about that. I knew I was going to use ginger curd for the bars, but I wasn’t sure what type of nuts I should use. Are there natural pairings for ginger? Almonds would have worked, but I used pistachios. I love that I can buy shelled pistachios now! I love the combination of soft, sweet, and crunchy in these bars, and the ginger can’t be beat!

Ginger Curd Bars
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup powdered sugar
¾ cup butter, room temperature

1 egg
½ cup sugar
10 ounces ginger curd
1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup chopped pistachios

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, powdered sugar, and butter. Beat on medium until the dough is crumbly. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake for 15 minutes.

While the crust is baking, make the topping. In the same mixer bowl, beat the egg, sugar, ginger curd, butter, and vanilla on medium until smooth. Once the crust comes out of the oven, top with the ginger curd filling. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until set. Allow to cool, and then refrigerate before cutting into bars.

Recipe adapted from Can’t Stay Out of the Kitchen

Pistachio Shortbread Bars

I came across these bar cookies a little while ago, and they have been in my folder waiting for just the right time. The recipe talks about the red of the jam and the green of the pistachios is a perfect combination for Christmas. When I look at these cookies, all I can think of is spring! I wanted to save these for when the weather wasn’t so gloomy, and the time is right.

This is a recipe that can be varied in any way that you would like. If you don’t like pistachios, you could certainly use something different. I think that these would be especially good with almonds. For the jam they suggested raspberry or strawberry jam. At first, I was going to use blackberry jam, but I didn’t have enough so I ended up using blueberry jam. Yes, the taste is a little different, but it’s still very tasty. Just think of these as shortbread bars with jam and nuts.

I did change to blueberry jam, but otherwise I didn’t change anything. I love pistachios and I have to say how happy I am that I can buy them already shelled! The nuts that I used were already salted, so I did not add additional salt. These bars aren’t too sweet, which perhaps varies depending on the jam you use. I realized too late in the game that I was supposed to add the pistachios to the second half of the dough, but obviously I didn’t. They were still tasty, but the nuts weren’t as crunchy as they could have been. Maybe I will try mixing the nuts into the dough using a different combination of jam and nuts!

Pistachio Shortbread Bars
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt (if using unsalted nuts)
½ cup jam (raspberry, blueberry, etc.)
2/3 cup chopped pistachios

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and egg on medium until combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and salt (if using). Divide the dough into halves.

Press half of the dough into a thin layer in the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the bars from the oven. Spread the jam in a thin layer on top of the partially baked bars, within ½” of the edges. Top with the chopped pistachios. Carefully shape the remaining dough into a layer on top of the jam, covering as much as possible.

Bake for an additional 35 minutes, until golden. Allow the bars to cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting into bars.  

Recipe from Eazy Peazy Mealz

Browned Butter Honey Pistachio Bars

I’ve done a lot of baking lately, and I have been trying to use up different ingredients that I have on hand. I was looking through things that we have on hand, and I had a partial bag of pistachios. So often, pistachio recipes call for a larger quantity, so I needed to find a recipe that didn’t use a lot. I measured what I had, and I only had about ½ cup, so I was quite limited.

In my searches, I found two possible recipes. One had you roll the dough in pistachios and this one, which sprinkled the pistachios on top of bar cookies. I had made a recipe similar to the first one, so I decided to make these pistachio bars. They are even more special as they have browned butter and honey. I just used regular honey, rather than the specialty honey that the original recipe used.

This makes a small batch, which is what I look for these days! The bars are a cross between bar cookies and cake, but that’s ok. They are very soft when they come out of the oven but then firm up as they cool. They’re never going to be the sturdiest bars, but that’s ok. If you wanted, you could drizzle the bars with additional honey before serving, but that would make them quite messy. I baked the bars for 25 minutes and they are done, but they are still quite gooey in the center. Gooey or not, they taste fantastic, with the pistachio and salt coming to the forefront.

Browned Butter Honey Pistachio Bars

10 tablespoons butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

3 1/2 tablespoons honey

1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup pistachios, roughly chopped

Flaked Sea Salt

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

First, brown the butter. Cut the butter into pieces and place in a small saucepan. Heat on medium-low until melted and continue cooking until the butter slightly browns and is fragrant. Do not brown too much.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the browned butter, brown sugar, and honey on medium until combined. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat again to combine. Stop the mixer and add the flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix on low until the mixture comes together. Do not overmix.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and about ¼ teaspoon sea salt.

Bake for 23-25 minutes, until golden and the edges are set. Allow to cool in the pan and then lift the bars from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Baker by Nature