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Pistachio Christmas Tree Cookies

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Our crumbly pistachio cookies made with shortcrust dough enriched with pistachios and drizzled with white chocolate are so adorable.

Looking for more inspiration for your Christmas baking? Why not to try our recipes for vanilla crescent cookies or simple gluten-free cookies, both so delicious and decorative.

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What you'll need for these decorative Christmas cookies

  • Shelled pistachios: Adds amazing aroma and nice crunch to the cookies (like in our homemade chocolate pistachio truffles). Toast them in the oven until fragrant and lightly brown, then process in a food processor until finely chopped. Raw pistachios can be found at grocery stores or health food stores or can be easily ordered online.

  • Plain and spelt flour: In this recipe we'll be using a blend of these two flours (spelt flour makes the dough tastier).

  • Coarse brown sugar: Sugar gives super crispy texture to these cookies and slightly caramel flavour. Instead of brown sugar you can use also granulated sugar.

  • Cold butter: We rubbed the butter into dry ingredients to get coarse crumbs. This way you will get small pockets of butter in the dough which makes them crunchy and delicious.

  • Egg yolk: One egg yolk helps to bind the dough and give some texture to the cookies.

  • Lemon zest: Adds zesty and refreshing aroma to the cookies (great pair with pistachios)

  • White chocolate: Broke the bar into smaller pieces and melt in a double boiler. Be careful when melting, as this chocolate burns easily.



4 easy steps for making the dough:

  1. Toasting pistachios: First, toast the pistachios and then process them in a food processor to get coarse texture. 

  2. Mixing dry ingredients: Combine plain flour, sugar and salt in one bowl. 

  3. Adding butter: Add cold cut butter to the flour/sugar mixture and rub using your fingers until you get a coarse crumbs. 

  4. Adding egg yolk: Add egg yolk and grated lemon zest and slowly form a compact dough. Leave it in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Cutting out & Baking tips and tricks

Rolling the dough is the fun part of the making these cookies. You can do this on a floured work surface or a pastry mat.

We prefer crispy cookies so we rolled out the dough very thinly (3-4mm). Be sure to use quality rolling pin to ensure even dough thickness. For cutting our cookies we used large Christmas tree cookie cutter and get 24 cookies.

Cut as much as possible cookies from the dough then knead the scraps again and cut again cookies as much as possible.



Decorate cookies for a better look and taste

White chocolate is always a good choice for decorating cookies and cakes, either melted or in the form of curls. For these cookies we use melted white chocolate, so you need to broke white chocolate bar into smaller pieces and melt it over a double boiler.

Spoon it into disposable piping bag, cut off a tiny corner, then drizzle over the cookies in zig-zag motion. Sprinkle with some chopped pistachio and leave to set. Our cookies are ready to enjoy!

Storing pistachio Christmas tree cookies

These cookies stores well in a airtight cookie-jar like this one. Also you can keep them in a metal box for 1 month. These cookies also freeze well but don't decorate them - just cookies. 

Keep baked and decorated cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days (layer with parchment or waxed paper to keep the decorations in tact).

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Making ahead these cookies

These cookies are also great for making ahead. Once you cut the cookies, place them on the small tray and put in the freezer for 15 minutes then transfer to a ziplock bag.

Once you want to bake them, leave them for 5-6 minutes at room temperature then bake as described in the recipe and decorate afterwards with white chocolate and chopped pistachios.

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Pistachio Christmas Tree Cookies

MAKES: 24 cookies
COOKS IN: 1 hour
LEVEL: Moderate

INGREDIENTS

For the cookies

  • 100g shelled pistachios (3/4 for the dough + 1/4 for decoration)
  • 120g plain flour (1 cup)
  • 120g spelt flour (1 cup)
  • 73g coarse brown sugar (1/3 cup)
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 170g butter (12 tbsp), cold and cubed
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon of grated lemon zest

For the drizzle



INSTRUCTIONS

  1. FOR THE DOUGH, spread pistachios evenly on a baking sheet and toast in the oven on 175°C/347°F for about 4-5 minutes. Once toasted, remove from the sheet and cool. Blitz pistachios in a food processor until very finely chopped.

  2. In a large bowl, combine both flours, coarse brown sugar and salt.

  3. Add cubed butter and rub into the dry ingredients until the mixture resemble fine crumbs. Add 3/4 pistachios (leaving the rest for the decoration) and an egg yolk and gently squeeze the mixture with your palms until it just comes together. Form the disc from the dough, wrap into a cling film and cool in the fridge for 1 hour.

  4. Heat the oven to 175°C/347°F and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper. If you are baking with just one sheet, leave it to cool completely before placing another batch of cookies.

  5. Dust the work surface and roll out the dough until 3-4 mm thick. Using a Christmas tree cookie cutter cut out the cookies then arrange them on prepared baking sheet.

  6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottoms just begin to brown. Remove the tray from the oven and leave cookies to cool on the sheet completely. 

  7. TO MAKE THE DRIZZLE, broke the white chocolate into smaller pieces and place in a small heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water and stir until melted. Leave to cool for 1-2 minute.

  8. Pour it into a ziplock bag, cut off a bit of the corner of the bag, then drizzle over the cookies in zig-zag motion. Sprinkle the cookies with remaining chopped pistachios. Leave to settle then serve.

Handy equipment:

Mixing Bowl
Mini Food Processor
Cookie Cutters
Baking Sheet
Cookie Spatula
Heatproof Bowl
Saucepan


CATEGORIES: Cookies, Christmas,
Pistachio, White Chocolate




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