Recipe - Chocolate & Pistachio Cookies

chocolate cookies pistachio recipe

[[ recipeID=recipe-9kwy0j204, title=Chocolate & Pistachio Cookies ]]

Older Posts Newer Posts


Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

Chocolate & Pistachio Cookies

When I commit to an afternoon of baking, I like to know that I’m going to get good results, so I struggle with the uncertainty that comes with trying new recipes. I also know that when you’re playing with ingredients to create a brand new recipe, failure is sort of inevitable – I’ve despaired at many cracked cheesecakes and other baking disasters that started out as great ideas.

All that to say, this chocolate and pistachio cookie recipe was unbelievably successful the first time around – they held their shape and came out beautifully even, looking a lot like the shop-bought cookies that I get from Sainsbury’s (Taste the Difference triple chocolate cookies - you’ll never look back). This recipe makes chocolate chip cookies that are buttery and full of nuts, with lots of chocolate running through them. And best of all, the recipe is super easy and fail-safe – even inexperienced bakers will get fabulous cookies with very little effort.

Following a lot of cookie trial and error, here are some top tips for baking perfect cookies every time.

Servings: 14

Keywords: Chocolate, Pistachio, Nuts, Cookies

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

Instructions

Ingredients

Chocolate & Pistachio Cookies

  • 190 g butter, room temperature
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 150 g dark muscovado sugar
  • 250 g plain flour
  • 60 g cornflour
  • 45 g cocoa powder
  • 7 g bicarbonate of soda
  • 3 tbsp whole milk
  • 100 g pistachios, roughly chopped
  • 50 g white chocolate chips
  • 50 g milk or dark chocolate, roughly chopped or as chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Line a cookie tin or a flat baking tray with baking parchment.
  2. To start making your chocolate and pistachio cookies, mix the softened butter and the two sugars until light and fluffy (preferable with an electric mixer). It should become paler in colour.
  3. Separately, sieve together your flour, cornflour and bicarbonate of soda. Add half of this dry mixture to your butter and sugar mix and beat gently until just combined (if you over-mix at this stage, the gluten in the flour will 'activate' and cause your cookies to become tough and rubbery).Add the milk and the rest of the flour and knead lightly with your hands to bring the cookie dough together.
  4. Bring the chocolate and pistachio cookie dough together as best you can (it will be crumbly, don't worry!), and roll it into a long sausage about 5cm (2") in circumference. If you don't have the unit space (or fridge space), split the dough into two and make two sausages.
  1. Wrap the cookie dough sausage in clingfilm and place it in the fridge to rest and cool down for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Cut the roll into roughly 32 pieces (if they crumble slightly, that's fine, just push back together with your fingers!). Lay the cookies on your lined cookie sheet about 2.5cm/1" apart so they have room to grow, and bake them in the pre-heated oven for 9-10 minutes. The cookies will still be very soft when they're ready to come out (they'll set when they cool down), so don't bother testing them for doneness - take them out once the time is up and leave them to rest on the side for 5-10 minutes.
  3. Move the cookies to a cooling rack and decorate with chopped pistachios and melted chocolate - I put some melted chocolate in a piping bag to achieve the neat lined effect, but you can't go too far wrong! Keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

Notes

COOKIE BAKING TIPS

1. Don’t mix or knead the dough more than you need to (only enough to bring it together) – over-mixing will cause the cookies to become tough and rubbery.

Make sure the butter is cold when the cookies go in the oven – that’s why the resting in the fridge stage is so important. If the butter is already soft, it will melt instantly when it enters the hot oven. If the butter melts before the outside of the cookie gets a chance to firm up, and you’ll get a flat cookie.

2. For the same reason, make sure your oven is properly hot before the cookies go in. If it’s only warm, the outside of your cookies won’t set quickly enough, and they’ll collapse into flat puddles.

3. Don’t wait for the cookies to feel solid or ‘done’ before taking them out of the oven – they’ll be overcooked. Testing for doneness with a toothpick works for cake, but cookies will still be soft even when they’re ready to come out – they’ll only solidify when they cool down.

4. With plain cookies, you can tell that they’re ready when you see the edges browning slightly. With chocolate cookies, like these, unfortunately the colour isn’t a good indicator (although with experience you’ll be able to tell when the edges turn a shade darker). I’m afraid you’ll just have to trust me! When the timer goes off, take them out and let them cool down on the side for a few minutes.

5. These cookies freeze beautifully – at the sausage stage (once you’ve rolled the dough into a long sausage, rested it in the fridge and cut the sausage into 32 cookies) you can wrap the raw cookies in clingfilm or parchment paper and stick them in the freezer. You can then bake them straight from the freezer, adding 2 minutes onto the cooking time. Warm cookies in 12 minutes, with zero effort!

6. Once baked, these will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container.