These pistachio cookies are great anytime of the year, but so special during the holidays. They’re soft, delicious and sooooo pretty!! These cookies are a perfect combination of sweet & nutty with the pistachio flavor. Plus the added chocolate drizzle on top with chopped pistachios creates so much texture!
Are these pistachio cookies Italian?
I don’t know if the origin of these cookies is actually Italian. As a food blogger, I participate in many Facebook groups and a similar recipe with a white chocolate drizzle was shared as a family recipe that came from a church book.
It said it was Italian pistachio cookies in the handwritten card, but really we can’t trace the origin of that recipe, so I don’t know if the initial inspiration is actually from an immigrant Italian family.
The only thing that made me think that maybe these cookies had some Italian origin to them, it was that the handwritten card said ‘pistacchios‘ instead of pistachios. The extra c is usually used in Italian but maybe also in other languages I’m unaware of.
Ingredients
Let’s talk about ingredients for this recipe. I have to say that I was a bit torn about using pistachio flavored pudding mix as I usually love to cook everything from scratch or with minimal processed ingredients.
But there were many people in the Facebook group who had tried the recipe and swore by it. So I said, why mess with perfection! Let’s work with the original and modify it as needed, but not sway vastly from ingredient list.
- All purpose flour – two cups of all purpose flour, I like to use unbleached AP flour.
- Baking powder – ½ tbsp of baking powder was enough for this recipe.
- Sugar – I don’t use a lot of sugar in my sweets. So if you like the cookies to be more sweet, please feel free to add more sugar. I used half a cup of sugar.
- Butter – one stick of unsalted butter
- Avocado oil – I love using avocado oil for my baked goods, it adds such softness to the cookies. They melt in your mouth! The recipe card only said oil without specifying. So using avocado oil it’s my addition.
- Pistachio pudding mix – 1 packet of (affiliate) this pudding mix. You may use a different one, results might vary slightly as I’m not sure if all the mixes have same ingredients.
- Real pistachios – you can add some chopped or crushed pistachios to batter before you form the cookie shapes. Also, you can add chopped pistachios over the cookies so those pieces stick to melted chocolate. Ohh Yum!!
- Eggs – I used two eggs for this recipe.
- Chocolate chips to melt or nutella – the melted chocolate is used to drizzle the cookies. You can use drizzles of nutella instead of melted chocolate chips too.
- Vanilla extract – one tablespoon.
- Salt – add a pinch of salt to counter the sweetness.
Let’s Bake Cookies!!
First make sure butter is soft, usually I let it soften on the counter a little bit before I have to make the cookies. Here in Florida, my kitchen stays warm year around so it doesn’t take long for butter to soften.
Start by mixing eggs with sugar using an electrical handheld mixer. Add butter when the mix looks nice and creamy, add avocado oil and vanilla extract.
On the side mix the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Start adding this dry mix slowly over the wet ingredients. Incorporate slowly. When the mixer has a hard time mixing, you can turn it off and use a spatula to do the last part.
I don’t know if this is part of the recipe as instructions were mostly non-existent. It said something like make batter and bake at 350 degrees. So I took the liberty to develop my own.
You have two options on how to add pudding mix to the batter.
- add pudding mix to the dry ingredients, mix then add to the wet ingredients.
- add pudding mix to a small bowl with few tablespoons of warm water, dissolve then add to batter and mix thoroughly.
Once batter is ready, you can add some chopped or crushed pistachios in it, use the spatula to incorporate. Use a large ice cream scoop to create batter balls and place them on parchment paper in baking tray.
Pistachio Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 0.5 tbsp baking powder
- sea salt just a pinch
- 0.5 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 0.5 cup butter unsalted, 0.5 cup = 1 stick
- ⅓ cup avocado oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 pistachio pudding mix packet 1 packet of 3.4 ozs
- 3 tbsps warm water
- 4 ozs pistachios divided, half for batter and half to top off at the end
- 2 ozs chocolate chips or nutella
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Add flour, baking powder and salt to a bowl, use a spoon to mix and set aside. This is referred to as dry ingredients.
- Whisk eggs or use an electrical hand held mixer (this is what I use). Add sugar and mix well until sugar is incorporated. Add soft butter and mix until creamy. Then slowly add avocado oil and vanilla extract. This is what I refer to as the wet ingredients.
- Mix the. pudding mix with the warm water or add the pudding mix to the dry ingredients, either method works fine and you can pick what you prefer.
- Add the dry ingredients slowly to wet ingredients. Use a spatula instead of a mixer when it gets hard to mix. Add the pudding mix dissolved in water. You want to use very little water so the batter doesn't become too thin.
- Once batter is mixed and ready, add chopped pistachios to taste. Mix to incorporate. Then using an ice cream scoop, place the batter in balls shape over parchment paper in a baking tray.
- Bake cookies for 13-15 minutes until a light golden edge forms on the sides. Let cookies cool down.
- Melt chocolate chips or use nutella (that's the consistency you need). Drizzle chocolate or nutella over the cookies in the shape you like. I am not a good decorator, so I tried to just do a squiggly line:). Add chopped pistachios to top off the cookies. Serve with tea, coffee, at breakfast or as afternoon treat. Enjoy:)).
Notes
- Note – serving is 1 cookie per person but some people can’t stop just at one. Also, cookie size is based on my ice cream scoop, so if you’re using a bigger or smaller scoop you might get a different size cookie.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
FAQ
More Desserts
If you have a sweet tooth, feel free to check out some of my other recipes.
- Orange and vanilla cookies
- Balkan cookies filled with jam (kifle)
- Almond cookies
- Plum cake
- Albanian sheqerpare cookies
Leave a Reply