Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
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Tomorrow is the big day and I hope you are done with all your chores. I’m assuming that the list of Christmas baking recipes I posted last week should have been of some help for all the beginners and bakers on a time crunch. I couldn’t resist from trying another eggless cookie recipe over the weekend that I had bookmarked from here. Even though I have tried cranberry shortbread cookies and chocolate shortbread cookies before, I couldn’t ignore this one.
I’m so glad that I tried it because these shortbread cookies turned out awesome. They were light, tender and crispy. We couldn’t taste the whole wheat flour at all. Even though whole wheat pastry flour is not as robust as regular whole wheat flour, you would still feel a mild nutty flavor when used in muffins, cakes and sometimes in cookies too. But this recipe is an exception I guess, because we didn’t feel it even a bit. I made a small change to the original recipe by using pistachios instead of pecans.
| Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies |
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- 1 and 1/2 cups butter, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup pistachios, toasted
- butter – solidified coconut oil or vegan butter substitute for vegans
- maple syrup – honey
- vanilla extract – maple extract
- whole wheat pastry flour – white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
- dried cranberries – any other dried fruit of your choice
- pistachio – any nuts of your choice
- Cream together the butter, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract using an electric beater.
- Add flour one cup at a time and the salt, mixing well after each cup is added. Do not use the beater for this, just mix it with a wooden spoon or spatula. Beating it with a hand held mixer might result it tough cookies.
- Stir in the cranberries and pistachios.
- Shape dough into two logs, each log about 10 inches long. Wrap it tightly with parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. I chilled mine overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Cut each log into 1/4-1/2 inch slices and arrange on the baking sheet(s).
- Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until lightly browned. I took out mine just after 18 minutes.
- Cool the sheets on a wire rack and let it be for 5 minutes. After that remove the cookies off the pan and let it cool completely on the wire rack before storing it in an air-tight container.
- Toast the pistachios on stove top in a pan for about 5-7 minutes or in the oven, stirring once or twice in the middle so that it doesn’t burn.
- You need to use either whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour in this recipe to get tender and crispy cookies. I’m pretty sure that the regular(hard) whole wheat flour will not be suitable for these cookies.
- Proceed with caution while slicing the dough. Do not use a “see-saw” motion while cutting it because the dough would start crumbling. Instead just run through the dough once with a serrated knife. Even if the dough cracks, you can still patch it up together.
- These shortbread cookies does not have the maple flavor. If you don’t like maple flavor then don’t worry about using maple syrup in the cookies. But if you are a fan you might want to use maple extract instead of vanilla extract.
- The number of cookies you will get depends upon how thin or thick you slice the dough. I was able to get 60 cookies when the original recipe states the yield is 30-40 cookies. So if you cut the dough as thin as mine you would have to bake it for a minute or two less than the original time 18 minutes, otherwise the bottoms might get too brown. I baked the first batch for 18 minutes but removed the second from the oven after 16 minutes itself.
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Calories: 84.5 Total Fat: 4.8 g Saturated fat: 2.9 g Unsaturated fat: 1.5 g Cholesterol: 12.4 mg Sodium: 20.2 mg |
Total Carbohydrate: 8.8 g Potassium: 5.1 mg Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g Sugars: 3.8 g Protein: 0.8 g |
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Ratings and Reviews (3)
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Madhuram, I love these cranberry- and pistachio-studded goodies! What a perfect Christmas cookie.
How have you been? Here’s wishing you a very happy new year.
Tried these cookies and it turned out really delicious…Will try the same recipe as a savory next time with added spices and salt…am pretty confident they will turn out good…I halved the quantities and ended up with 30 cookies…
Thanks for the feedback Deepika.
I made this shortbread yesterday and there isn’t much left. It is so delish! I used coconut oil and they came out perfect, tastes just like traditional shortbread. I also used AP flour and it worked great. Only thing I would do if using coconut oil is that it doesn’t have to be in the fridge for as long as it says for the butter because it just gets so hard and then when cut it, it just crumbled (30 minutes should do it)
Thanks for the feedback, Sam. I wish you could rate the recipe.
I thought it had posted my rating with my post. So sorry.
That’s okay Sam.
Madhu,
Would it alright to use atta is place of white whole wheat? And would the cookies come out ok if I used cookie cutter to cut them? Sort of like first slice the dough then cut using heart cookie cutter then combine the cut leftover pieces for making free hand cookie shapes? I’m trying to make valentine short bread cookies. Your recipes are so good! So I thought I could use one of yours.
sowmya
If you are talking about brands like Deep, Pillsburry you should be fine but I’m not sure about any other brand. I wouldn’t recommend using a cookie cutter for this recipe because theare are plenty chances that the dough would crumble. Some of my round slices itself crumbled while slicing. You could try this Cranberry Shortbread Cookies recipe or Chocolate Shortbread Cookies recipe instead by flattening the dough and cutting out desired shapes.
Thanks Madhu. I am using Ashirvadh at home. Would that do?
Yes, it should be fine.
I did’nt have cranberries so did’nt put it but still the cookies tasted very good. I am making these cookies for the baby shower this weekend. I have a question though. What is the shelf life of these cookies?
I really don’t know Moka. But I think it should be good for at least 7-10 days if stored in an air-tight container. Or you could just freeze the cookies are even the dough and bake it whenever you need for a minute or two longer.
Hi Madhu,
The cookies came out soo awesome that they were over within 3 days. All 30 of them!! I didn’t have pista or cranberries so i added almonds,walnuts and raisins.
Thanks for the feedback Sowmya.