Salted Pistachio Shortbread
- Total Time
- 35 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¾cup/95 grams shelled, raw pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts
- ⅓cup/40 grams confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting (optional)
- ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾cups/95 grams all-purpose flour
- Nonstick spray or softened butter, for greasing
- Flaky salt
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Step 2
Process pistachios in a food processor until finely ground. Remove 2 tablespoons and set aside.
- Step 3
Add confectioners’ sugar, butter and salt and pulse until well combined. Add flour and process until a slightly sticky dough forms (if your food processor is having trouble here, just dump dough out onto a counter or a bowl and mix by hand until no dry spots remain).
- Step 4
Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan or tart pan with a removable bottom with nonstick spray or softened butter and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.
- Step 5
Press dough into the pan into an even layer (you can use your hands, or use the bottom of a measuring cup to press dough into an even layer). Dust with confectioners’ sugar and sprinkle with reserved 2 tablespoons ground pistachios and flaky salt.
- Step 6
Bake until cookie is just golden around the edges and dough is baked through, 17 to 22 minutes.
- Step 7
Once cookie is out of the oven, remove from springform or tart pan. Dust with more confectioners’ sugar, if you like. Before it cools, slice cookie into 24 thin wedges (start by cutting the circle into quarters, then slice each quarter in half, then each half into thirds to get nice, thin triangles.
- Step 8
Let cookies cool completely before transferring them (they will be soft and easily broken if moved before cooled).
- Cookies can be made 2 days ahead, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container at room temperature. These can also be rolled into balls or crescents and baked like a traditional Mexican wedding cookie, if you like.
Private Notes
Comments
Dispatches from the low-tech front: Total success! Ground the pistachios using a combination of mortar and pestle & pounding them with a hammer inside a plastic bag. Mixed batter using two forks/hands, baked on a cookie sheet with foil. Later, I easily pulled the triangles apart, and they were amazing! Crunchy and buttery and just sweet enough. Moral: do not let the lack of a food processor, false-bottomed tart pan, or other ephemera get in the way of your shortbread dreams. Happy holidays!
What size springform pan?
I am going to attempt a low-tech version of this (don't have a food processor either, and although I do own a blender, cleaning it is the thief of joy), and will report back.
I try to follow the recipe first time . The dough was way too soft to smooth into the springform pan with hands, cup, or little pizza roller. stuck it in the fridge for about 20 minutes, and then could spread it out. Will try the butter paper if I make them again. In agreement with earlier review -- 12 pieces as pictured works better than 24 crumbly slivers. Tastes nice, but is at least 20 % crumbs
Had to make this gluten free so used King Arthur 1:1 flour mix . Followed the recipe but just used a cookie sheet with a silpat topped w parchment for baking. So easy to mix this up and bakes quickly. One note: could be the nature of gf flour but tasting before it’s completely cooled led me to believe it had an unpleasant chalky texture. Once thoroughly cooled, it was perfect! Everyone in my group loved it and will make it again tomorrow by popular request
The flavor was there! But it came out quite dry. It’s possible I put in too much pistachios. I’ll try again with 1/2 cup of pistachios — unless someone has suggestions?