I was sitting by the Christmas tree, enjoying a cup of coffee and a couple of Christmas cookies during the lull between Christmas and New Year’s, when I realized that I had intended to post the recipe for the very cookies I was enjoying. I had hoped to make it happen before Christmas. Oops. At least I will get it done before the New Year. And as a consequence, the recipe will be here for all the Christmases that are yet to come.
This particular recipe appeared in Gourmet magazine way back in 2006. For many years, Gourmet magazine’s December issue was without fail a treasure trove of wonderful recipes for holiday cookies. If you look through the Christmas cookies I’ve posted…or if you ever took one of my holiday cookie classes…you know that many of the recipes that I have shared were straight out of Gourmet.
Sadly with this recipe, the first time I made it, it was a bit of a failure. The pictured cookies are neat and square. Mine were misshapen and lumpy looking. As someone who strives for neatness in cookies, this was disappointing to say the least.
On the plus side, the cookies had a fantastic flavor. I love cranberries and pistachio with orange. But I probably wouldn’t have thought to add cinnamon to the mix. It is just the right touch.
I also love the sparkly and crunchy exterior coating of turbinado sugar. As it turns out, this is a bit of a fussy step...and you can skip it and still have a pretty nice cookie. But I think it's worth the effort.
The flavors...and the thought of how lovely these cookies could be…made me want to fix the recipe. And to be honest, the recipe didn’t require a ton of tweaking. As always with baked goods, the key to success is in the details.
As I looked at the recipe I realized they were simply slice and bake shortbread. And since I have a delicious recipe for a slice a bake shortbread, I thought it would be worth comparing the two. As it turned out, with the exception of the flour, the recipes were identical. But frankly, it’s difficult to tell how much flour the original recipe called for since the recipe is in cups/measuring spoons instead of weights. (I wrote a lengthy rant on this subject a few years ago.) So the first thing I did to alter the recipe was to correct the amount of flour.
The other thing that struck me as odd about the recipe was the instruction to cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I suppose that once the amount of flour was corrected, that extended creaming would have produced a delicious cookie. But I had shortbread in my head as I was looking at the recipe…and shortbread does not receive a lengthy creaming. The purpose of creaming is aeration. And shortbread doesn’t want aeration. The dough just needs to be well amalgamated. Many traditional recipes rub the butter into dry ingredients—dispensing with even a short creaming (for blending purposes) altogether.
Finally, I lowered the oven temperature a bit. Shortbread bakes low and slow so it will be baked through…but still be lovely and pale. The original recipe baked a fairly standard cookie temperature of 350°. I reduced it to 325°. (Some recipes…for thick shortbread…bake at an even lower temperature.)
My adjusted recipe produced the cookie I had been imagining. It has a nice crisp shortbread texture and a pale, light golden color that sets the pistachios and dried cranberries off nicely. The intended flavors of the original still come through. It is a delicious little cookie…perfect for a holiday platter.
Cranberry-Pistachio Slice & Bake Shortbread Cookies
3/4
c. (1 1/2 sticks/170 g.) unsalted butter, softened but cool
6
T. (75 g.) sugar
1/2
t. orange zest
1
3/4 c. (210 g.) all-purpose flour
3/8
t. salt
1/2
t. cinnamon
1/2
c. (65 g.) pistachios, coarsely chopped
1/3
c. (54 g.) dried cranberries, coarsely chopped if “whole”
Finishing
ingredients (optional):
1
large egg or white, beaten
Turbinado
sugar for decorating
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, briefly cream the butter, sugar and orange zest…just to combine (it doesn’t need to be light & fluffy). Add the flour, salt and cinnamon and mix on low speed until the flour is beginning to be absorbed.
Add the pistachios and craisins and mix until the dough forms clumps.
Scrape the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, forming a rough strip about 12 inches long. Using the plastic wrap, press the dough into a rectangular, square or round “log.” Wrap tightly and chill until firm.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scatter the turbinado sugar in a strip on a piece of parchment (you’ll need about a quarter cup). Unwrap the log, brush with the egg and roll in the sugar, pressing to help the sugar adhere. If the log softens during this operation, chill briefly to let it firm up again.
Using a thin, sharp knife, slice the log into 1/4-inch-thick slices;
place the cookies about an inch apart on the baking sheet.
Bake until the cookies are set and just beginning to turn a very pale golden color—about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and let cookies cool on the sheets. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies.
(Adapted
from Gourmet Magazine, December 2006)
