Shortbread cookies are a staple for Christmas, and these Cranberry Pistachio Christmas Shortbread Cookies are a delightful twist on normal shortbread. The colorful additions of the red cranberries and green pistachios are perfect for the holidays.
The difference between classic shortbread and Cranberry Pistachio Christmas Shortbread Cookies.
Classic shortbread cookies are so easy to make. They are made with only three ingredients: salted butter, powdered sugar and flour. That is just about as simple as you can get!
You can add a hint of vanilla or almond extract, but they are delicious and buttery, even without the additional flavors.
The only difference in this Cranberry Pistachio Christmas Shortbread Cookies recipe is the additional ingredients of vanilla, dried cranberries, and pistachios.
Even the making of this recipe versus traditional shortbread cookies is about the same!
Where do shortbread cookies come from?
Shortbread has been attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots, who in the mid-16th century was said to be very fond of Petticoat Tails, a thin, crisp, buttery shortbread originally flavoured with caraway seeds. Who knew?
Giving credit to where it is due
This recipe for Cranberry Pistachio Christmas Cookies comes to us with many thanks to omgchocolatedesserts.com for these cookies are so bright and cheerful and taste amazing!
Making the dough!
The making of the dough could not get any simpler. First, cream the butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar together.
Then add the salt, flour, dried cranberries, and pistachios. After that, mix until just combined.
At this point, the mixture will be very crumbly, almost sandy.
Mold the dough into a disk shape and throw it in the fridge to chill for 45-60 minutes.
Now, since this is a recipe review, we have to be honest. When the dough came back out, to be rolled, it literally fell apart. That just will not work! The dough was drier than a desert!
We ended up kneading in about 1/4 cup of water, just to get it to hold together to roll and cut. We aren’t sure why, we have made shortbread before! Again, it was just pretty dry.
Once we added the water to make the dough workable, though, rolling and cutting the cookies was a snap.
Rolling out the dough
We placed parchment paper down along with a handful of flour prior to rolling out the dough to about 1/3″ thickness.
Make sure to have all cookies the same thickness to avoid either raw insides or burnt outsides!
There were a few cookies, due to the nuts, where the edges needed a little bit of patting with fingertips, but they came out great.
The recipe states to use a Christmas tree shape. However, we decided to use a snowman and star shape as well. Might as well make it festive and fun!
Conclusion and wrap up of our Cranberry Pistachio Christmas Shortbread Cookies review!
Overall, we like the outcome of this Cranberry Pistachio Christmas Shortbread Cookies review. The cookies are bright and festive. The cranberries and nuts add a delightful nutty crunch and chewy texture to the buttery cookies.
The recipe is easy enough to follow though we were concerned about the dry texture of chilled dough. Again, we had to get creative to even begin to roll the dough out!
We plan on making these festive cookies again with the minor adjustment for the dough.
We hope you enjoy these cookies too!
Looking for something a little more “desserty”? Try out our Reduced Sugar Cranberry Curd Tart or Decadent Chocolate Pound Cake!
Happy Holidays
Love
The Morgan Sisters
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