Pistachio shortbread with cocao nibs and rose buttercream AND salt. I know. I’m not thrilled with this final recipe. It still needs work, but I kind of ran out of time. It was meant to be a goodbye cookie, and once Callie moved it took the motivation away to perfect it further. Also, she did love the final product. So I suppose it succeeded as it was meant to.
That being said, this blog should have all the attempts and failures. At least most of them. Some of these (many of these) recipes won’t be successful for a while. It’s time to really listen to Ira and decide it’s enough to know it’s a disappointment.
So what’s wrong with it? There’s just too much going on. The salt with the nibs and the frosting. It doesn’t taste like pistachios, or even nuts. How does it not taste like nuts? Also let’s talk the color. It was brown at first, so I added some food coloring because the whole idea was this pale green cookie with pink flowers. But it was still pretty brown. I wanted to class it up and not use pistachio pudding mix, but I think that might be worth trying, for color and flavor…but also, maybe I just make some pistachio instant pudding? Why not? Ok, enough insecurity, the heart behind this is still the same. This is for Callie, and is like our goodbye (as if a goodbye really matters) which was poorly coordinated and in fact nonexistent.
You know that kind of friendship you sort of stumble into? Callie and I got along fine and worked together well, but didn’t really connect until the day she called me a bitch. I had made some snide comment about one of the many ridiculous customers you come across while working in a natural foods store, and she turned to me, pleased and amused, saying, “You know, you seem really nice, but you’re kind of a bitch.” We laughed, it was true, simple as that.
Months passed before we ever hung out outside of work. We finally did and then probably didn’t for a while. But that is the easy friend. That is there, that you trust to understand, that is enough to know they exist and that existence can give you hope. She taught me that I could ask for things, and fluffed my confidence in a way I’m not sure anyone has.
And now, after a couple years of friendship, Callie has ecstatically moved back to her home state, husband in toe (not really, it was his idea) and adorable puppy on the way (we also have bonded over our simple math of puppy > baby), to draw forever and be free of a city she’s never fallen for. It’s hard to be anything but happy for her and Jeffery, which, of course, is what everyone always says, but I wanted to do something more solid, more memorable, more edible.
She offhandedly mentioned loving shortbread with cocao nibs, so nonchalantly like she wasn’t breaking my brain with that idea. The creamy rich buttery cookie would pair great with the bitter nutty nibs. Shortly after I came across a Saguaro cactus cookie cutter, appropriate due to Callie’s obsession with succulents and the Southwest, I had an image of pale green cookie with little light pink roses. A cactus covered in dust to match Callie’s own pale (but some how not pastel) aesthetic. So, pistachio, and why not rose buttercream? The nibs would make spikes, but so would the black salt I’d been saving for no reason other than I thought I should.
As I started, I don’t love this cookie. But it’s decent. Loose the salt topping, make sure to use confectioners sugar, just FYI, the rose buttercream isn’t bad but it’s not right. Go for it, if you want, but hopefully I will find a better use for it soon.
Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
1/2 cup shelled pistachios* – Toasted, see below for specifics
1 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup cocoa nibs – Chopped, not super fine, but about the size of peppercorns
2 teaspoons lemon zest – chopped fine
*Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts in one layer on a baking sheet and bake until they are well browned, 6-9 minutes. Stir occasionally. They will smell toasted and nutty. Depending on my level of focus, sometimes I set the timer and check every 3 minutes, nothing more disappointing than burned nuts!). Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool.
In a food processor, grind the nuts with 1/4 cup of the flour. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well, make sure to scrape the sides. Sift together the remaining flour, the salt, and the baking powder, and add it to the dough, mixing until just combined. Stir in the nut mixture and cocoa nibs. At this point it may be easier to mix by hand. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 3 hours, up to 2 days.
Now is a good time to make the buttercream, see instructions below.
When your ready to bake your cookies: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Pull out your dough, will be easier to work with if it sits for a couple minutes, but you want it colder, so don’t wait too long. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
For crispier squares: Roll the dough between two sheets of wax paper to about ⅛ inch thick. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1-inch squares, and space out about an inch apart on the cookie sheet.
For a slightly softer round cookie: Make a ball of dough about 1 inch in diameter, press ball down gently on cookie sheet to flatten into disk about 1 ½ inches in diameter, about ⅜ inch thick. If you enjoy a salted cookie: sprinkle lightly with large flaked salt (I used black salt I had for aesthetic purposes with the cacti cookies.)
If you like to be precise, bake 6 minutes, rotate trays top to bottom and back to front, then bake another 6 minutes. Alternatively, bake 10 minutes and check to see if the cookies are slightly brown, if not, bake another 3 minutes/until gently brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Rose Buttercream
2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick softened butter
2 tblsp milk
1 tsp rosewater
3 drops red food coloring
In a stand mixer or with electric beater, whip butter. Once fluffy add 1 tablespoon of milk, rosewater and food coloring until evenly colored pink. Add sugar until it looks like frosting (I wish I could remember where the recipe that said this was, both helpful and not at the same time), as well as the extra tablespoon of milk if too dry. Transfer buttercream into frosting bag and chill for at least ten minutes before using. If I was good at piping anything, this would be a great photo opportunity, unfortunately my frosting skills are lacking, embarrassingly so, but, that is yet another goal of this blog.