Slice-and-Bake Pistachio Butter Cookies

These slice-and-bake pistachio cookies are buttery, but not too sweet, and have a firm texture like shortbread. The chopped pistachios around the edges also give them a bright spot of color.

The cookies are about the size of quarters, making them the perfect one-bite treat – though they’re also fun to eat by the handful!

The dough for these cookies is made in a food processor with flour, powdered sugar, butter, and a single yolk. Pulse everything together until it starts to clump together, then tip it out on your counter and gather into a ball. From there, just roll it into logs!

Let the logs firm up overnight in the fridge before slicing. They’ll also keep just fine for several days, or for a couple of months in the freezer. Whenever you’re ready for cookies, just slice and bake! (Thaw frozen logs overnight in the fridge.)

My instructions here make almost 100 of miniature, quarter-sized cookies. You can also roll the logs slightly larger to yield about five dozen cookies.
These little cookies make a fine gift packaged in cellophane bags, or save them for a party. Serve the cookies nestled on plates or a cake stand and don’t be surprised if guests grab them by the fistful.

Slice-and-Bake Pistachio Butter Cookies Recipe

This recipe needs to be made in a food processor in order to fully combine the ingredients for the dough. Do not attempt to make it by hand.
You'll have leftover chopped nuts after making this recipe. Save them for your next batch of cookies, or sprinkle them over your oatmeal!
Almond Butter Cookie Variation: Replace the pistachios with almonds. Reduce the vanilla extract to 1/2 teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (90 g) shelled raw pistachio nuts
• 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup (85 g) powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks, 198 g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies

Rolling this cookie dough in my hands makes me so happy. I’m immediately thrust back to grade school, making cookies with my mom and my friends.
I love biting into the chewy cookie and having those vanilla notes hit my nose. It’s a little bite of nostalgic satisfaction that you can’t get anywhere else.
Sugar cookies come in all sorts and sizes, but my favorite is the kind that’s soft and chewy. This is the type of cookie that you roll into balls between your hands and then press flat before baking.
It’s one the most basic of cookies, with all the standard ingredients you’d expect: butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla. Combined, they make the perfect sugar cookie.

Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies Recipe

Leave these cookies plain, frost them after cooling, or dress them up with colored sparkling sugars sprinkled over top before baking.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (225 g, or 2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature


• 1 cup (200 g) granulated white sugar


• 1/4 cup (55 g) packed light brown sugar


• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 1 large egg


• 2 1/4 cups (315 g) all-purpose flour


• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

To finish:

• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated white sugar

Read More: Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies

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Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

When I bake these chocolate gingerbread cookies, the entire kitchen smells of wintry spices. It’s impossible not to feel like the holidays have arrived.
Deep dark chocolate and fresh grated ginger sets these cookies apart from the other cookies on the holiday cookie plate.
Most gingerbread and gingersnap cookies don’t quite have enough gingery “snap” to them for me. My solution is to use actual fresh-grated ginger in the dough. It sounds fussy, but once you start using the fresh ginger, it’s hard to go back to plain ground ginger.
The fresh ginger also gives the cookies a warm heat that makes a great contrast to the earthier chocolate.
The ingredient list for these cookies may seem daunting, but don’t worry. You probably already have most of the spices in your spice drawer, and the others are easy to find at the grocery store.
The whole recipe comes together quickly, but keep in mind that you’ll need to chill the dough for a minimum of 2 hours before shaping the cookies into balls, plus another 20 minutes of chilling before baking them. The dough is soft and you need to chill it to be able to handle it.
Trust me: one bite of these soft, chewy cookies and you’ll realize they are well worth any amount of fuss!

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies Recipe

Make sure to use dark, full, or robust molasses, but avoid blackstrap molasses. It will give the cookies an overwhelming bitter flavor.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (115 g or 1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature


• 1/2 cup (110 g) packed dark brown sugar


• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger


• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper


• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves


• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 cup (150 g) dark, full, or robust molasses (not "blackstrap")


• 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger


• 1 1/2 cups (210 g) all-purpose flour


• 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa


• 1 cup (200 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips


• 1/4 cup (50 g) white granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies

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Mexican Wedding Cookies

There’s something irresistible about Mexican Wedding cookies. I can’t help but reach for them whenever they appear on a cookie platter.

These cookies have a crumbly, buttery, nutty texture that just melts in your mouth. Like I said: completely irresistible.

The soft, melt-away texture of Mexican Wedding cookies is thanks to a rich, buttery dough and lots of crushed nuts. These cookies don’t have egg to bind them, so they’re crumbly instead of chewy. This makes them more like shortbread than, say, sugar cookies.

Those crushed nuts in the dough also give these cookies their addictive flavor. Though I’ve tried these cookies with crushed almonds and crushed walnuts, for me, pecans are the way to go.

Definitely take the extra step to toast your nuts before mixing the dough. It seems fussy, but toasting really does help boost the flavor of the nuts and give the cookies the best nutty flavor.

Although some cooks add spices to their Mexican Wedding cookies, I’m really a purist and made this version without any spices at all. Feel free to add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon if you’re that sort of daredevil! Nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves also work well.
By the way, I’ve always been rather confused by the difference between Mexican Wedding cookies and Russian Tea Cakes. Apparently most of the Internet is too! In looking at various recipes in cookbooks and on the web, the recipes look pretty much identical, leading me to believe that these cookies are basically the same despite their different names.

Mexican Wedding Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup (115 g) pecan pieces (or another nut of your choice)


• 1 cup (225 g or 2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature


• 3/4 cup (85 g) powdered sugar, sifted


• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour


• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt


• 1 1/4 cup (145 g) powdered sugar, to coat the cookies

Read More: Mexican Wedding Cookies

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