White chocolate pistachio cookies — delightfully sweet and salty in one delicious bite! Get ready to meet your new favourite cookie.
(Love white chocolate? Start the day with Raspberry White Chocolate Overnight Oats, have some White Chocolate Blackberry Muffins this afternoon or treat yourself to No-Bake Raspberry White Chocolate Tart this weekend!)
Welcome to March everyone! We made it through the worst of winter (quick, knock on wood with me!) so I think we all deserve a little reward. In the form of cookies. Lots of them.
These white chocolate chip pistachio cookies are delightfully sweet (but not too sweet), salty (but not too salty), and chewy (fantastic attribute in a cookie IMO). They are an awesome way to bid adieu to the cold and say hello to warmth and sunshine.
How to make (with photos)
These cookies are quick and easy to whip up too.
1. COMBINE DRY INGREDIENTS. First you want to whisk all your dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. CREAM BUTTER AND SUGAR. Then using a handheld electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, granulated sugar and demerara sugar until light and fluffy.
3. ADD EGG AND VANILLA. Stir in egg and vanilla extract and continue beating until they’re both incorporated.
4. ADD DRY INGREDIENTS. Switch your mixer to low speed and add your flour mixture a little at a time and stir until combined.
5. ADD GOODIES. Fold white chocolate chips and pistachios. The batter will be very sticky and that’s okay.
6. CHILL COOKIE DOUGH. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
7. SCOOP DOUGH INTO PAN. When you’re ready, preheat oven to 375F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop a tablespoon of batter into your pan and make sure to space them properly, about 2 inches apart. Do not flatten.
8. BAKE, COOL AND ENJOY! Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to turn a light golden brown. Do not over bake. Cool in pans for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. This recipe yields 24-30 cookies.
Ingredients
To make pistachio cookies, you’ll need:
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Demerara sugar – you can also use light brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- White chocolate chips
- Shelled salted pistachios
Baking tools
When baking cookies, I usually use my stand-mixer but a handheld electric mixer works too.
My favourite tools include:
- Nordicware natural aluminum baking sheets
. Because I own a couple of big ones, I can bake big batches of cookies in one go (using the convection setting in our oven so the heat is distributed evenly). I also have a few dark coloured baking pans that’s useful when I’m baking a small batch. - OXO 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop. It helps me make equally sized cookies and it’s great for ice cream too!
- Digital kitchen scale. Ours is very old and is not available anymore but any kitchen scale will do. Trust me, it will improve your baking tenfold.
- Oven thermometer. I never bake without an oven thermometer hanging in my oven. Those little gadgets are lifesavers.
. Because I own a couple of big ones, I can bake big batches of cookies in one go (using the convection setting in our oven so the heat is distributed evenly). I also have a few dark coloured baking pans that’s useful when I’m baking a small batch.
. It helps me make equally sized cookies and it’s great for ice cream too!
. Ours is very old and is not available anymore but any kitchen scale will do. Trust me, it will improve your baking tenfold.
. I never bake without an oven thermometer hanging in my oven. Those little gadgets are lifesavers.Recipe FAQs
Here are more tips and tidbits to help make baking these cookies a breeze.
Chocolate purists scoff at white chocolate. I don’t blame them. White chocolate is not chocolate at all; it doesn’t contain chocolate solids (or cocoa powder).
What it’s made of is a blend of cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar, milk fat and lecithin — a fatty emulsifier that holds it all together.
For me (and I guess other white chocolate fans??) well, potato, po-tah-toh. It tastes good!
You do need to be a careful when buying white chocolate though because not all white chocolate are made the same.
There are basically two kinds – the good, high-quality white chocolate, typically used for melting and drizzling, and the regular white chocolate chips, what I used here.
I usually spring for the “good” white chocolate
if I know the white chocolate will be the star of the show (for this homemade chocolate bark, for example). For cookies like this, white chocolate chips
do just fine.
Here’s a really interesting white chocolate test folks over at Cook’s Illustrated did.
I know white chocolate and macadamia nuts are the default white chocolate cookie combination. And in fact that was my original plan.
I have this cookbook (one of my favourite ones) – Guittard Chocolate Cookbook
– that had a recipe for it but I just could not bring myself to buy macadamia nuts because they’re ridiculously expensive in these parts.
We did have a whole bag of pistachios
though. And I do love experimenting. I have to say this was a very delicious one!
I also switched up the kind of sugar used. Demerara
has a natural toffee, caramel-y flavor which gives warm, caramel notes to baked goods. And I also find it less sweet than brown sugar, which was what the original recipe called for.
Demerara worked wonderfully here. It resulted to a cookie that has a hint of caramel without the overwhelming sweetness caramel is sometimes known for.
(Speaking of caramel, have you tried my Salted Caramel Sauce? Delicious! Perfect for cakes and cupcakes and ice cream and just, you know, eating with a spoon.)
I go into more detail about chilling cooking dough when I shared my recipe for Soft and Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies.
For this particular recipe though, I always chill the batter before baking to help minimize spreading and to help the cookies keep their shape.
You have two options here (well, three if you’re not really a chilled-batter kind of baker, which is perfectly fine too).
One, you can roll the batter into balls, place them on your cookie sheet then chill the whole sheet before baking.
If you don’t have fridge space there’s option two: chill the batter, roll them into balls then bake (I prefer option 2 – I roll them while I’m preheating my oven).
Option 2 requires some strength and stamina as the batter gets tough (don’t worry, it’s a nice kind of tough); I just like to think of it as the calories I burn now so I can eat 2 cookies later (The Cookie Workout, you saw it here first!).
You can store these cookies in an airtight container on the counter and they will last up to 5 days.
To keep them chewy, try putting a piece of white bread in your cookie jar. The cookies absorb the moisture from the bread, helping keep them chewy longer.
Deliciously sweet and salty
I love how these cookies turn out. Sweet and delicate white chocolate, touch of caramel, salty pistachios. They are so easy to make too!
So let’s bake a batch of white chocolate chip pistachio cookies and start counting down to spring!
More recipes to celebrate the arrival of spring
Here are more recipes to welcome warmth and sunshine back into our lives:
- Cold, refreshing and bursting with the wonderful flavours of fresh strawberries, this strawberry cheesecake mousse is delicious with minimal effort required!
- Rhubarb chia pudding is such a refreshing spring and summer treat. Sweet and tart, light but filling, delicious. It’s so easy to make too.
- Lemon sweet rolls are one of my favourite breakfast treats – buttery, lemony bread rolls glazed with a scrumptiously lemony glaze.
- Blackberry lavender ice cream is wonderfully floral, subtly purple, absolutely refreshing. You don’t even have to have an ice cream machine to make it at home.
White Chocolate Chip Pistachio Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup demerara sugar packed
- 1 pc large egg room temperature
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3.5 oz white chocolate chips
- 3.5 oz shelled salted pistachios roughly chopped
Instructions
- Combine 1 ½ cups flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Using a handheld electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream ½ cup butter, ½ cup granulated sugar and ½ cup demerara sugar until light and smooth (2-3 minutes on medium high speed).
- Add the egg and ½ teaspoon vanilla and continue beating until incorporated.
- Switch to low speed and add your flour mixture a little at a time and stir until combined.
- Fold white chocolate chips and pistachios. The batter will be very sticky.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
- Preheat oven to 375F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Scoop a tablespoon of batter into your pan and make sure to space them properly, about 2 inches apart. Do not flatten.
- Bake 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to turn a light golden brown. Do not over bake.
- Cool in pans for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. This recipe yields 24-30 cookies.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only.
Happy baking!
Did you make white chocolate pistachio cookies? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.
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Marielle
I love cookies and pistachios are my favorites! That’s like my two favorite treats!
Ashley
I love cookies with nuts, especially pistachios! These look and sound SO good! Definitely trying these soon!
Diane
Pistachio on a cookie what a great idea! I love the combination with the white chocolate chips. Thanks for sharing your unique recipe!
Zoe
I always forget about pistachios! Thanks for sharing, will def try these
Charlotte
These look absolutely delicious! I’ve never tried white chocolate in cookies before, but will now for sure 😉
Amanda
Love that you used demerara sugar in these. Such a great depth of flavor. The pistachios with the white chocolate chips sounds like a perfect combo.
Tyina
Hi! I was totally enamored by the idea of a sweet/salty cookie so I went ahead and tried it! Happy to say that the flavors are totally there, but I did not get the spread that your pictures reflected. I didn’t “smoosh” them down but rather left them in a perfect tablespoon scoop formation, and they stayed exactly like that. I used parchment paper on a light cookie baking sheet for 10 mins @375. Any tips for how to get that spread?
Jolina
Hi Tyina. Did you roll them then bake or roll, chilled then bake? In any case, I can’t say for sure but a quick google search provided several possible reasons: (1) Not enough liquid or fat–or the wrong kind of fat–will keep cookies from spreading. Be sure to measure ingredients carefully. (2) Your oven may not be hot enough. I use an oven thermometer because over time I’ve come to know my oven runs hot. (3) Some forums also recommend shiny, aluminum cookie sheets. I personally don’t own those and my cookies always spread so I can’t say for sure. (4) Some people even said it might be because baking soda is old. So many possible reasons but I hope this helps!
Tyina
Thank you so very much for replying so promptly! I’m going to go ahead and try again with a new box of baking soda and give that a shot!
Tami Qualls
My hubby enjoys pistachios but has never had them on a cookie. I’ve gotta make these for him.
Jolina
Awesome! Hope he likes it 🙂
anvita
My son loves cookies so I would love to try this. I love that it has both flavors sweet and salty. Looks delish
Jolina
Hard to beat sweet and salty right? 🙂 Hope your son likes these cookies!
Melanie
Those look like really good cookies! I wish I had the stuff to make them, maybe another week I’ll get to make them!
Cait Weingartner
These cookies look fantastic! I’ve been craving chocolate chip cookies, so I think I’ll mix up a batch of these and kick it up a notch. Thanks for sharing!
Jolina
Hope these provide a nice change 🙂 Would love to hear how it goes!
Sharon
Wow these cookies look soooo good! I can just imagine how chewy they are. I love Guittard Chocolate but had no idea that they had a cookbook. I gotta check it out!
Jolina
Omigosh Sharon I know you like to bake too so you gotta get hold of that cookbook. Lots of fun and delicious recipes! 🙂
Indya
Chocolate chip cookies are one of my most favourite things to make – and eat! They’re fairly simply, but so delicious! I’ve never tried them with pistachios or white chocolate chips before, I’m looking forward to seeing what they’re like
Jolina
Sometimes it’s nice to mix things up 🙂 Hope you like these!
Ashley
This cookie sounds like heaven! I love white chocolate chips and pistachio’s and can’t imagine a more delicious combo!
Mindy
You’re killing me..pistachios in cookies?! I love pistachios. And cookies. I’ve never thought of putting the two together. This looks great.