A cutout shortbread cookie with ground pistachios to give flavor and color. Nothing is stopping you from making Christmas trees out of these at Christmas! This makes a very small recipe; feel free to double it!
Ingredients
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup finely chopped pistachio nuts (the natural green kind, not the red dyed ones)
green sanding sugar or Powdered Sugar Icing
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 F. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour and sugar. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut margarine until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling. Stir in pistachios. Form mixture into ball. Knead just until smooth. Wrap dough. Chill for 1 hour or until easy to handle. On a lightly floured surface roll the dough into a 10″x6″ rectangle. Cut the dough into shamrock shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1″ apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. If you are not going to ice the cookies, sprinkle them with green sugar. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on sheet 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack; cool for 30 minutes. When cool, decorate with Powdered Sugar Icing tinted green with food coloring.
Notes
- These cookies are not very sweet and need either the green sanding sugar or the icing.
- Yield depends on size of cookie cutters. Figure about 15 cookies using a 2″ diameter cutter, or fewer if you use a larger cutter.