cranberry pistachio cookie
In Iran they are still partying and celebrating the Persian New Year. Here in Amsterdam I ride my bike through the cold spring rain. Luckily I have a nice warm kitchen where I can warm myself by the oven while I bake another batch of cookies. For my variation of the traditional shirini keshmeshi cookie from Iran I used cinnamon instead of saffron and swapped the raisins for dried cranberries and pistachio nuts. These cookies are quite sweet (shirin means sweet in Persian!) and you could make them with a little less sugar if you don’t have such a sweet tooth. The cranberry pistachio cookies have more of a bite to them than the original ones because of the nuts and berries, but I like a cookie with a crunch.
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Cranberry pistachio cookie
For about 15 cookies
100 grams (1 stick) butter
seeds of 1 vanilla pod
1 teaspoon cinnamon
125 grams (2/3 cup) sugar – or use 110 grams (½ cup) for less sweet cookies
2 eggs
50 grams (½ cup) dried cranberries
100 grams (¾ cup) pistachio nuts
125 grams (1½ cups) flour
pinch of salt
Melt the butter, leave to cool slightly and with an electric mixer beat with the vanilla, the cinnamon and the sugar for about 5 mins.
One by one beat in the eggs. Keep beating until the mixture becomes light and creamy.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
Chop ¼ of the pistachios finely. Chop the rest coarsely.
Add the cranberries, the finely chopped pistachios and half of the coarsely chopped pistachios, the flour and the salt and mix well.
Drop teaspoonsful of dough on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper. Leave plenty of room between the cookies because they spread. Sprinkle on the rest of the nuts.
Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven for 10-15 mins. or until light brown along the edges.
Take out of the oven and leave to cool on the cookie sheet.
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