When my December issue of Bon Appetit came through the mail and I saw “Easiest Xmas Cookies” on the cover, I got excited. I’m not the most creative person when it comes to baking – I am a chocolate chip cookie gal all the way. So I figured this recipe for Pistachio Thumbprints would be a winner because the Italian cafe I worked at in Cambridge had a few desserts with Pistachio cream in them.. and it was literally like eating Heaven.
I started out the other night by making the Honey-Vanilla Sable Dough. Obviously, not something I had ever heard of. I bought the cardamom from the bulk foods store because I don’t know when else I will ever use it (except now I’m totally sold on these cookies). I also didn’t look for vanilla beans because I checked online beforehand and I just subbed in two teaspoons of vanilla. I rolled them up and kept them in the fridge for a couple of days. Seriously, super easy. On a sidenote: the dough isn’t that tasty (Ian said, “This makes me think of cough syrup”) – which is good because you’ll make more cookies.
On to cookie assembly. Could I find pistachio paste at the Italian grocers here in Winnipeg? No. Nor at the bulk foods store. But thankfully, included in the magazine’s directions for these cookies were directions for making your own paste. I don’t have a small food processor (on the list!) so I used a blender but wasn’t able to get it quite smooth enough. I made a double bath of the paste in hopes that maybe it would be enough in the blender to get it smooth.. not the case. It also got quite hard while it sat on the counter. So I recommend making it as the cookies are baking and not earlier.
I hand chopped my pistachios for the cookies and it literally made me work up a sweat. I rolled the dough into small balls and pressed them into the pistachios – I had two cookie sheets and realized as the first one was baking, that there weren’t enough pistachios on them so i re-pressed the second sheet. The cookies flatten out while they are baking, so when the directions say to cover half of the cookie in pistachios, they mean it! Otherwise you’ll have a half naked cookie.
This is the first time I have ever made thumbprint cookies. Cutting the logs was super simple and your hands warm up the pieces quickly to roll them into balls. I got more than 18 cookies (even after eating some dough). The process is actually quite interesting and I’m going to give it a go at some different types of my own some time. It was easy enough to use the end of a wooden spoon to make the indent into the cookies, however, a lot of my cookies started spinning on the parchment and made it a little more difficult.
When I took the cookies out for the second and last time, they didn’t take long to cool (on a wire rack) before I put some of my lumpy, weird pistachio cream in the holes. Honestly, my pistachio cream looks like something you would find in a diaper, but if you can get that out of your mind.. they are really, really delicious!
I do hope that you’ll check this recipe out and give these cookies a go, you really won’t be disappointed! I do, however, suggest that you do some research and find pistachio paste OR use a proper food processor to get a nice smooth homemade version.
This is my last post for you all before Christmas, I’m going to take a little break because let’s face it, no one is going to be checking out The Fancy Napkins on Christmas Eve! So my next post will be another review next Thursday. Merry Christmas!
And finally, lease don’t let this photo deter you from baking these, because they truly are a palate pleaser!
