Salted Pistachio Shortbread Recipe (2024)

Dispatches from the low-tech front: Total success! Ground the pistachios using a combination of mortar and pestle & pounding them with a hammer inside a plastic bag. Mixed batter using two forks/hands, baked on a cookie sheet with foil. Later, I easily pulled the triangles apart, and they were amazing! Crunchy and buttery and just sweet enough. Moral: do not let the lack of a food processor, false-bottomed tart pan, or other ephemera get in the way of your shortbread dreams. Happy holidays!

What size springform pan?

Alison: Great recipe! Would this dough hold up if I rolled it out and cut out individual cookies? I love pistachios and would like to make Holiday shaped cookies.

I am going to attempt a low-tech version of this (don't have a food processor either, and although I do own a blender, cleaning it is the thief of joy), and will report back.

Outstanding. Mixed the dough using a KitchenAid mixer with paddle and baked in a tart ring on parchment paper. Added crushed seeds of one green cardamom pod and a splash of vanilla extract. Keep an eye out during baking as it was ready in 15 min.

Just made this in a 9” pan and it worked out great.

This is a difficult recipe. It gives no guidance on size of pan. I used a 9" tart pan; an 8" might have worked better. Also, the recipe directs that you slice the cookies into 24 wedges (slivers, really); the photo on the site shows the cookies sliced into 12 wedges (far more manageable and less likely to crumble. If I make these again I think I'd use an 8X8 pan and cut them into squares or thin rectangles. I did save the crumbs and crumbled wedges to put on vanilla ice cream.

I made these as cookies at 325 (and added plenty cardamom!) on the bottom rack on my second try at 12ish minutes and they were absolutely perfect. my first try at 350 they burned on an upper rack at 15 minutes!

Cold or room-temp butter?I automatically used room temperature butter, as I do in most baking recipes. When it was too late (I was pressing the dough into the tart pan) I remembered that an old shortbread recipe calls for cold butter. It still tastes good, but should I try it with cold butter?

This will become my favorite shortbread recipe. I used a 10 inch tart pan reducing the cooking time so as not to dry out the shortbread. With the thinner cookie I cut into 16 pieces. I used a combination of almonds and salted pistachios, reducing the salt by a third in step three and as the topping eliminating the salt at the end. End product was delicious with a cup of tea.

I used room-temp butter, Trader Joe's toasted slivered almonds and doubled the recipe, baking in a parchment-lined 9x13 Pyrex. I cut them into squares while still warm, in the pan, then let them cool all of the way before bringing them to my bookclub cookie exchange. Not even 2 hours from ingredients on counter to placing them on the table -- remarkable. And really good. If rolled, did you roll in confectioner's sugar and then sprinkle with salt before baking? That might be pretty

The standard size for both is 9” (I just measured mine to be certain). If you don’t have either, a round 9” cake pan might work, but definitely line the bottom with parchment paper and run a butter knife around the edge after its cooked before trying to turn out. If not, you’ll ruin the shape trying to get it out.

These were a resounding success! I didn't even have the right pistachios (I had roasted and salted) but I halved the salt in the dough and used only a tiny bit of flaky salt on top. I baked them at 325 degrees for 22 mins and they were perfect. They got firmer as the day progressed so making them a day in advance might lead to the perfect texture.

Avoid a tart pan in favor of a springform pan if possible. The scalloping started to crumble when removing from the pan, and kept crumbling as I cut such small pieces.

Baked two tart pans of these back to back. Very tasty shortbread. Recipe worked as written. The dough is quite wet so the hardest part was spreading in the tart pan. We used a piece of wax paper to pat in and move around to even level. When you remove from the oven they are very soft. I cut/scored them lightly and then fully cut when a bit firmer/cooler. No issues with cutting or transporting across state lines. Not a very sweet shortbread but very tasty.

85g butter

This is an excellent cookie! I did add some lemon zest but my lemon was tired— more zest from a fresher lemon would be nicer. The long slender triangles look elegant but yes the noses do tend to crumble. I sliced prior to baking which provided guidelines when re-slicing warm from the oven.

I did not have a springform pan and so I used a square cake pan lined with parchment. It seemed to work well.

Easy on the flaked salt

I would like to add two clarifications that helped me 1. Cold butter ( its not mentioned here)2. Baked on middle rack at 350 for 22 mins3. The picture does not align with the recipe. This recipe makes for decent sized 12 wedges not 24 I addded cardamom and rose essence and it was delicious, a little crumbly to my taste but tasted good

Are use roasted salted pistachios, and a 9 inch nonstick pie tin. It was ahead of the party.

So good. Like decadent yet snackable. And really pretty. Yes to adding cardamom and vanilla. Also drizzled honey on top.

Deb Perlman's Olive Oil Shortbread with Rosemary and Chocolate Chunks (from her Everyday cookbook) is one large free-form cookie (I square it up) that you cut while still warm. Heavenly with red wine. Today I'm going to swap chopped pistachios for the chocolate, eliminate the rosemary, and add almond extract to make a pistachio shortbread. I use a pizza cutter to make finger-shaped cookies. Super crumbly, but so velvety and delicious it's worth the more rustic shape.

These are EXTREMELY crumbly, so I'm not sure what non-professional baker is able to make their triangles look like the way they do in this photo. They taste great, but any tips for keeping the triangle shape? Should I have cooked them for longer?

Baked this with vegan butter and the zest of 1 lemon. Flavour is beautiful and the texture is how I remember shortbread to be!

Great recipe. I recommend doubling everything to better fill out the springform pan. The cookie was slightly thicker and I only added about 2 minutes cook time. Came out great!

To make this into cut out cookies for Christmas, I added 1/6 cup of granulated sugar and for a subtle flavor complexity, added 1/8 tsp cardamom and 1/4 tsp orange zest. Came out delicious and crispy.

Know that the dough will make a very thin layer, and that the cooked shortbread will be highly fragile, but it's well worth those worries. Delicious results! I have one in the oven now, with walnuts in lieu of pistachios. Perhaps because of the greater moisture in the walnuts, the dough was difficult to shape without causing the parchment to slide along with it.

Has anyone tried freezing the shortbread? Thanks

It is an easy recipe but it's not that tasty and it falls apart when cut so presentation is not good. Not at all sweet even though I sprinkled with extra confectionery sugar. Would not make this again. I did butter the tart pan well and it did come out of the pan easily.