Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

5 from 14 votes

Tender, light and crispy these cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies will be a sure hit with your family and friends. Add some white chocolate chips too to the dough and make it as white chocolate and cranberry shortbread cookies. With the pistachios, the red, white & green color will make it a perfect Christmas treat.

Prep Time2 30

Cook Time16

Cooling Time5

Total Time2 51

Method: Baking

Course: Cookies

Servings: 60 Cookies

Ingredients

1 and ½ cups butter softened
½ cup white sugar
¼ cup maple syrup (can be replaced with sugar as well)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (orange zest and extract can be used too)
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pistachios toasted

Substitutes:

Instructions

Cream together the butter, sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract using an electric beater. Recently baked with just butter and sugar. (Check My Notes)
Add flour one cup at a time and the salt, mixing well after each cup is added. Do not use the beater for this, just mix it with a wooden spoon or spatula. Beating it with a hand held mixer might result it tough cookies.
Stir in the cranberries and pistachios.
Shape dough into two logs, each log about 10 inches long. Wrap it tightly with parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. I chilled mine overnight.
Preheat oven to 350F/180C for 15 minutes. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Cut each log into about 1 cm slices and arrange on the baking sheet(s).
Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until lightly browned. I took out mine just after 18 minutes. Thicker cookies might need a minute or two more.
Cool the sheets on a wire rack and let it be for 5 minutes. After that remove the cookies off the pan and let it cool completely on the wire rack before storing it in an air-tight container.

Notes

Toast the pistachios on stove top in a pan for about 5-7 minutes or in the oven, stirring once or twice in the middle so that it doesn't burn. Set it aside to cool before adding it to the dough.
Recently I baked the cookies without the maple syrup. So used ¾th of a cup of sugar and still got the same result. Crispy pistachio cranberry shortbread cookies.
If you prefer baking these shortbread cookies with wheat flour it has to be whole wheat pastry flour. It yields tender and crispy cookies. I'm pretty sure that the regular(hard) whole wheat flour will not be suitable for these cookies. Of course you can bake with all-purpose flour too. Gluten-free baking mix will work too.
These shortbread cookies does not have the maple flavor. If you are a fan of maple you might want to use maple extract instead of vanilla extract. I have also tried this recipe using orange zest and orange extract. It gives a nice citrus flavor. Do try that too.
Proceed with caution while slicing the dough. Do not use a "see-saw" motion while cutting it because the dough would start crumbling. Instead just run through the dough once with a serrated knife. Even if the dough cracks, you can still patch it up together. The cut has to be one smooth motion from top to bottom. To avoid cracks do not slice the cookies too thin.
The number of cookies you will get depends upon how thin or thick you slice the dough. I was able to get 60 cookies when the original recipe states the yield is 30-40 cookies. The baking time of the cookies will depend upon how thin or thick you slice the cookies. So always test bake and determine the baking time before proceeding to bake the entire batch.

Nutrition