Chocolate & Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies with Pistachio Cream
Oh my, these Chocolate & Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies with Pistachio Cream are something else, and by that, I mean they’re very special.
They always look as though I’ve spent hours making them, when in fact they’re so easy to put together, unfortunately for me and the lovely Mr G, they are just as easy to eat, one is never, ever enough!
Biting into these, the smooth pistachio cream gives way to a firm, slightly fudgy, chocolaty centre surrounded by toasted pistachios, all adding up to a bite of pistachio heaven.
These have the name thumbprint cookies, because of the indentation in the top where the pistachio cream sits. The shape is traditionally made with, yup, you’ve guessed it, a thumb.
Not rocket science is it?!
There are lots of thumbprint cookie recipes out there, and with a lot of diverse flavour combinations, such as peanut butter and jelly and lemon and lemon curd, but I think these are a little more sophisticated than most and definitely a cookie that looks as good as they taste.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Pistachio and chocolate, a perfect combination.
What You Need
142 g Butter – Softened
140g Caster Sugar
1 Large Egg Yolk – Set aside the egg white to use later
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
156g Plain Flour
33g Cocoa Powder – See Tip Box
½ Tsp Salt
100g Unsalted Pistachios – Finely Chopped
1 Small Jar of Pistachio Cream – See Tip Box
Indentation (Thumbprint) in the top, deep but not too deep!
How It’s Done
Heat the oven to 180c
Line a couple of oven trays with non-stick baking parchments or silicone sheets
Place the softened butter and castor sugar into a bowl of an electric mixer and, on medium speed, beat until it’s pale in colour and fluffy.
Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and beat for another couple of minutes.
Check out the tip box for lots more uses if theres any leftover pistahio cream.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa and salt together pushing any lumps through the sieve with the back of a spoon
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and let it run until it comes together into a firm dough. – See Tip Box
After dipping the edges in the egg white, get a good lot of chopped pistachios around the outside.
Place the egg white onto a shallow saucer and the chopped pistachios onto another
Divide the dough up into balls just larger than walnuts and place them onto the prepared baking trays leaving approx. 2” between them.
Use your thumb or the back of a teaspoon to make a thumb sized indentation in the top of each cookie ball.
Very gently, roll the edges of the cookie ball in the egg white and then in the chopped pistachios, making sure that all the surfaces of the outside edges of the cookies are completely covered in the pistachios – See Tip Box
Once the outside edges are covered in the pistachios, place the cookies back onto the tray.
Place the tray into the hot oven and bake for 10-12 minutes until the dough becomes slightly darker - See Tip Box
How much pistachio cream you put in os us to you.
Once removed from the oven, us your finger or the back of a teaspoon to make the dimple in the top a little deeper as it will have risen during baking. – See Tip Box
Let the cookies sit on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring them all to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Once the cookies are cold, place some of the pistachio cream into the dimples on the top – See Tip Box
To store the cookies, place them into an airtight container for a few days.
They are so good, you won’t be able to eat just one
Tip Box
Cocoa Powder – Make sure that its cocoa that’s used and not drinking chocolate, and if there’s any sugar in it, buy the one without the sugar.
Pistachio Cream – 1) It doesn’t say how much of the pistachio cream to use in the recipe, that’s because how much to use depends on how deep the indentations are, how many cookies you get out of the dough and of course, how much of the delicious pistachio cream you like per cookie.
But, 1 small jar will be more than plenty
2) Pistachio cream is in most supermarkets so not difficult to find.
3) If there is any of the pistachio cream left, using it in other ways shouldn’t be a problem. Try it in:
a: Overnight oats
b: To make a unique latte
c: A smoothie
d: Make some pistachio cream ice-cream
e: Pistachio cream cookies
f: Chia pudding
g: Or just on toast
3) When adding the pistachio cream to the top pf the cookies, I used teaspoon to help.
Get the oven on!
Mixing in the flour – Don’t rush mixing in the dry ingredients. It will take a few minutes before it comes together, and the dough will be quite firm.
Covering the cookie in the pistachios – 1) When dipping the cookie in the egg white, only coat the outer edges and only dip them in the egg white very lightly.
2) When it comes time to coat the edges with the chopped pistachios, give it a helping hand by using a combination of rolling it in the nuts and using fingers to push them into the dough.
After Baking – Once the cookies are out of the oven, because the dough will have expanded with the heat, the indentation will have gotten smaller. Using a finger or the back of a teaspoon, just make the thumbprint a little deeper.
Be careful not to make it too deep, and not to push through the cookie to the bottom
Baking – Ovens vary so adjust baking time accordingly
Delicious.
