Happy Sunday! So far, this has been a beautiful weekend weather wise. The temperatures finally dropped this week, and more and more leaves are starting to turn. Plus, the fact that it’s spooky season is enough for me to celebrate.
I’ll be honest, I was supposed to publish this yesterday, but I had a very busy day and just didn’t get around to editing it. It’s not a huge deal to push back publishing it to today, but the recipes for this month are kind of weirdly spaced already. I usually only publish four recipes, but this month it’s six. So I have some weeks where there are multiple recipes being released, which makes it all a little uneven. But at the end of the day I suppose it doesn’t mean much when posts get published.
Let’s shift gears and talk about these cookies! I actually made these last year without a recipe for a pop up in October and they were very popular among those who tried them, so I decided to write and publish a recipe for them this year. I feel like they’re pretty cute, but they also have a sophisticated taste.
Describe these Cookies to Me
Taste: The primary flavor in these cookies is the pistachio. The cookie itself is filled with real pistachios, which blend perfectly with the vanilla notes in the dough. The pistachio cream in the center adds a sweetness to compliment the bittersweet chocolate ganache perfectly.
Texture: The cookie has a little crunch on the outside, but it’s perfectly soft on the inside, which compliments the creamy pistachio in the center and the melt in your mouth chocolate ganache.
Ease: These are a little more difficult than some cookies, simply because there are more steps. The dough is fairly simple, but it needs to chill for a good bit of time before we roll and shape it. Filling and decorating these cookies takes a minute as well, and a little patience. So make sure you reserve a good amount of time for this recipe when you make it.
The Cookies
These cookies are a classic sugar cookie, filled with real pistachios. It takes a classic sugar cookie base and adds in pistachios ground up with brown sugar. I also add a little bit of pistachio or almond extract to bring out the sweet element of the nutty flavor. Although it’s not strictly necessary, I recommend adding a little bit of green food coloring to your dough. Although it’s already naturally green colored, it’s not as attractive a green color as you’ll probably want for this cookie.
The Fillings
The fillings for these are very simple on the surface, but there are a few details that make them a little trickier. The ganache is simple to throw together with warm cream and chocolate. The difficult part is getting it to the right consistency to pipe. Make sure you let it sit at room temperature rather than speeding up the process in the fridge which can result in a split ganache. For the pistachio cream, it needs the border from the ganache to stop it from spilling out the sides, so it’s very important that part is strong.
Chocolate Pistachio Monster Cookies
Ingredients
Pistachio Cookies
- ⅔ cup raw unsalted pistachios
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar divided
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pistachio or almond extract
- green food coloring
Fillings
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup pistachio cream spread
- candy eyes
Instructions
Start by making the cookies
- In a food processor, pulse together the pistachios and ⅓ cup of brown sugar into a very fine crumb. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and remaining ⅓ cup of brown sugar together on medium speed until fluffy and combined. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and pistachio extract and beat until creamy and combined.
- Pour the dry ingredients and the pistachio mixture into the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined. Add a few drops of green food coloring and mix until the dough is evenly colored green. The dough should be thick and creamy.
- On a heavily floured work surface, shape/press the dough into a disk, roughly 1 inch thick. Wrap the disk in cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Shape the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat and set aside.
- Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and place on a floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to roughly ¼ inch thickness. Cut the dough into round cookies using a 2 inch round cookie cutter. Place the cookies 1 inch apart on the previously prepared baking sheets. Re-roll and re-cut the scraps of dough.
- Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes or until slightly browned at the edges. Let the cookies cool completely before decorating.
Make the ganache
- Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized heat safe mixing bowl.
- In a saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until simmering. Once simmering, remove from the heat and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit without stirring for 3 minutes to melt the chocolate before stirring to combine. The ganache should be glossy and smooth. Stir in the vanilla extract and salt. Let the ganache cool until it thickens to a spreadable consistency. You can put it in the refrigerator to speed up this process, but you will want to check in on it and stir it every 10 minutes or so.
- Once thickened, spread a thin layer of ganache on the flat bottom side of every cookie. Then, fill a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip (I used Wilton 12) with the ganache. Pipe a ring around the outside of half of the cookies. This will serve as a moat to keep the pistachio cream from slipping out. Fill the moat with a loaded teaspoon of pistachio cream and top with one of the cookies without the moat. See video in the above post for a clear visual on the assembly process.
Decorate
- Fill a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (I used Wilton #4) with the remaining chocolate ganache. Pipe a chocolate mouth, stitches, and eyebrows on top of the cookie as pictured. Pipe 2 dots of ganache and place the eyes on top to stick them on.
- Cookies last for up to 5 days sealed in an airtight container at room temperature.