Buttery goodness made easy!
Cranberry Orange Pistachio Shortbread are a lovely afternoon snack with a cup of tea (try our recipe for London Fog) or a mug of coffee. And of course, they look enticing for a game day spread. Need a Christmas or Valentine cookie -- whip up a batch of these. The dough can easily be shaped or cut into hearts!
Our recipe is buttery rich and soft yet crumbly. It’s bursting with flavor and studded with fresh red cranberries, orange zest and green pistachios and infused with almond and vanilla extracts.
You may have bought shortbread before at the grocery store or at a bakery, but never attempted your own. It's easy!
Walker’s Shortbread (the one in the red plaid box or tin) was started by Joseph Walker with £50 and the goal to make "The World's Finest Shortbread". He opened a bakery in the village of Aberlour in Northeast Scotland in 1898 and it grew. The worldwide business is still run by his descendants today.
This shortbread would score against Ted Lasso's!
Yet, shortbread goes back much further than Victorian times. It has been around since the 1100s, but because it was made with so much butter, shortbread was made only for special occasions. Mary, Queen of Scots propelled shortbread in the 1500s with her love of the dessert.
Shortbread also has been celebrated in popular culture. Shakespeare mentions shortbread in the play Merry Wives of Windsor in 1602. Fast forward 600 years!
Most recently, shortbread was popularized in the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, about an American coach (played by Jason Sudeikis) who moves to London to coach a fictionalized Premier League soccer team – AFC Richmond. Every day, he brings shortbread in a tiny pink box to his boss, football club owner Rebecca Weldham (played by Hannah Waddingham).
Apple TV released his shortbread recipe. Coach Lasso’s version didn’t have vanilla in it! Just flour, sugar, butter. We think our Game Day Grub version would outscore Ted Lasso’s in a taste test!
We’ve also streamlined the recipe and used a food processor to make this super easy. Even kids can help make this recipe!
A few quick cooking notes: The butter needs to be at room temperature to blend easily with the sugar. And it’s important to let the finished dough chill in the fridge for a few hours or put it in the freezer for 45 minutes to get cold and firm before slicing the cookies.
Fresh cranberries are better because they are drier than frozen ones. When I measure the pistachios and cranberries I’m measuring after they are chopped. For a shortcut, we use the food processor to roughly chop the nuts. Then we pour those in a bowl and roughly chopped the whole fresh cranberries and put those in a separate bowl. (No need to wash the blade and container in between.)
So go ahead and chop as much as you want for all the batches. Then start the cookie making. One batch fits easily in a regular size food processor. Then make a second batch rather than trying to double it. You can make a dough log, pop it into the freezer and it will keep for several months. When you get the craving or have unexpected guests, you can these wonderful shortbread ready in no time!
This recipe is easy to modify. If cranberries are out of season, you can make the recipe with citrus and pistachios or even plain like Ted Lasso does.
Want to have a cup of tea with your biscuits? Try our Lovable London Fog. Or is chocolate and shortbread more what your looking for? Then dunk your shortbread in our Decadent Hot Chocolate. Yum!
Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread
Recipe Ingredients
1 c salted butter (2 sticks) at room temperature
1/3 c granulated sugar, plus 1-2 T for sprinkling on top
¼ c packed brown sugar (light or dark)
¼ t salt
1 t almond extract
1 t vanilla extract
1 t orange zest (zest from one medium orange)
2 c flour
1 c fresh cranberries chopped
1/3 c roasted salted pistachios chopped
Preparation Instructions
Mixing time – 10 minutes
Chilling dough – 45 min-3 hours
Baking time – 10-12 min.
1. Let butter come to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Place parchment paper on cookie sheet.
4. Roughly chop pistachios in food processor. Pour in a bowl and set aside.
(If you’re making multiple batches, chop the nuts for all the batches.)
5. Roughly chop cranberries in food processor.
Pour in bowl and set aside.
(If you’re making multiple batches, chop all the cranberries at once.)
6. In empty food processor, add butter, 1/3 c granulated sugar, ½ c brown sugar, extracts
and salt and pulse until mixture is creamy.
7. Pour in flour. Pulse until crumbly.
8. Add cranberries and pistachios.
9. Pulse until just mixed.
10. Form into a ball and roll out on a lightly floured board into a log about 10-12 inches long
about 2½ in. diameter. (No need for a rolling pin. Just use your hands.)
11. Wrap in plastic wrap or parchment paper.
12. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or in freezer about 45 minutes until dough is cold and firm.
13. Then cut into 1/3 in. discs.
14. Place on parchment paper on baking sheet.
15. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
16. Remove from oven.
17. Sprinkle cookies lightly while warm with 1-2 T of granulated sugar for the batch.
18. Let cool.
Dough can be frozen in a log, wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil for several months and then thawed and sliced for fresh cookies.
Makes 18 cookies.
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