Pistachio Biscuits with Salted Chocolate

Pistachio biscuits that have been dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt.

5 from 4 votes

Pistachio Biscuits with Salted Chocolate

These pistachio biscuits are an easy yet impressive bake to make. Dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt flakes these pistachio shortbread cookies are fun to make, sensational to taste and incredibly hard to resist.

Prep Time25

Cook Time20

Total Time45

Course: Baking, Cookies

Cuisine: Worldwide

Servings: Cookies

Calories: 138kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Equipment

Mini food processor or electric coffee bean/ nut grinder

Ingredients

75 g Pistachio nuts (unsalted, de-shelled))
100 g Unsalted butter - room temperature
50 g Caster sugar
25 g Light brown sugar
120 g Plain (all purpose) flour
Pinch of cooking salt
150 g Dark chocolate (I used 62%)
Sea salt flakes (I used Maldon)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Make the biscuits

Begin by blitzing 50g of the pistachio nuts in a processor or coffee grinder until reduced to a fine powder (similar in appearance to ground almonds, only green!)
Chop the remaining 25g of nuts using a knife
In a medium bowl, using electric beaters, cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy
Add the cooking salt, flour, ground and chopped pistachios. Briefly stir with a metal spoon, then use your hands to complete the mixing. Stop mixing as soon as everything is combined properly
Roll the dough into a cylinder (sausage) approximately 18cm long and 4cm wide. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 4 hours
Pre-heat the oven to 140°C/ 275°F/ GM1 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment
Unwrap the dough, slice the ends off to neaten and then gently slice the cylinder into approximately 20 rounds each about 5mm thick.
Lay the circles on the baking sheets, spaced 2cm apart. (Take care to pick the side that has the prettiest display of nuts and put this face up).
Bake for around 20 minutes until beginning to turn golden. Remove from the oven, let rest for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely

Decorating

Chop the chocolate finely. Place ⅔ of it into a small heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave I do this by heating in 30 second bursts on full power, stirring occasionally. Once the chocolate has almost melted I add the remaining ⅓ chocolate and stir until it is all completely melted
Take a biscuit and dip the bottom ⅓ in the chocolate, tilting the biscuit as necessary to ensure a good covering of chocolate. Place on greaseproof paper. Repeat with another 2 biscuits. Top each biscuit with a small pinch of sea salt flakes (don't wait until you have dipped all 20 biscuits - the chocolate will have set too hard for the salt to stick)
Keep repeating this dipping and sprinkling process with sets of 3 biscuits until all of the biscuits have been decorated
Allow to set completely then transfer to an airtight container. Keeps for up to 5 days

Notes

I always recommend using digital scales and the gram system of measurement when baking. It’s the most accurate method of weighing out ingredients.
Chilling the dough is essential. Please don’t skip this part.
Use a sharp, non-serated knife to cut the cookies.
Rotate the baking sheets half-way through the cooking time to ensure a more even bake.
And, if your baking sheets are on different shelves of the oven it’s also a good idea to swap them over. again, this helps ensure the entire batch of biscuits bakes more evenly.
Try almonds or hazelnuts in place of the pistachio nuts. Both of these break down well to create a nut ‘flour’ too.
It’s very easy to make these pistachio cookies vegan. Simply swap the dairy butter for block vegan butter and add ¼ teaspoon salt to the flour to help bolster the flavour.

Nutrition