Christmas cookies
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- + infusing + chilling
- Easy
- Makes 15
Ingredients
CRANBERRY COOKIES
- 350g plain flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 225g unsalted butter
- 300g caster sugar
- 1 lemon, zested
- 2 eggs, large
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g dried cranberries
PISTACHIO BUTTERCREAM
- 200ml whole milk
- 75g, plus 50g for decoration pistachios, finely chopped
- 20g plain flour
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 175g unsalted butter, softened
- a few drops green food colouring, (optional)
Method
- STEP 1
To make the cookies, mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and 1/2 tsp of salt. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and lemon zest for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs, then briefly mix in the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients and the cranberries, and mix until a soft cookie dough is formed. Cover and chill for 2 hours or until firm.
- STEP 2
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160/gas 4. Cut the dough into golf-ball-sized pieces, roll into balls and put onto baking-paper-lined trays or use a silicone baking mat. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until lightly browned. Halfway through baking remove the trays from the oven and give them a firm tap on the surface to make the cookie collapse a little (this will give a chewier texture). Cool on the trays for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
- STEP 3
For the buttercream, put the milk and pistachios in a pan over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat, cover and leave to infuse for 1 hour. Pour the mixture into a jug and use a hand blender to purée until smooth (the nuts won’t fully break down but they’ll form a slightly pasty texture, almost like a milkshake). Pour the milk mixture back into the pan along with the flour, caster sugar and vanilla bean paste. Cook over a medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture is very thick, like a pastry cream. Scrape the custard into a small bowl and cover the surface. Chill for 2 hours.
- STEP 4
To finish the buttercream, beat the butter until soft and creamy then add in the pistachio custard a spoonful or so at a time. Continue beating until a buttercream texture is formed. Depending on the colour of the pistachios you use you may want to add a drop or two of green food colouring – but be sparing. Put the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe a dollop of buttercream onto 1/2 the cookies, sandwiching together with a second cookie. To finish, roll each cookie in chopped pistachios, coating the exposed buttercream.
