The soft cookie project: It really is a project you know. At least for me it was. I wanted it to be a thick cookie, crunchy on the edges, soft and chewy in the centre. That’s the reason it took me some time to post this recipe. I have baked and tasted so many cookies these days (not that I’m complaining), until I found exactly what I wanted. THIS cookie.
Cookies are very easy to make. If your butter is at room temperature, you may not even need a stand mixer. Although it always helps. There are a number of things you should have in mind when baking cookies. 1. The more the butter, the thinner the cookie. Having said that these cookies are thin. No discount on the butter. 2. Adding brown sugar and corn flour, results in a softer, chewy cookie. And finally, 3. always, always refrigerate your cookies one hour before baking. This helps keep your cookies the same size. The butter sets in the fridge and helps the cookies bake evenly.
I also realized that baking the cookies at a lower temperature oven, also helps bake them more evenly especially if you want to keep a chewy centre. Having said that, some ovens distribute heat differently than others, so the best thing to do is test one cookie before baking the whole batch.
Enough said. Let’s bake some cookies.
Pistachio Drop Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup unsalted pistachios divided
- 1 ¼ cup flour divided
- 1 tsp corn flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 125 grams ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup soft brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Method:
- In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, add ½ cup of the pistachios, ¼ cup of the flour and the corn flour. Pulse until finely ground.
- Very roughly chop the remaining pistachios. Set aside until needed.
- Sift the remaining flour with the baking soda and salt.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla. Beat until combined. Add the sifted flour and the ground pistachios. Mix just until all ingredients are moistened. Stir in the chopped pistachios.
- Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Take about 2 tablespoons of the mixture and shape into a ball. Wetting your hands will make this process easier. Place each cookie ball in the baking tray. You don’t need to space them apart just yet. Continue until you shaped all the cookie mixture. I usually make about 20 cookies.
- Now this is important: Place the tray in the fridge for 1 hour. This will set the butter and will help bake the cookies bake more evenly (see note).
- Preheat oven to 160° C fan. Line baking trays or cookies sheets with greaseproof paper or silicon mats. Place cookie balls on the trays spacing them about 5 cm (2 inches) apart. Bake cookies for 15-17 minutes until they are golden around the edges and soft in the centre. Cookies will seem very undercooked and soft when you take them out of the oven but don’t be tempted to bake them longer. They will firm up as they cool. Transfer soft cookies on wire racks to cool.
