With Christmas just next week, I’m well underway with my Christmas baking and cooking. You can see my Christmas Pancakes here, and this recipe uses cranberries too. These actually took me longer to hunt down than I was expecting them to. I baked them just at the end of November and apparently that’s too early to bag yourself some cranberries? What the hell?! Do people not understand that some of us get festive with the food far too early? Pistachio & Cranberry biscuits are a perfect item if you’re looking for something relatively simple but tasty to take into work before the Christmas break.
The pistachios add a good bite to the biscuits while the cranberries, tart as they are, add a nice punch. Depending on how soft of crisp you want your biscuits, either bake to the lower end or until they have browned properly around the edge.
You’ll have seen my Cranberry & Orange Loaves if you’ve been following my blog for a while, and along with those these are now a firm Christmas favourite and I’ll undoubtedly be making another batch for the day itself.
- 175g butter, softened
- 85g golden caster sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 225g plain flour
- 75g pistachios
- 75g dried cranberries
- Cream the butter with the sugar then stir en stir in the vanilla and flour followed by the cranberries and pistachios. You may need to use your hands to get this to come together properly.
- Halve the dough and roll each into a log about 5cm across, rap each one in cling film and chill for about an hour. This can be frozen.
- While it's chilling, preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC fanassisted) and line two baking trays with grease proof paper.
- Slice each log at 1cm intervals and spread out over the prepared trays. Chill again for 10 minutes before placing in the center of the preheated oven and baking for 12-15 mins. The longer the crisper.
Ooh I’ve never used fresh cranberries in cookies before, only ever dried!
They shrink slightly but they work pretty well. Would recommend.
I love pistachio and cranberry. Never had them together though. I need to try this!
xx Izzy