Pistachio shortbread - house beautiful

4 dozen

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
½ cup Unsalted natural (not red dyed) pistachio nuts, lightly toasted
½ cup Sugar
1 large Egg yolk
¼ teaspoon Vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1½ cup All-purpose flour

Directions

In a shallow baking pan in a preheated 350'F oven, toast pistachios 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool completely. Working with a few at a time, rub pistachios between your hands to remove loose pieces of hull. Set aside 1½ T for decoration.

In a food processor process remaining pistachios and sugar until very fine. Add egg yolk and vanilla and process until blended. Sprinkle butter over mixture and pulse until smooth. Add flour and process just until combined.

Divide dough in halF RoU out each portion between sheets of waxed paper to ⅛-inch thickness, checking the underside and smoothing out any creases that form. Slide sheets onto a large tray and chill 20 minutes, or until firm but not hard.

Remove 1 dough sheet from the refrigerator and peel the bottom sheet of waxed paper and replace it loosely. Turn dough over; remove and discard top layer of waxed paper. Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut out cookies. Reroll dough scraps and continue cutting until all dough is used. (If the dough becomes too soft to handle, chill again.) Repeat the process with the second dough sheet.

Finely chop reserved pistachios and sprinkle lightly over the center tops of each cookie. Pat down nuts.

Bake in the center of a preheated 350'F oven 9 to 11 minutes, or until golden all over. Remove from oven and let stand 2 minutes, transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 10 days or up to 1 month. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

House Beautiful Holidays 1993 Scanned & fixed by Di and Gary

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