White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread.

This buttery shortbread is filled with cranberries, pistachios, and creamy bits of white chocolate, for a festive twist on a classic treat.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Scottish

Keyword cranberry, pistachio, shortbread, white chocolate

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 22

Total Time 1 2

Servings

Calories 311kcal

Cost $10

Equipment

8-inch square pan
Parchment paper
Mixing bowls

Ingredients

1 cup two sticks unsalted butter
½ cup extra-fine sugar
1 egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup pistachios chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries chopped
3-4 ounces chopped baking white chocolate I used Ghirardelli

Instructions

To Prep:

Allow butter to soften for about an hour on the counter
Gather and prepare your ingredients, shell the pistachios, etc.
Line an un-greased square baking pan with parchment paper.

To Prepare The Dough:

Stir or mix together the softened butter, the sugar, salt, and egg yolk. Add flour, a little at a time until mixed in. The dough will look a little crumbly at this point.
Add the pistachios, cranberries, and white chocolate and mix with a wooden spoon until evenly distributed. The dough will still look crumbly.
Dump the dough onto a smooth surface and knead for a short time until it starts to form a ball. There will be some cracks — it won’t be 100% smooth — but don’t over-work the dough.
Pat dough out into your prepared pan and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To Bake The Shortbread:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Remove dough from the refrigerator. Use a sharp knife to cut into slices. Use a dinner fork to make holes in the dough.
Bake for about 22 minutes until lightly browned.

Notes

Nutrition information is provided as an estimate.

Prep Tips:

Pistachios - I believe that pistachios in the shell taste fresher than ones that come pre-shelled, so that's what I used. Though this does add to the prep work! However, if you'd like to save time, you can certainly use shelled pistachios. Pistachios are easy to chop with a knife. Remove any pieces of tough skin that fall off too.
White Chocolate - I used Ghirardelli white chocolate that I found in the baking section of the grocery store. I did grate it on the box grater but in the future, I will chop it. It’s just too soft to have a good grating experience. I wanted the smaller pieces so the flavor would just melt into the cookie rather than being chunks.
Cranberries - I chopped the dried cranberries by hand.
Sugar - Mom’s recipe calls for extra-fine sugar. Extra-fine sugar is also known as caster sugar, baker's sugar, or super-fine sugar. I splurged and bought the super fine sugar (it cost about $5 for a one-pound bag). I have seen recipes for shortbread that use powdered sugar. I used that in one batch and it did fine. But for overall flavor/texture I give a slight edge to the super-fine sugar. If you use regular sugar, the recommendation I’ve seen is to run it through your blender first.
Butter - This recipe calls for unsalted butter. I recommend sticking to unsalted so that the amount of salt is correct. When a recipe only has five ingredients, you want to use a good quality butter because you will taste the difference.
Flour - As with the butter, I recommend choosing a good quality all-purpose flour. One thing I look for is for it to be unbleached. Choosing organic is great too. Most supermarkets carry a good selection of flours these days.

Nutrition