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Biscuits, Cookies & Traybakes

Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies

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Delicious soft cookies studded with pistachios and flavoured with vanilla. These Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies are simple to make & definitely a bit special!

Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies

Who doesn’t love a cookie?

I absolutely love cookies. For me they have to be soft, at least in the middle. But I was looking at the cookie recipes I already have here on my blog.

Some of my favourites are my Peanut Butter Cup Cookies and White Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cookies. But all of my cookie recipes include chocolate…and quite a few of them involve peanut butter too!

So it was time for something different.

Pistachios are made to be used in baking

I think pistachios are perfect to use in baking. They add such a lovely flavour and colour to your bakes. My Pistachio Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing is one of my favourite cakes.

It doesn’t take a genius to see where I got the inspiration for these Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies from! These cookies are soft and delicious and are really elevated with the sweet drizzle.

Tips for making Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies

If you are new to pistachios, you may not know you can buy a few different types. For baking you need unsalted and deshelled pistachios.

If you have plenty of time on your hands you can buy unsalted pistachios in their shells and deshell them yourself, but personally I can think of better things to do with my time!

You will need to grind them yourself which I do in my mini food processor. You don’t want to grind them too finely so they are dust; but you don’t want huge chunks.

When baking the cookies, they will look quite pale when they come out of the oven. Don’t be tempted to leave them in the oven thinking they’re not cooked enough.

One of the best things about these cookies are the delicious softness of them so you don’t want to over bake them!

For the drizzle, you can go as fancy or rustic as you like. I spooned the drizzle into a piping bag and snipped off the tip to get a small hole and then piped it across each cookie.

If you don’t want to do this, you can easily use a spoon. You will get a more rustic look but I think that is quite nice with home baking.

Personally, I think the best way of getting even sized cookies is to use a small ice cream scoop. I have an ice cream scoop for every occasion.

It is definitely the easiest way of scooping out cookies or cupcake batter. My smallest scoop gave me balls of cookie dough that weighed approximately 25g.

If you don’t have a small ice cream scoop, then a tablespoon measuring spoon should work quite well.

Other recipes you might like

  • Cinnamon Cookies
  • Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies
  • Apricot & Almond Flapjacks
  • Carrot Cake Sandwich Cookies
  • Chocolate & Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

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5 from 8 votes
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Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies

Delicious soft cookies studded with pistachios and flavoured with vanilla. These Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies are simple to make & definitely a bit special!

Course Cookie
Cuisine International
Keyword Vanilla, Cookies, Pistachios
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Servings 26
Calories 109 kcal

Ingredients

For the cookies

  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 115 g margarine
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 200 g plain flour
  • 75 g pistachios ground

For the drizzle

  • 100 g icing sugar
  • 3 tsp water
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp pistachios ground

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan assisted, 200°C non fan) and line two baking trays with silicone liners or parchment paper

  2. Add the margarine and sugar to your mixer or a large bowl and beat until pale and fluffy

  3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix again

  4. Add in the flour and ground pistachios and mix until just combined

  5. Spoon balls of cookie dough onto the lined tins leaving enough space for the cookies to spread slightly when baking

  6. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until slightly golden

  7. Leave to cook for a few minutes on the trays before transferring to a wire rack and leaving to cool completely

  8. Once the cookies have cooled, make the drizzle. Add the icing sugar, water and vanilla extract to a bowl and stir until any lumps have gone

  9. Drizzle over the cookies either by spooning into a piping bag and cutting a small hole in the end or with a spoon for a more rustic look

  10. Finish by scattering each cookie with some ground pistachios

Recipe Notes

Keep in an air tight container for 3-4 days. 

Nutritional information is given as a guide only.

Nutrition Facts
Pistachio & Vanilla Cookies
Amount Per Serving
Calories 109 Calories from Fat 45
% Daily Value*
Fat 5g8%
Saturated Fat 1g6%
Cholesterol 6mg2%
Sodium 44mg2%
Potassium 42mg1%
Carbohydrates 14g5%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 8g9%
Protein 2g4%
Vitamin A 179IU4%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 6mg1%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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16 Comments

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lizet Bowen says

    September 18, 2019 at 4:29 pm

    5 stars
    Yum! I really enjoy eating desserts with pistachios in it, but I haven’t baked any yet. Your cookies look and sound delicious.
    Thanks for sharing at #CookBlogShare!

    Reply
    • Curly says

      September 22, 2019 at 9:34 am

      Thanks 🙂 You should definitely give baking with pistachios a try!

      Reply
  2. Monika Dabrowski says

    September 18, 2019 at 10:54 pm

    5 stars
    These look lovely and practically identical, no idea how you managed to make them look so perfect. I really like the flavour combination.

    Reply
    • Curly says

      September 22, 2019 at 9:33 am

      Thanks Monika, I use a small ice cream scoop to get them all a similar size. It’s so quick and easy.

      Reply
  3. Kat (The Baking Explorer) says

    September 18, 2019 at 11:18 pm

    5 stars
    I love how neat they look and the flavours are some of my favourites for cookies

    Reply
    • Curly says

      September 22, 2019 at 9:32 am

      Thanks Kat 🙂

      Reply
  4. Sylvie says

    September 20, 2019 at 8:56 am

    5 stars
    These cookies look sooo delicious! Love the little bits of crushed pistachios on top too, i’m sure they add a delicious crunch to the cookies!

    Reply
    • Curly says

      September 22, 2019 at 9:32 am

      Thank you. They do and I love the colour of them too!

      Reply
  5. Jo Allison says

    October 9, 2019 at 8:17 pm

    5 stars
    Your cookies are so beautifully identical, that never happens to me lol. I love how soft and pillowy they are but with a bit of nutty crunch and so quick and easy to whip up too! Unsalted pistachios have been added to the shopping list now, I shall report back! Thank you for sharing these beauties with #BakingCrumbs 🙂

    Reply
    • Curly says

      October 14, 2019 at 9:16 pm

      Thanks Jo. I make it easy for myself and use an ice cream scoop! Hope you like them if you make them 🙂

      Reply
  6. Jenny Walters says

    October 18, 2019 at 7:19 pm

    5 stars
    These are just perfect little cookies and so sophisticated. I could imagine them in a very posh hotel with afternoon tea. What a delicious flavour combo too. Thank you so much for sharing them with #BakingCrumbs

    Reply
  7. Choclette says

    October 22, 2019 at 2:40 pm

    5 stars
    Love the sound of these cookies and they look so elegant too. Pistachios are so delicious, it’s a shame they’re so expensive. These would be perfect as Christmas gifts though.

    Reply
    • Curly says

      October 27, 2019 at 7:26 pm

      It is a shame, they seem to just keep increasing in price too! They definitely would be 🙂

      Reply
    • Lina says

      October 17, 2024 at 7:43 pm

      Hi….these look lovely and looking to make them fir Diwali. Recipe calls for Margarine……is there are particular type or fat% that is ideal for these? Or can a good quality unsalted butter be used instead?
      Thanks

      Reply
      • Curly says

        October 18, 2024 at 8:47 pm

        Hi Lina you can absolutely use unsalted butter. I only use margarine because it is soft straight from the fridge.

        Reply
        • Lina says

          October 20, 2024 at 9:23 pm

          5 stars
          Thanks Kat for your speedy reply .
          I used unsalted butter and it worked i believe. Visual was on point once the icing drizzle and pistachio sprinkling was added otherwise they did look anaemic without it
          I found the vanilla in the icing a tad overpowering….it masked the pistachio flavour…. reduce it a little could be a consideration

          Reply
5 from 8 votes

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Hi, I'm Cat aka Curly. I'm a home cook that likes nothing better than a day in the kitchen baking and cooking. Whether its sweet or savoury, in my mind food is always the answer. Meet Curly

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