Lemon Pistachio Cookies

These soft lemon pistachio cookies are a simple bake, and the perfect teatime treat. I love the flavour of lemon, and it pairs really well with the nutty, earthy pistachios.

This recipe makes around 24 cookies, however the cookie dough freezes really well. If you don't want to bake them all at once, you can bake half, then save the rest of the dough for later.

Recipe ingredients

• Sugar: I use a combination of granulated and light muscovado sugar as it has a great molasses flavour that really works in these cookies. A good substitution would be soft light brown sugar or a golden caster sugar. I also use icing sugar (powdered sugar) to make the glaze icing.
• Butter: I use unsalted butter, but you could also use salted butter. Don’t be tempted to use margarine as you won’t get the same flavour or set in the cookies.
• Vanilla Extract: adds great flavour to these cookies, you could also use vanilla paste. Vanilla essence would also work but it doesn't have the same depth of flavour.
• Eggs: use 1 large beaten eggs in this recipe as it helps to bind the cookie dough.
• Flour: plain flour (all purpose) is used in this recipe.
• Bicarbonate of Soda: is added to give the cookies a little rise and create a light, soft cookie.
• Pistachios: add great crunch to these chocolate cookies. I use unsalted pistachios and shell them myself (it's a lot cheaper than buying shelled nuts). If you use salted nuts leave out the pinch of salt when making the cookie dough.
• Lemon: I used 2 lemons in this recipe. I finely grate the lemon zest to add to the cookies, then juice one of the lemons to make the glaze icing.

How to make Pistachio & Lemon Cookies

• Preheat the oven to 190C/170CFan/375F.
• Place the pistachios in a sealed plastic bag and bash up gently with a rolling pin to create small chunks of nut.
• Place the butter and both sugars into a bowl and beat well until the mixture becomes creamy.
• Now add the vanilla extract and the egg, mixing well to combine.

• Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt to the bowl and continue to mix well until you have a rough dough.
• Add the pistachios and finely grated lemon zest to the dough.

• Mix together until you have a well combined dough.
• Pull together small golf ball sized balls of the cookie dough and place these on a tray lined with baking parchment. Space the cookies well apart as they will spread in the oven. However do not flatten out the balls of dough.
• Optional: At this stage if you think the cookie dough is too soft you can pop the tray into the fridge for 10 minutes to allow the dough to chill and set a little.
• Once you have shaped all the cookies place the trays into the hot oven. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, they should be golden and a little soft in the middle.

LESLEY'S TIP: The cookies will spread in the oven, so leave plenty space between each ball of cookie dough.

• Remove the cookies from the oven, place the tray on a wire cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes and set a little. After 10 minutes gently place the cookies directly onto the wire rack to completely set and cool.
• To make the glaze mix the lemon juice into the icing sugar.
• Ensuring the cookies are completely cool, drizzle the icing over the top of the cookies.
• Allow the glaze to set then store the cookies in an airtight container on the counter top.

LESLEY'S TIP: If you want your cookies to look a uniform size, or if some have really spread in the oven, I have a simple trick to fixing this. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven they will still be soft and pliable. Get a circular cookie cutter and place smooth side down over the cookie, taking care not to touch the sides of the cookie. Now working in a circular motion, move the cutter and gently reshape the cookies.

Recipe variations

• Nuts - I love adding nuts to cookies for added crunch. You can swap pistachios for chopped almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, brazil or macadamia nuts.
• Citrus Burst - swap the lemon zest for lime or orange zest.
• Chocolate Chips - you can add some chocolate chips to the mix, any variety of chocolate would work here, try milk, dark, or white chocolate. Or mix up your flavours, so long as you end up with 140g (5oz) of chocolate chips.
• Dried Fruits - raisin, sultanas, currants, cranberry, blueberry, all work with a basic cookie.

Useful hints and tips

1. Shelled pistachios nuts are expensive! So I prefer to use a bag of shell on pistachios and shell them myself. A 200g (7oz) bag of shell on pistachios will give you roughly 100g (3.5oz) of shelled pistachios once the shells have been removed.
2. Line the baking tray with a silicone baking sheet or baking parchment as this will stop the cookies sticking to the tray.
3. Ensure the cookies are cool before glazing, if you glaze when the cookies are still warm it will slide right off.
4. Cookie dough freezes really well so make a double batch, freezing some of the dough to make cookies another day.
5. For anyone with a nut allergy, simply leave out the pistachios and increase the chocolate chips to 200g (7oz) if you wish.
6. Allergy advice: for comprehensive and detailed allergy advice go to Allergy UK.

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Additional recipe suggestions

If you like this recipe then try some of my other easy cookie recipes:

• Easy Date Oat Cookies with Ginger
• Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies
• Orange Butter Biscuits
• Lemon Butter Biscuits
• Ginger & Chilli Biscuits

If you enjoyed this bake have a look at my Fun Baking with Kids post, full of great recipe suggestions for baking with children.