• 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 and mix 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.
• 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.

Lemon Glaze (Optional)

• 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.