on a quest to come up with the perfect biscuit to complement tea, i ended up with something even better: a pistachio lemon sugar cookie.

buttery and soft, the biscuit melts into your mouth with each bite. the sweetness is offset by chopped pistachios and the lemon pairs perfectly with both. it’s all at once a refreshing and delightful surprise, a near Eastern take on the classic American sugar cookie.

in Sufi culture, it is said that eating pistachios with egg yolk makes the heart grow stronger. perhaps i’m biased, but i believe these cookies have some healing elements aside from satisfying your afternoon sweets craving.

the recipe is simple: 1 stick of butter, 1 cup sugar, 1¾ cups flour, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, chopped pistachios, 1 tsp vanilla extract, lemon zest and juice of half a lemon.

Using the zest from one whole lemon, combine with 1 cup caster sugar. I like to mix this by hand to ensure the oils from the lemon zest are released into the sugar; let this rest and marry for at least 45 minutes. In the interim, finely chop your pistachios.

Cream 1 stick of room temperature butter into sugar mixture. Again, I like to do this by hand.

Add room temperature egg + egg yolk and mix, followed by 1 tsp of vanilla extract. The additional egg yolk adds a rich, chewy texture to the cookie. Once you add the vanilla, introduce the juice from half a lemon.

At this point, I like to slowly incorporate the flour (1¾ cups) and thoroughly mix each time added. Once the dough is formed, add a pinch of salt for balance and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. I find between 12-24 hours to be best; I like to also shape the dough into balls and let them chill individually.

Roll chilled cookie dough balls into chopped pistachios so the entire area surface of the dough is covered and preheat your oven to 350°.

Line a cookie tray with cooking spray and assemble, allowing room between each cookie; these don’t spread as long as they’ve had time to chill. Once placed in the oven, they don’t take longer than 25 minutes; I let them rest for 10 minutes aprés.

Voilà and enjoy!

love & madness,