I love Christmas baking! Although it can get a little hectic (and very messy) trying to bake so many things on the lead up to Christmas, I just love the festive flavours and scents.
These shortbread-style cookies are perfect to make in advance of the big day as they will last a week (assuming you can resist eating them all beforehand...)
The cookies are bursting with festive flavours; cinnamon and mixed spice, orange, cranberry and pistachios.
And I love the variety of textures - the melt in your mouth biscuit, the chewey dried cranberries and crunchy pistachios. Mmm! They're very simple to make and the dough freezes well too.
📖 Recipe
Cranberry, Orange & Pistachio Cookies
Yield:
20
Prep Time:
10 minutes
Cook Time:
10 minutes
Total Time:
20 minutes
Vegan shortbread-style cookies filled with festive flavours!
Ingredients
- 170 g / ¾ cup dairy-free butter, I used 'Pure' sunflower butter
- 120 g / ½ cup caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 orange or clementine
- 185 g / 1 ½ cups plain flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground mixed spice, or pumpkin pie spice mix
- A pinch of salt
- 80 g / ½ cup shelled pistachios
- 80 g / ½ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl.
- Sift in the flour, spices and salt and mix to form a soft dough.
- Stir in the pistachios and cranberries so they are evenly distributed.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour (or the freezer for ½ an hour) until firm. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170c / 340f and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Once the dough is firm, use a small cookie cutter to cut out the cookie shapes and transfer to the baking sheet. You want to make the cookies fairly small as they will expand slightly in the oven.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven. You may need to turn the tray half way through to ensure even browning.
- Once they are a light golden brown and firm to the touch, take them out of the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack. They will last up to one week in a tin at room temperature. Enjoy!
Lori Geuy says
Oh this recipe sou d's bombin'. I do pistachio/cranberry every year. Orange sounds like a great flavor change up
Sharon @ Bit of the Good Stuff says
Hi Aimee. I'm loving all your Christmas recipes! They're so creative, pretty and delicious. Hopefully over the holidays I'll get to try some of them, starting with these gorgeous cookies
Samina | The Cupcake Confession says
Such festive flavors!!!! Loving it!
Ellie Charmaine says
These look so good!
Rosie says
They sound lovely :) very pretty too, Christmas colours.
So far this year I've made truffles, gingerbread and a Christmas cake but I'm hoping to squeeze in a bit more baking over the holidays.....