Pistachio Raspberry Crinkle Cookies
Deliciously soft and pillowy Pistachio Crinkle Cookie that are rolled in raspberry sugar for those festive colors and flavors. They’re thick and soft in the centers with a slightly crispy side!
We don’t really celebrate Christmas, but I am all about baking and trying different flavors and varieties of cookies. I am also not a huge fan of cookies. They must be extra good, extra delicious, and just perfect for me to even try them. I love baking so it works out that way I get to try different cookies.
Crinkle cookies have these striking streaks or cracks of showing off the cookies and the sugar that they are rolled into. You can immediately recognize them in a crowd because of those crinkles/cracks.
I love how they are chubby looking, soft in the middle and ever so slightly crispy on the sides. They can come out flat if you forget to chill the dough just like me. Haha.
I have seen many different types of crinkle cookies, the most famous one is of course chocolate. I love pistachios, duh! So, I attempted to make pistachio flavored, and they are so so good. While working on the recipe I had this idea of rolling them into raspberry confectioners’ sugar then regular white sugar to give nice contrasting flavor and color, both.
If you love pistachio flavor, then you will love these. They remind me of amaretti cookies. These are also very easy to make cookies. So, give it a try!
Ingredients used in crinkle cookies
Some of the ingredient in this recipe are very basic ones easily available at home like butter, sugar, salt, flour, baking powder.
The main ingredient pistachios – I used unsalted pistachios, you can either use skinless or with skin. Does not matter. I ground them in the food processor first, transferred them to bowl and then proceed to make cookie dough.
Another important ingredient is freeze dried raspberries. They are easily available at many stores. Because raspberries have seeds, I ground them first, sieved/sifted them and then mixed them with powdered sugar. However, if you do not want to use raspberry flavor, feel free to skip this step. Just use plain white powdered sugar or add another berry flavor like strawberries.
Some tips for making these cookies
Is there any secret to prefect crinkle cookies? Not really, but there is science involved and that is that when you roll the cookies in granulated sugar first and then in confectioners or powdered sugar helps cookies get those prefect cracks as granulated sugar holds the confectioner’s sugar in place then melting it away quickly. When my first batch of these cookies spread and stuck to each other (dough was not chilled enough) they also didn’t show too many cracks with pink hue of raspberry sugar. So, I knew that the powdered raspberry sugar melted away. The cookies rolled into sugar and giving it crackly look is important for the looks not more so for the taste. What’s the point in making crinkle cookies if they don’t get those stark cracks, right? I love how as the cookies bake, the powdered sugar coating gives away those crinkles and cracks as the cookies keep further baking and take their shape. Granulated sugar works as barrier between cookie dough and powdered sugar.
Chilling the dough even after rolling them into rounds is very important. Remember, my first batch fail. Lol. It is very important to at least chill them for 10 mins – 20 mins to get chubby plump cookies rather than cookies that spread too much and creating not so great looking thin cracks.
All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Dried raspberries are easily available in any stores like target, whole foods etc. I ground them first and sifted out the seeds because no one wants that. Then mixed it with powdered sugar.
I used food processor to grind the pistachios and then made cookie dough in the same food processor. Once the dough was chilling, I used same food processor to grind freeze dried raspberries. That way we only need one equipment.
Storage or make ahead
You can store baked cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature. But, if you prefer to make the dough in advance and keep it, then simply roll them into balls and freeze on a baking sheet first for few hours. Then simply transfer those to an airtight container or ziplock bag and freeze it upto 2 months. Before baking, roll the cookies into granulated sugar and coat in powdered sugar and bake as directed add 2 mins extra baking time.
Pistachio Raspberry Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
Pistachio Cookie Dough
- ¾ cup unsalted pistachios powder/meal ground
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp pistachio butter/paste optional
- 2 tbsp milk
Sugar coating
- 1/3 cup dry raspberry powder
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar/powdered sugar
Instructions
Cookie dough
- Mix dry ingredients in a bowl – all purpose flour, ground pistachios, salt, baking powder.
- In a food processor, take butter and sugar. Pulse it few times to mix them and add vanilla extract and pistachio butter if using. Again, pulse for few times. You can easily use hand blender too.
- Add dry ingredients in the butter mixture along with 2 tbsp milk and pulse and make sure it is mixed well.
- Transfer the cookie dough on a surface and make sure to mix it with hands if its crumbly. Cover it and chill it for 1-2 hours or overnight. Chilled dough is easy to work with and its not sticky.
- Remove the chilled dough for 10 mins or so. Divide it into equal portions using an ice cream scoop or measuring spoon. Roll them into balls. Chill them again for 10 minutes. Pre heat the oven to 350 F.
- Sugar Coating – Roll each ball into granulated sugar first and then in confectioners’ sugar. Make sure they are rolled quite a bit in raspberry confectioners’ sugar. Bake the cookies for 15-17 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350 F on parchment lined baking sheet.
- If the cookies do not spread by minute 8-minute mark, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter. I used spatula to slightly press them down. Return to the oven to continue rest of the baking.
- Let them cool for few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once completely cooled, store them in a container covered and it stays fresh upto a week.