Pistachio and cardamom shortbreads

pistachio and cardamom shortbreads

Yes! Yet another biscuit recipe to share with you, my friends! From the woman who never used to bake them it’s pretty impressive,uh? I have come to the conclusion biscuits are rather a  versatile thing to make! You can offer them to friends when they make a surprise call, have one with your tea or coffee when you are feeling peckish or take one to work with your packed lunch to make it less boring and impress your colleagues. And all without feeling you are overindulging too much. Somebody will point out that these little babies aren’t without a calory or two, judging by the quantity of butter that goes into them but I choose to ignore the remark. Anyway I baked these beauties a few weeks ago and they went down a treat with my Italian lady friends. My husband’s work mates were also suitably impressed. I LOVE pistachios and adore cardamom as a spice so when I spotted this Ottolenghi recipe containing both I just KNEW I had to try them. And sure enough they didn’t let me down. They were definitely worth the effort. Lovely and crumbly, with a rather moreish, delicate flavour. I’ll make them again for sure. I was thinking how lovely they would go with some coconut ice cream or similar….YUMMY! Food for thought….

INGREDIENTS (makes approx. 20)

8 cardamom pods

200g unsalted butter 

25g ground rice (or rice flour)

240g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

35g icing sugar

60 shelled pistachio nuts

1 lightly beaten egg

2 tbsp vanilla sugar (I didn’t have it so used normal granulated sugar)

METHOD

Crush the cardamom pods, then remove the seeds from inside and crush them into a fine powder.

Mix together the butter, ground rice, flour, salt, ground cardamom and icing sugar. Once it comes together, stop mixing.

Turn the dough out the counter and form it into a log (3-4 cm. in diameter). Wrap the log in cling film and then let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour.

Chop pistachios into small pieces, and scatter them on a flat tray. Once dough has been chilled, brush it with the beaten egg, and then roll into the pistachios. Wrap the dough back up in the cling film, and put it back into the fridge for another half an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 150C (302F).

Slice the log into cookies ( 5 mm-1 cm thick). Lay them out onto baking parchment and dust with vanilla sugar. Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes. Do not over bake, the cookies should be pale in colour.

They can be kept in a sealed container for up to one week.

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3 Responses to “Pistachio and cardamom shortbreads”


  • Up to one week? Why add this obviously useless instruction!???? Dimmi com’è possibile che durino più di un giorno. Li devo fare, il burro un po’ mi spaventa però eh eh…

  • Quei biscotti scaldano il cuore……..

  • Candi diciamolo chiaro. È solo questione di tempo prima che si scopra che il burro non fa poi così male alla salute…e poi in moderazione va bene tutto no? O ancora meglio, come dice Oscar Wilde: “everything in moderation, including moderation”! Ha ha

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