Pistachio Smash Cookies
Description
If I could only eat one kind of cookie for the rest of my life…it would be these! And no chocolate, who would have thought?!? Borrowed from the kitchn, keep in mind that almond paste is not exactly the same as marzipan, it’s also not as difficult to find as you’d think – enjoy!
Ingredients
2 c. shelled, salted pistachios
1 package (250 g/8 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
200g/7 oz almond paste (such as Odense), cut or broken up into small pieces
3/4 c. + 2 T. sugar
1/2 t. kosher salt AND 1/4 t. almond extract
1 c. oatmeal
~1 c. (113 g) icing sugar – set aside in a small bowl for rolling
Instructions
Add all of the pistachios to your food processor and pulse until they’re very finely chopped, almost powder. Scrape every last bit out of the bowl and set aside.
Add the softened cream cheese, broken up almond paste and sugar to your electric mixer and beat for 2 to 3 minutes on medium speed until the mix is smooth and well combined. You may still see small chunks of almond paste, but this is fine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the salt and almond extract and beat again.
Scrape down the bowl again, add in all of the chopped pistachios and beat on low for a couple of minutes until the dough is green, then add in the oatmeal and beat for another minute until well mixed. Cover the dough and refrigerate for about 30 minutes so that the oatmeal can absorb any excess moisture.
Preheat the oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment. I decided to make 24 cookies, so I weighed the dough and then each cookie ball so it would work out (in my case, each cookie started at ~40 grams). Roll each portion into a ball (golf ball size if you’re not using a scale), roll each ball completely in the icing sugar and then place at least an inch apart on your prepared baking sheets.
Bake for about 15 minutes until the icing sugar on top begins to crack, then take the cookies out and allow them to cool for 2 minutes on the pan. Use the back of a measuring cup to gently and evenly press in the middle of each baked cookie ball to flatten all to about a 1/2-inch thickness. When all of the cookies are ‘smashed’, leave them on the baking sheet to cool completely.
I just need to say one more time how unexpectedly amazing these little beauties are!
