The holidays are prime cookie baking season and you can’t go wrong with buttery shortbread cookies. A generous dose of dried cranberries and chopped pistachios add a festive twist to your traditional shortbread. Make my recipe for Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies for friends, family (or even Santa himself) to spread holiday cheer throughout the Christmas season.
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I fell in love with shortbread cookies while traveling through Scotland, where these simple treats were invented. Popular as part of afternoon tea, you can find them in bakeries ( my personal favorite is the Isle of Skye Baking Company) and home kitchens throughout the country. A standard shortbread cookie is a simple mix of butter, sugar, flour and salt but you can add in nuts, dried fruits or other ingredients for an elevated shortbread cookies. The high butter content of shortbread cookies gives them a crumbly texture that is absolutely irresistable.
These cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies are perfect for the festive season and would make a great addition to your holiday cookie tray alongside Peppermint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, Cranberry Orange Biscotti, Italian Pistachio Cookies, Gingerbread Latte Cookies and Maple Pecan Cookies.
Ingredients for Cranberry Shortbread Cookies
- unsalted butter
- granulated sugar
- orange zest
- vanilla extract
- all purpose flour
- kosher salt
- dried cranberries, chopped
- pistachios, chopped
How to Make Cranberry Shortbread Cookies
Add softened butter and sugar to a large bowl and cream together using a handmixer on medium speed until fluffy and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Add in the vanilla and orange zest and beat until combined. Add in the all purpose flour and salt and beat until fully incorporated. Stir in the cranberries and pistachios. Form the dough into two 6 inch logs and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least hour hour or up to overnight.
Preheat your oven to 350 ℉ and line 2 baking sheets with silicon baking mats or parchment paper. Cut the cookie dough into 1/2 inch slices and place on the perpared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes (rotating the pans half way through) or until the edges are lightly golden.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
If you like these Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies be sure to take a look at some of my other recipes!
Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Matcha White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cranberry White Chocolate Scones
If you make these Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies please be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Be sure to follow me on Youtube, Facebook and Pinterest for my latest recipes. Also, if you do make this recipe please tag me on Instagram, I’d love to see what you guys are making!
Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies
Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 Hand Mixer
- 2 baking sheets
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries chopped
- 1/2 cup pistachios chopped
Instructions
- Add softened butter and sugar to a large bowl and cream together using a handmixer on medium speed until fluffy and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Add in the vanilla and orange zest and beat until combined.
- Add in the all purpose flour and salt and beat until fully incorporated. Stir in the cranberries and pistachios.
- Form the dough into two 6 inch logs and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least hour hour or up to overnight.
- Preheat your oven to 350 ℉ and line 2 baking sheets with silicon baking mats or parchment paper.
- Cut the cookie dough into 1/2 inch slices and place on the perpared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes (rotating the pans half way through) or until the edges are lightly golden.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
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Karen Hibbard says
Just pulled these out of the oven, and they are perfection! The cranberries and pistachios are such an amazing combination. Can’t wait to share them with others at a holiday party tonight. Thanks!
Brianna Simmons says
Thank you so much for the kind words, I’m so glad you loved these cookies 🙂
Bruce says
Can you use GF flour for these?
Brianna Simmons says
While I haven’t personally used it in this recipe myself I’ve had good success using Bob’s Red Mill GF flour in other baking recipes and it should work well in this. Let me know if you try it!
Stephanie says
Are the pistachios unsalted?
Brianna Simmons says
you can use either salted or unsalted
janet says
I made these for Christmas. Not only did they keep eating these after saying they were full from dinner but they kept raving about them. They left with recipe and remaining cookies in hand.
Will probably make again before the New Year and take a batch to work. Might even be a new Christmas tradition.
Brianna Simmons says
This makes my heart so happy! Definitely one of my favorite cookie recipes.
Stephanie says
Can you freeze the rolled cookie dough, to use at a later date?
Brianna Simmons says
You certainly can! Just makle sure to wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in a ziptop bag to prevent freezer burn and thaw the frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking.
Cindy says
I’m so disappointed these didn’t work out for me. I’m an experienced baker and can’t figure out what went wrong. They sounded and looked delicious. I couldn’t get my dough to hold at all. At first I thought there was too much flour and hesitated to add the last 1/2 cup. I checked other recipes and the ratio of butter to flour to sugar was the same. Any suggestions?
Brianna Simmons says
I’m sorry they didn’t work out for you! I know the past few years I’ve read about people having trouble with baking due to lower butterfat percentages in some brands of butter. Another culprit may be your butter wasn’t softened enough yet which can result in the ingredients not fully incorporating into the dough.
Jean says
Very easy and they have a mildly nutty and sweet/tart flavor. They are definitely shortbread, buttery but not overly sweet. I’ll certainly make them again.
Amie A. says
I stumbled across this recipe and bookmarked it because it sounded delightful. (I bookmark a lot of recipes and only ever make 5-10% of them, but this one actually got made.) Just pulled them out of the oven and HOLY MOLY are they wonderful! Definitely going into regular rotation. Thank you!
Brianna Simmons says
Aime, I’m so thrilled you liked these shortbread cookies! Your comment made my day.
Joanna says
So happy I found this recipe! My aunt wanted me to try to replicate David’s Cookies pistachio and cranberry Biscuits that cost over $20 on Amazon. These were very close, but my aunt said she liked these even better! I think I used a bit too much orange zest, though, so next time I will cut that back a bit. Thanks for sharing!
Brianna Simmons says
Joanna, thank you so much for the great review! I’m absolutely thrilled that you and your aunt liked these shortbread cookies, they are definitely a favorite in my house.
Viv says
The orange zest completely ruins this recipe, giving it a slight bitter taste. Definitely do not over bake.
Brianna Simmons says
I’m sorry the orange wasn’t to your taste
Dara says
Hello,
Can these be frozen after they are made and pulled out later for a party?
Brianna Simmons says
Hi Dara, you can certainly freeze these cookies! Make sure they are fully cooled before freezing and try to remove as much of the air as possible from your freezer bag.
S says
The best cookie and easy to make,,,,shortbread cookies are sooooooooooongood! Thank you
Jeannine says
Trying this out for the first time! Easy peasy prep. The dough feels great! I used dried cherries and cashews. Ready for some shortbread cookies! Thank you!
Brianna Simmons says
Thank you so much for your lovely comment Jeanine! I think cherries and cashews would be delicious!