White Chocolate Dipped Pistachio Cranberry Crescent Cookies

White Chocolate Dipped Pistachio Cranberry Crescent Cookies, are perhaps my new favorite Christmas cookie this year. 

One thing I love about wintertime is the cookie baking season. I bake a ton of cookies and every year I like making a cookie with white chocolate pistachios and cranberries in one form or another. Every year the cookie is different, and this years is my favorite so far, White Chocolate Dipped Pistachio Cranberry Crescent Cookies.

I love the combination of pistachio, cranberries and white chocolate in cookies. A perfect Christmas cookie flavor combination. 

I do a lot of baking with both regular wheat/all purpose flour and gluten free flour blends. I make sure my flours are the highest quality I can get. I believe with baking higher quality and super fresh ingredients make or for better baked goods. Holiday season means I use up a lot of  baking items, especially flours, my pantry is loaded up.

Pretty sure throughout November and December I end up vacuuming up a few pounds of flour from the dust in the air and when I spill it all over. I am the messiest baker. 

Christmas cookie baking was something I looked forward to as a kid; helping my mom in the kitchen making our usual Christmas cookies, to making them now as an adult with my daughters helping me create our own favorites for years to come. Although their idea of helping is just asking to eat cookies. Can you blame them?

I have a list of cookies that I make every year, usually the same cookie recipes, but ever since I started food blogging years ago, I can't just keep posting the same ones every year so I experiment with new recipes, trying other recipes I have always wanted to make just hadn't gotten around to it yet or making a different version of a similar cookie I make.

I just don't think you can go wrong with any cookie at Christmastime really. As the years pass and the more years I have been a food blogger, the longer the cookie recipe list gets. Both on my blog and to bake. 

So if you want to branch out and make a new cookie recipe this season, go for it and try this one. Crescent cookies are a holiday staple in many cookie trays and exchanges of all kinds of flavors. These have the extra layer of sweetness with being half dipped in the white chocolate. Definitely don't skip that step, it really makes these stand out. 

White Chocolate Dipped Pistachio Cranberry Crescent Cookies

Shanna

A lightly sweetened crescent cookie with salty pistachios, tart cranberries and dipped in creamy white chocolate.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Additional Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 50 minutes mins

Servings 24 cookies

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup butter, 8 ounces, room temperature but still firm
• 1 c granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1-1 ½ c pistachios*, roasted and unsalted, shelled, divided
• 1 c dried cranberries, chopped
• 12 ounces white chocolate, baking bar, not chips

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350 Deg. F Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone bake mats.
• In a food processor, pulse half the pistachios until they are a coarse flour. Don’t over process, you don’t want a paste. Roughly chop the remaining pistachios.
• Sift together the flour, salt and pistachios flour and ground pistachios in a small bowl and set aside
• In the bowl of a stand mixer cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides. Add the vanilla extract and egg yolk and mix until combined. Add in the flour mixture and the cranberries and mix. It will be somewhat crumbly.
• Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour
• Scoop out about 2 tablespoon worth of dough and squeeze together and form a ball. Gently roll into a log about 2 ½ inches long and then form into a crescent shape and place on prepared cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Repeat with remaining dough. It may take a bit to form the cookies since the dough is crumbly but you won’t overwork the dough.
• Bake for 15 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheets a few minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• Melt the white chocolate either in a microwave safe bowl at 30 second intervals or in a double boiler on the stove over medium-low heat and stir until smooth
• Set out a few baking sheets and line with wax paper. Dip the cookies halfway into the melted white chocolate and set on the wax paper lined sheets. Place in freezer until the chocolate is set. About 20 minutes. Store in airtight containers or freezer bags.

Notes

*When measuring the pistachios, measure without the shells. You want a ¾ of a cup of ground pistachio flour. The rest are coarsely chopped for two different textures of pistachios in the cookies

Hope you have a wonderful holiday and cookie baking season. Hope you have my White Chocolate Dipped Pistachio Cranberry Crescent Cookies on your cookie trays this year!