This recipe is part of my annual Christmas cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. Every year since 2013, I work on a handful of new Christmas cookie recipes and publish the 10 best ones for readers to enjoy! You can browse dozens of recipes on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page. Get ready for butter to fly out of your refrigerator quicker than you can say holly jolly Christmas. 🙂 Now let’s tuck away the pie crust tools and break out the cookie baking tools!
Let’s Make Pistachio Shortbread Wedges!
Basic shortbread isn’t fussy or complicated—rather, it’s pure, simple, and downright dreamy. Shortbread is buttery and mildly sweet and sometimes, like in today’s case, crisp and tender. Though shortbread is typically made with just butter, sugar, flour, and sometimes salt—if you’re the type of person who can’t leave things alone, it’s also your chance to have a little fun.
Shortbread is the best blank slate for many different flavors, drizzles, dunks, chunks, and more. You can find many flavor variations with my wedge-shaped shortbread cookies or try today’s variation with pistachios, semi-sweet chocolate, and sea salt.
Today’s shortbread begins in our mixing bowls with butter. We’ll cream it and add granulated sugar as well as a little brown sugar for flavor. After the butter and sugars are creamed (pictured above), we’ll add vanilla, flour, and salt.
The recipe is quite similar to these pistachio cookies. In that recipe, you use confectioners’ sugar which helps add stability and structure so the drop cookies do not over-spread. We don’t have to worry about overspreading in today’s cookie recipe because we’re baking the dough in cake pans.
And the best parts of all: the dough comes together in ONE BOWL and there’s NO DOUGH CHILLING. Chocolate pistachio shortbread is truly an effortless recipe!
Actually, the best best part about all this are the pistachios. They get all toasty inside the dough when it bakes! Finely chop the nuts before adding to the cookie dough—a food processor immensely helps with the chopping step.
The shortbread dough is crumbly. But don’t fret, that’s what you want. Press it into two lined 9-inch cake pans. We’ll cut the baked shortbread into wedges like a pizza. A butter pizza.
We’ll dress up the shortbread with melted chocolate, more chopped pistachios, and a sprinkle of sea salt. So let’s really think about what you’ll get in just one of these shortbread wedges:
- buttery and sweet
- a little brown sugar and vanilla
- toasty pistachios
- crunchy sea salt
- a whole mess of chocolate
Shortbread upgrade!
If you’re in need of more holiday baking inspiration, here are 75+ Christmas cookies with all my best success guides & tips.
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Salted Chocolate Pistachio Shortbread
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
With just a few ingredients, you can turn traditional shortbread into this salted chocolate pistachio shortbread. An easy one bowl dessert recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 and 1/4 (281g) cups all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 cup (100g) finely chopped pistachios, divided*
- 8 ounces (226g) semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- optional: sea salt for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper leaving enough overhang around the sides to easily lift shortbread out. (Parchment is used so you can easily remove the shortbread and not cut it while it’s in the pan.)
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until completely smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat together until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla, salt, and flour and beat on low speed, gradually increasing to high speed as the mixture combines. Add 2/3 cup of the finely chopped pistachios, reserving the rest for sprinkling on top of the chocolate. Dough will be very crumbly.
- Press 1/2 of the dough into each of the prepared cake pans. You want it nice and compact in each pan.
- Bake the shortbread for 30 minutes or until lightly browned on top and around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Carefully remove the shortbread from the pans by picking it up with the parchment paper on the sides. Cut each into 12 wedges. You want to make sure you cut the shortbread while it’s still warm. Allow to cool completely on the parchment before dipping into chocolate.
- Melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave in 20 second increments, stopping and stirring after each until completely smooth. Dip the shortbread ends into chocolate and sprinkle with remaining chopped pistachios and sea salt. Allow chocolate to completely set.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Shortbread stays fresh covered at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can make the shortbread dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 3. Baked shortbread freezes well for up to 3 months. Unbaked shortbread dough freezes well for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature before continuing with step 3.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9-inch Round Cake Pans | Parchment Paper | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Food Processor
- Chopped Pistachios: I suggest a food processor to grind up those pistachios nice and fine. I used my Ninja (love this!).
See all cookie palooza recipes.
I only have roasted, salted pistachios. Will those work if I don’t add the teaspoon of salt to the recipe?
Hi Melissa, If you like salty/sweet, leave the recipe as written using salted pistachios. But for a less salty treat, you can reduce the added salt to 1/2 teaspoon.
I LOVE these cookies! I only had enough pistachios on hand to make a half recipe, which I baked in an eighth-sheet pan (instead of one 9-inch round cake pan) for the same 30 minutes. They are sooooo flavorful!
I’d love to add dried chopped cherries to my dough. Do you think I’d need to change anything else in the recipe to accommodate for the adding of cherries?
Hi Gina! We would keep the total amount of add-ins to 1 cup, so you could do 2/3 cup chopped pistachios and 1/3 cup chopped dried cherries, or half and half. Sounds delicious!
Hi Sally! I have a round ceramic (Brown Bag brand) Scottish shortbread mould. Would this delicious recipe work in my mold?
Sounds lovely, Fiona! We haven’t tested it, but it should work. Here’s our base recipe for shortbread as well if you would like to try more flavors.
These cookies are ridiculously delicious and super easy to make. Any time I’m looking for something new to bake, you are the person I look to. Will certainly be making these for the thanksgiving dessert table. Thank you!
Hello! I absolutely love this recipe and have made it so many times <3 Now I'm trying to learn how to adjust recipes to be allergen friendly for a neighbor. A big one for her is wheat, can I make these with almond flour?
Hi Lauren, we’re so glad you enjoyed these cookies! We don’t recommend swapping with almond flour, as it has very different baking properties than all purpose flour and isn’t always a 1:1 swap. You could try a 1:1 gluten free flour blend, but we haven’t tested it ourselves and are unsure of the exact outcome. If you do any experimenting, please do let us know how it goes for you.
Hello! Wondering if these can be made into shortbread bars like your other shortbread wedge pie recipe. Thank you in advance for your help!
Yes, absolutely!
I made these last year and loved them. But now I’ve forgotten whether I used salted or unsalted pistachios . . . I’m assuming unsalted – is that correct? Thank you from a fan!
Hi Marlene, we usually use unsalted, but you can use salted if you prefer sweet/salty treats!
hi Sally! I’m planning to make this recipe soon! are the pistachios raw or roasted?
Hi Joanna, you can use either–enjoy!
i absolutely love these shortbreads. They are a special cookie delicious to enjoy with tea or coffee.
They freeze beautifully. A must cookie to try!!
This might be a silly question…but… could you use a springform pan instead of a cake-pan-with-parchment-paper?? And then instead of lifting it out w/ parchment, just releasing the springform? I hate working with parchment paper in a round pan
Hi Em, Yes you can use two 9-inch springform pans instead. Enjoy!
Yummy, but the crust edge was too crumbly. I used different pans, so maybe that was the problem. But will trim them and dip them . Crossing my fingers.
These are so **** good! New Christmas Fav. I will certainly be making these again. Great by themselves, and with coffee. I did a quick temper on the chocolate just to get a bit more crunch. These are going quick!
Hi Sally, would this recipe work if the dough was formed into a log as a slice and bake??
Hi Lynn, We haven’t tried this dough as a slice and bake cookie but we fear that the dough will be too hard and crumbly to slice through without an egg. You can give it a try OR bake any of our slice and bake cookie varieties instead:
Santa’s Whiskers Cookies (almond, cherry, coconut)
Toasted Hazelnut Slice and Bake Cookies
Sprinkle Slice and Bake Cookies
Dark Chocolate Orange Slice and Bake Cookies
Salted Pistachio Chocolate Slice and Bake Cookies
Hi Sally,
All the stores near me are out of pistachios :(. Would almonds work here?
Thanks!
Hi Jaimi, Absolutely! The flavor and texture of the actual shortbread won’t change and it’s wonderful with different chopped nuts like cashews, almonds, pecans, or walnuts.
Hi Sally,
I only have 10in cake pans. Would that still work? Or does it need some adjustment? Thank you!
Hi Sarah, if using a 10 inch pan, the shortbread will be a bit thinner. Bake time should also be a little less, so keep a close eye on them. Enjoy!
These are awesome. More importantly, the explanation, tips and accurate measurements makes you feel confident to try. Best part is my lil one bakes it. She says her recipes are easy to follow n can’t fail with any.
Should I let the chocolate set at room temperature or in the fridge? I usually let things like this set in the fridge but would doing so change the texture of the cookie?
Hi Amanda, we typically let the chocolate set at room temperature, but you could pop them in the fridge to speed up the process a bit.
Hi Sally,
Could I mould these individually into different cookie cutter shapes and bake like that or will they spread too much?
Thank you
Hi Chloe, we wouldn’t recommend using cookie cutters for this one — they will spread too much. Hope you’ll still give them a try!