Salted Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Salted Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies

What happens when dark and white chocolate, toasty pistachios, and flaky sea salt come together? Magic. These Salted Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies have the perfect balance of sweet, salty, and nutty, with a soft and chewy texture that will keep you coming back for more.

Salted Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Meet your new favorite cookie. No seriously–these are one of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten and I think you’ll agree. These Salted Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies are everything you want in a cookie: soft, chewy, buttery, and loaded with melty pockets of dark and white chocolate. Finish them off with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top and you’ll feel like you’re eating a six dollar gourmet cookie.

What are pistachio chocolate chip cookies?

These cookies are inspired by the incredible gluten-free pistachio chocolate chunk cookies from a new cafe and bakery in Boston, Verveine. They have a mouth watering pastry selection, but I obviously am a cookie girl, so went for their pistachio chocolate chunk cookie. It was love at first bite and I immediately started reverse recipe developing it in my head. Thank you, Verveine, for inspiring this recipe. If you’re in the Boston area I highly recommend you check them out!

They use a combination of white and dark chocolate chunks, a fine ground pistachio flour, and finish the cookies off with a generous sprinkle of flaky salt. They’re similar in texture to my pride and joy (the best chocolate chip cookies in the world), so if you’re familiar with those classic chocolate chip cookies, you’ll find this iteration pretty familiar. They have a soft, gooey center, chewy edge with just the right amount of crunch and puddles of chocolate in every bite. The addition of pistachio flour and just a hint of almond extract makes these taste seriously bakery-worthy and will impress all your friends. If you feel like sharing of course–I won’t tell if you keep them all for yourself 🙂

What will you need to make these pistachio chocolate chip cookies

You’ll need all your usual ingredients for chocolate chip cookies: butter, flour, sugar, etc. but with a few surprise ingredients to whip up these salty-sweet cookies. Make sure you have a high powered blender, food processor, or mortar and pestle on hand to grind up your pistachios into pistachio flour, but otherwise all you need is a bowl and a rubber spatula to bring these babies together!

• Unsalted Butter: Using unsalted butter means that you can fully control the amount of salt going into your cookies so I prefer to use unsalted in baking, but if you only have salted on hand you can absolutely use that–just go down on the added salt by 1/4 teaspoon!
• Light Brown Sugar: We love a combination of light brown sugar and granulated sugar in cookies. The light brown sugar will keep your cookies soft and chewy and give them that delicious brown sugar-y taste.
• Granulated Sugar: A little granulated sugar will give your cookie the perfect amount of crunch on the edges. You get the best of both worlds.
• Eggs: Eggs will bind your cookies together. A single egg and one egg yolk will gives these cookies their soft, chewy, not too cakey texture.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla is so essential to chocolate chip cookies. I know it might seem unimportant because you use a small amount of it, but it will take your cookies to the next level. I highly recommend using a 100% pure vanilla extract if your budget allows.
• Flour: All purpose flour is our flour of choice for these chewy cookies. It creates a tender but hearty crumb. Make sure when you are measuring your flour you measure it carefully using a spoon to aerate the flour. We recommend adding the first cup in and then adding the remaining 3/4 cup a little at a time to make sure you’re not adding too much flour! Browned butter evaporates as it browns, meaning that the amount of butter can vary depending on how long you browned it for which can lead to less liquid in your cookie dough. See the directions for more guidance on this!
• Baking Soda: A little baking soda will give your cookies the perfect rise and crackle on top. Be sure you’re using baking soda (not baking powder)! I’m lazy so I don’t stir the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, but I like to add the flour and then the salt and baking soda on top before folding so that the baking soda and salt get incorporated properly!
• Chocolate: You’ll need a bar of white chocolate and dark chocolate for these pistachio chocolate chip cookies. The combination of the sweet white chocolate with the bitter dark chocolate is perfection! If you only have chips on hand you can absolutely use chocolate chips instead–they just don’t melt quite as nicely!
• Pistachios: Of course it wouldn’t be a pistachio chocolate chip cookie without pistachios. I’ve used both roasted and raw pistachios when testing these and I prefer roasted pistachios. If you only have raw pistachios you can roast them before using if you have the time, or just use them raw–the flavor will just be less instense!
• Salt: Baked goods NEED salt. Without it they’re just cloyingly sweet. Salt adds that perfectly nuanced salty-sweet flavor that pushes a baked good from good to great.

Tips for making the ultimate pistachio chocolate chunk cookies

Don’t be alarmed if you’re suddenly making these cookies once a week. That was my experience heh. Because I’ve made these an obscene amount of times I have a few insider tricks up my sleeve to ensure you get the best cookies you can possibly get in your belly.

• Don’t overmix the dough
• Be sure to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes
• Use high quality chocolate
• Don’t skip the flaky salt

How to store pistachio chocolate chip cookies for optimal freshness

These cookies never last long in my house, but if you want to prep ahead or have leftovers, there are a few different ways you can prep and store these cookie!

• Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days – I like to store my cookies in the fridge because they last longer. You can also store them at room temp but they stare to taste a little stale by day 3!
• Freeze the dough – Scoop the dough into balls and freeze for a quick, fresh-baked cookie anytime. When you’re ready to bake them let them sit on the counter for 30 minutes to thaw out and then bake as directed!
• Freeze baked cookies – Let them cool completely, then store in an freezer-safe container or plastic bag for up to 3 months!

Happy baking, my friends!

XXX

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