Traditional lace cookies often have either oatmeal or almonds (or both) but I opted to use a different nut. These pistachio lace cookies have the same look and texture as the original but a different flavor that I personally find superior.
I looked at a ton of recipes when researching Florentine, or lace cookies. I remembered my mom making lace cookies when I was a kid/teen but I honestly didn’t remember what was in them. The ones she made had oats and butterscotch, but I wasn’t really trying to recreate those exact cookies. Just a lacy delicate cookie.
Lace cookies are sort of like a candied cookie. They have a caramelly toffee taste and are crisp and nutty. I wanted to brown the butter to increase this caramel/toffee flavor in addition to brown sugar vs granulated/white sugar.
I love almonds, but I don’t really like almond extract or almond flavored things. To me it tastes like cherry not almond and I don’t love cherry flavored things unless it’s real cherries. So I wanted to use another nut. Pistachios for whatever reason were the first one to come to mind. I have used chopped pistachios in my Chocolate Chunk Pistachio Bread and it’s a great flavor, so I knew these cookies would also be tasty.
Pistachio lace cookies are not going to be a super simple cookie if that’s the recipe you are looking for. They don’t have a lot of ingredients and none of the techniques are difficult but they require a lot of finesse. Some of the cookies will break once they are baked, that’s just the nature of them. However, the end result is worth it. These cookies are beautiful and taste so uniquely delicious.
Baking Tips
Now, while I haven’t tested the theory, if you don’t like pistachios you should be able to sub pretty much any nut in these. Use walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc just make sure they are finely chopped. You can do that by either using a large knife or a few pulses in a food processor. I chose to use lightly salted shelled pistachios to lessen my workload but using shelled would be less expensive. Additionally, if you are using unsalted pistachios you will likely want to use more salt than I have noted.
How finely you chop or grind the cookies will also dictate how lacy they are. I tested using both a food processor and finely chopping with a knife. Obviously, the pistachios processed in the food processor were much finer, which created almost more of a flour like consistency, and the cookies while still delicate, lacy and thin had less gaps and holes in the cookie. The taste was the same so really, it’s just about what look you prefer.
The dough can get somewhat crumbly after about 5-10 minutes as the sugars cool. This is okay, it’s very easy to sort of smush it back together after scooping. The cookies are going to sort of liquify in the oven, so it doesn’t matter. However, I found it easiest to scoop all the cookies onto a sheet of parchment or silpat while the dough was still warm and then just move the cookie balls to the baking sheet when ready.
A lot of things with these pistachio lace cookies is delicate. It’s the best word to describe them. You need to pay attention because timing is important. When browning the butter, make sure you have your sugar and cream already measured out because when the butter is ready you need to immediately add them to prevent the butter from burning. The bake time on these is also delicate. In my oven, at 6 minutes they were not ready. At 7.5-8 minutes they were usually baked perfectly. At 9-10 minutes they were starting to burn. Set a timer and keep an eye on them as they bake!
These cookies also spread A LOT. So heed the size of scoop I recommend. I used a 1.5 tsp scoop and the cookies were 3-4 inches. I would use no bigger than that. Most people don’t have a 1 tsp cookie scoop so a literal teaspoon measuring spoon will be fine.
Pistachio Lace Cookies Key Ingredients
- Pistachios – Either lightly salted or unsalted pistachios, shelled or unshelled. These are the ones I used.
- Butter – Standard unsalted butter is all you need, and then it gets browned before adding the sugar, cream and vanilla. This ups the caramel flavor of the cookie and helps with crispiness.
- Cream – When researching recipes I often look to see if America’s Test Kitchen has any recipes that might be similar. One of the reasons I love them is the explain the science behind baking. If you don’t know why a recipe works or doesn’t work, and what ingredients do, it’s much more difficult to develop them. Their recipe had heavy cream in it, which helps to bind the sugars to the nuts and also helps with the spread of the cookies.
Ingredients
- 140 g Unsalted or lightly salted pistachios weight does not include shells
- 85 g Unsalted butter 6 tbsp
- 100 g Dark brown sugar ½ cup
- 2.5 tbsp Heavy Cream
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 30 g AP flour ¼ cup
- ⅛ tsp or Pinch of Sea salt
Instructions
- Place your pistachios into a food processor and lightly pulse until finely ground, or chop finely by hand.
- Place in a small bowl. Add flour and salt. If using lightly salted, just a pinch of sea salt is necessary. If using unsalted, up to about ¼ tsp. Mix together and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment and have a third sheet of parchment or silpat out.
- Make sure your sugar and cream are measured out. Add your vanilla to your heavy cream.
- Brown the butter. Place your butter in a stainless or light colored sauce pan over medium heat. As the butter melts, stir with a rubber spatula. The butter will bubble loudly, then subside. It will begin to foam. When the butter is fragrant and and the milk solids have been toasted to a medium golden brown, immediately reduce heat to low and add brown sugar, cream and vanilla.
- Stir continuously for 1-2 minutes until the sugars have melted and your have a caramel like consistency.
- Pour your wet ingredients into a medium-large bowl. Add your flour, pistachios and salt and mix together until they form a sort of paste.
- Using a 1 tsp to 1.5 tsp (max) scoop all of your cookies out onto your third sheet of parchment or silpat.
- Depending on the size of your tray, add 5-6 cookies to one of your parchment lined baking sheet leaving 3-5 inches surrounding each cookies to allow for spreading.
- Bake your cookies on the center rack for 7-8 minutes. The cookies are done when the edges are lightly browning and the cookies are bubbling. Remove from the oven and leave on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes.
- Fill your second baking sheet with cookies and repeat.
- When the cookies have firmed up a little, carefully transfer them to a wire cooling rack to continue to cool. I find it easiest to pull the parchment away from the cookie to slide the spatula underneath for transferring to create the least amount of cookie breakage.
- Allow the cookies to fully cool. Cookies can be stored with wax paper or parchment between layers. They additionally can be drizzled with white, milk or dark chocolate. Enjoy!
