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Cranberry orange shortbread cookies on a white plate with the cooling rack and two cocktails in the background.

Cranberry Orange Shortbread Cookies with Pistachios

Beth Lee
Cranberry orange shortbread cookies with pistachios will be your new favorite appetizer cookie and cocktail accompaniment for the holidays. Or just relax after a day of cooking and enjoy a few with a cup of tea!
5 from 4 votes
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Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 18 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 18 minutes
Course Appetizer
Cuisine French
Servings 50 cookies
Calories 66 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tablespoon orange zest (1 medium orange)
  • ⅓ cup sugar (reduced from ½ cup in original recipe)
  • 1 stick unsalted butter softened
  • 1 egg yolk
  • ⅓ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt (increased from ¾ teaspoon sea salt to 1 teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • ⅔ cup dried cranberries chopped to currant-size pieces
  • ½ cup toasted pistachios finely chopped

Instructions
 

  • Place the orange zest and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Use your hands to mix the orange zest into the sugar. This ensures the orange zest is evenly incorporated throughout the cookie dough.
    Mixing orange zest and sugar in stand mixer bowl for cranberry orange shortbread dough.
  • Beat the butter with the orange sugar at low to medium speed until creamy and well incorporated.
    Add stick of butter to orange sugar mixture in stand mixer bowl.
  • Add the egg yolk and beat until just combined, about 1 minute.
    Adding egg yolk to butter sugar mixture in stand mixer for the cranberry and orange shortbread cookie dough.
  • Slowly drizzle in the olive oil and beat until smooth and well incorporated. The dough will have a lovely sheen at this point.
    Slowly drizzling in olive oil to dough in stand mixer for the shortbread cookies.
  • Add the salt and flour and beat until just incorporated.
    Flour added to shortbread dough in the mixer.
  • Add the cranberries and pistachios and mix in by hand using a wooden spoon or stiff spatula.
    Close up of cranberries and pistachios mixed into shortbread dough.
  • Turn the cookie dough out onto a work surface or piece of parchment paper and press it until it just comes together. Divide the dough in half and press each half into a disk. (or make a log out of one or both of the pieces of dough to make slice and bake cookies).
    One disk of cranberry orange shortbread dough ready to be rolled out between two pieces of parchment.
  • Roll out each disk between 2 sheets of wax parchment paper to about ¼ inch thick. Slide the wax paper–covered disks onto a baking sheet and freeze for at least 1 hour, until very firm.
    Dough rolled out and ready to cut out cookies.
  • Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (if making all the cookies at once).
    Cranberry and orange shortbread cut out and ready to bake on parchment paper.
  • Working with one piece of cookie dough at a time, peel off the top sheet of wax paper. Using a 1 ½-inch round cookie cutter, stamp out the cookies as close together as possible.
    Using a scalloped edge round cookie cutter to cut out a cranberry and orange shortbread cookie.
  • NOTE: You can reuse the dough remnants but you will need to refreeze the dough to work with it.
  • Arrange the cookies 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 15 - 18 minutes, until they are lightly golden; shift the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. If baking two sheets at a time, your cook time might be a tad longer. Look for the color cues of a slight golden edge. (If your dough is a little thinner than ¼ inch or you use a smaller cookie cutter, reduce the cooking time - start checking them at 10 minutes).
    Close up view inside a cookie with a plate of cookies and a cooling rack in the background.
  • Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
    Cranberry orange pistachio sablé cookies baked and on a cooling rack.

Notes

      1. You can leave the rolled out cookie dough in the freezer (if you have room) for longer than the time it takes to initially freeze for cutting. (I keep extra large size reclosable bags in the house for these kinds of things). Store the rolled out dough for several days before you bake them if that fits your schedule best.
      2. OR roll the dough into a log using your hands to form it and then roll it back and forth on parchment to aid in shaping. Then wrap the log in plastic wrap and freeze. Obviously, this take up much less space but you won't get the perfect cut out look. I like both methods!
      3. Play with the size of the cookies you make - for appetizers with a cocktail, I make them pretty small - almost like a quick bite or nibble.
      4. Macerating (soaking) the dried cranberries in orange juice before you use them is not required - I've made the cookies without doing it and they are great. But if your cranberries are a little dry or you just want to punch up the flavor even more, soaking them in a flavored liquid is a great extra step!
      5. To take the flavor profile up another notch - add a teaspoon of orange blossom water to the dough. OMG!

Nutrition

Calories: 66kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 1gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.4gMonounsaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 9mgSodium: 47mgPotassium: 20mgFiber: 0.4gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 65IUVitamin C: 0.2mgCalcium: 3mgIron: 0.3mg
Keyword cranberry, orange, shortbread
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