Orange Blossom Apricot Pistachio Cookies are delicate butter cookies with flavors of orange and apricot then topped with crushed pistachios.
These Orange Blossom Apricot Pistachio Cookies were developed after having lunch at a local Lebanese restaurant.
After eating lunch I found myself chatting with the restaurant owner about the different types of desserts on the menu. Most of the cookies and pastries had nuts, honey and orange blossom or rose water.
It was a really hard decision to determine which dessert I should order. In the end, I decided on a cake scented with orange blossom water. In fact, I went home with a little condiment sized to-go cup full of orange blossom water complements of the owner. Years later, on a trip to Morocco, I would again find these same floral scents baked into delicate cakes and cookies.
Orange blossom water adds the lightest touch of citrus and floral to baked goods. I set out to find my own dessert recipe to incorporate these floral scents into.
The result. A light buttery pistachio thumbprint cookie with two of my favorite flavors – apricot and orange.
The cookie dough can be made ahead of time and I found that the flavors were more pronounced a day after baking.
Thumbprint cookies are such a classic holiday cookie. Our family Christmas tradition is to make this jam-filled cream cheese thumbprint cookie recipe.
For a Christmas version of these pistachio cookies use cranberry jam.
I made a big batch of these pistachio cookies for a dinner party. There was major dessert competition at dinner – these Guinness brownies with a whiskey ganache. (recipe here)
However, these delicate pistachio cookies held their ground. I like to think they formed a truce with the brownies after coming to the realization that they both had their place at the table.
don’t forget to PIN these cookies!
Buttery cookies with flavors of orange and apricot and topped with crushed pistachios.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 sticks butter softened
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs separated
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons orange blossom water
- zest from 1 orange preferably organic
- 1/3 cup apricot preserves
- 1/2 cup chopped pistachios lightly toasted
-
Bowl #1: Sift flour and salt together.
-
Bowl #2: Mix sugar with egg yolks until well combined.
-
Bowl #3: Mix vanilla, orange zest, orange blossom water and butter.
-
Combine bowl #2 and #3 and mix well. Then add the flour/salt bowl and mix until everything is incorporated.
-
Divide dough into two halves, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or longer if you've made it ahead of time.
-
Preheat oven to 375F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
-
Prep your toppings so they're handy for the assembly line: preserves, nuts and lightly beaten egg whites.
-
Remove the dough from the fridge, one part at a time and roll small, 1 inch balls.
-
Lightly flatten them.
-
Brush or dip the top of the ball into the egg whites and line them up on your cookie sheets. These cookies do not spread much so you can put them fairly close.
-
Lightly indent the top with your finger and fill the indent with ¼ teaspoon of preserves.
-
Press the pistachio pieces onto the edges around the preserves.
-
Bake for 12 minutes, moving the sheets from top to bottom and back to front after 6 minutes. Bake until the cookies are barely colored on the sides with a slightly darker line around the bottom edges.
-
Let cool for 10 minutes and then transfer onto a cooling rack.
*Dough can be prepared ahead of time.
*I found that the cookies were even better a day after they were baked.
Adapted from BoisdeJasmin.
You may also like these recipes
Instead of pushing the nuts inside the edges, could we just fold them in the dough? Or roll the ball in the crushed nuts?
Yes! I don’t see why either would be an issue. If you fold them into the dough, they won’t look as decorative.
Do you think I could use orange curd instead of marmalade?
Hi Caroline, these cookies use apricot preserves not orange marmalade, although you could certainly swap in marmalade if you prefer orange in the center. To use curd, you would have to wait to fill the centers until the cookies come out of the oven versus bake them with the preserves already filled as written in this recipe. Happy baking!