Gluten Free Casually: Pistachio Cookies

Pistachio Cookies. A friend of mine used to give us a cookie plate every Christmas with these cute little green cookies that were similar to a sugar cookie but with a hint of pistachio flavoring. She never shared the recipe. Well for some reason I had a hankering for these cookies so I begged for her recipe. She finally caved in and shared the recipe. It was a pre-packaged sugar cookie mix with a pistachio dry pudding mix combined with a couple other ingredients. Well...that wasn't going to work for me. I needed a basic recipe that I could tweak and make it gluten free. (I guess I could have purchased a gluten free cookie mix but they are so expensive and some of them are not real tasty). So off to the drawing board I went. I decided to just experiment and make up my own recipe until it worked and I had the cookie taste & texture I wanted. I did end up using a few drops of green food coloring to give it a little more green color but you don't have to do that. If you don't have a gluten allergy, you can just go ahead and use regular flour for the gluten free flour blend. My husband is a die hard chocolate chip cookie lover and doesn't usually eat cookies without chocolate...but he actually liked these!

Pistachio Cookie Recipe:

1/2 cup Crisco shortening
1/2 cup real butter
1 3/4 cup sugar (you can use raw sugar if you prefer)
2 eggs
4 tbs. heavy cream or milk (or water)
2 1/2 c. gluten free flour blend (see recipe below). If you don't have a gluten allergy then you can just use regular flour.
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 boxes (3.4 oz. each) instant Pistachio Pudding mix, dry (if you are using a sugar free pudding mix then you will need to add about 1/3 cup additional flour)
few drops of green food coloring, optional
additional chopped pistachio nuts or almonds, optional

This is the type of dry pudding mix I used

Beat the shortening, butter and sugar until fluffy. Then add the dry Pistachio Pudding mixes, eggs and cream (or milk or water). Gradually add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir in food coloring and additional nuts if you are adding them. (I did not add additional nuts to this batch today). Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before placing dough chilled dough balls onto un-greased cookie sheets. The dough had a beautiful mint green color that reminded me of mint chocolate chip ice cream! I like to use my cookie scoop to get my cookies fairly even in sizes. You can make the dough ahead and keep in the refrigerator for about a week or the dough balls in the freezer for 6 months. Bake the slightly chilled dough balls in preheated 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. The tops should just barely be getting lightly golden in color. You want to remove them before they get over-baked and lose their green color - unless of course you like a crispy cookie. These cookies will be soft and slightly chewy.

Gluten Free Flour Mix (that I used today)