These pistachio cream cookies are soft and gooey cookies stuffed with creamy pistachio spread with melty chocolate chunks. They're packed with pistachio flavour and the most decadent cookies especially when enjoyed warm!
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Notes from the baker
Something about the combination of pistachios and chocolate is so elegant and delicious to me. I already have a pistachio chocolate chip cookie recipe but I knew I had to make another version by stuffing it with a creamy pistachio spread.
These pistachio cream cookies are a dream when enjoyed freshly baked and warm. Make sure you try one straight from the oven! I mean, let it cool down a bit so you don't burn yourself, but eat it as soon as possible!
The hardest part is finding a pistachio cream that will give you the most gooey center. I'm still on the hunt for exactly the right one!
Why you'll love this recipe
- Soft and gooey cookies.
- Decadent pistachio cream filling.
- Sweet and salty flavours.
Tools
- Baking sheet - You can use any baking sheet or baking tray to bake these cookies.
- Whisk - You might be happy to hear that you only need a whisk to make the cookie dough. No hand mixer needed since we're using melted butter!
- 4-tablespoon cookie scooper - This is my go-to size of cookie scoop for large bakery-style cookies. This is also a good size for any stuffed cookies because there's simply more dough to wrap around the filling.
Ingredient notes
As always, the full recipe card with ingredient amounts and instructions is at the bottom of this post! Keep reading for more details on each ingredient or skip ahead to the recipe.
- Pistachio cream spread - This goes by many names so you might need to try a few before finding one that's best for these cookies. You want a very thick pistachio spread that will hold its structure when baked instead of being absorbed by the cookie dough.
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch - My favourite "secret" ingredient that makes cookies softer.
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Unsalted butter - This should be melted and cooled slightly so that it's not burning hot.
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg - This should also be at room temperature to prevent the butter from solidifying upon contact.
- Vanilla extract
- Semi-sweet or dark chocolate - I love chopping up a bar of dark chocolate for these cookies since the cookies and pistachio cream is already sweet. As always, I prefer a good quality bar of chocolate to chocolate chips.
- Unsalted pistachios - These should be shelled and roughly chopped. You could also crush them by putting them in a ziploc bag and smacking them with a rolling pin.
- Flaky salt - For sprinkling on top!
Tips for making the best pistachio cream cookies
- Freeze the pistachio cream. Keeping the pistachio filling cold will help you achieve molten pistachio centres after baking.
- Stuff the cookies with lots of pistachio cream. More filling is better, honestly.
- Don't forget to sprinkle flaky salt on top. The finishing salt makes almost any chocolate chip cookie instantly elevated and tastier. It compliments the sweet and rich chocolate perfectly.
- Enjoy warm. The pistachio cream will be the most gooey when the cookies are still warm. Not to mention, the cookie dough itself will be amazingly soft and perfect too.
Storage
These pistachio cream cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Leftovers can be frozen in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature or warm them up in a toaster oven before eating.
Frequently asked questions
Baking by weight is much more accurate than volume. When using US standard cups, ingredients like flour and sugar can easily be overpacked into the cup causing you to add too much of certain ingredients. Recipes with weight measurements are also easier to scale to smaller or bigger batches without dealing with weird fractions. To measure by weight, you simply need a kitchen scale which you can usually pick up for less than $20.
Small measurements are given in tablespoons and teaspoons because most kitchen scales are not accurate under about 10g. Tiny amounts like a ¼ teaspoon may not register accurately unless you have a drug scale. Mixing these measurements is a common practice among other recipe sites and commercial kitchens.
More cookie recipes to try
- Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Biscoff Stuffed Cookies
- Gingerbread Cheesecake Cookies
- Miso Caramel Stuffed Cookies
Recipe
Pistachio Cream Cookies
Equipment
- 1 whisk
Ingredients
- 150 g pistachio cream spread
- 180 g all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 115 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 100 g brown sugar
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 g semi-sweet or dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 50 g unsalted pistachios, shelled and roughly chopped
- flaky salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Freeze pistachio spread: Line a plate with parchment paper. Pour the pistachio spread on top and spread it into a thick sheet. If your pistachio spread is thick enough, you can also scoop it out into small dollops with a spoon. Freeze for at least 1 hour or overnight until solid. If you've gone with the sheet method, use a knife to cut the frozen sheet into squares and pop it back in the freezer until needed.
- Prep: Line a cutting board or plate with parchment paper. This will be used to chill the cookie dough on. Set aside.
- Flour mixture: In a small bowl, stir together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Butter mixture: In a large mixing bowl, add the melted and cooled butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Whisk until combined. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth and thick.
- Combine flour and butter mixtures: Add the flour mixture and whisk until just barely combined with some flour patches left.
- Fold in chocolate and pistachios: Add the chopped chocolate and chopped pistachios. Switch to a spatula to fold the chocolate and pistachios in and finish mixing the dough until just combined.
- Scoop cookie dough: Use a 4-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough. Release the cookie dough balls onto your lined board. Chill the dough in the fridge for about 1 hour or until firm.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Stuff cookie dough: Use your fingers to press a dough ball into a flat round. Place a frozen stack (or a dollop) of pistachio cream (about 3-4 squares depending on the thickness) in the middle and close the cookie dough around it to seal it in the middle.
- Add toppings: Place the stuffed cookie dough balls on your lined baking sheet, leaving about 2" in between each cookie for spreading. Press a few more chocolate chunks, pistachios, and frozen pistachio cream chunks on top of each cookie dough ball.
- Bake: Bake cookies for about 11-12 minutes or until the edges are set but the cookies are still soft. Immediately sprinkle with flaky salt. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then enjoy them warm for gooey centers or let them cool. The pistachio filling will firm up as they cool.
Notes
- Pistachio cream: There are many different variations of pistachio cream, pistachio spread, pistachio spreadable cream, or pistachio butter and they all seem to use those names interchangeably. What you want is a sweetened or unsweetened thick pistachio spread. It should contain some thickeners in the ingredients which will prevent it from being absorbed by the cookie and give you a nice gooey filling.
Anonymous says
Hi, with what can i substitude the cornstarch?
Laura says
Recipe was easy to follow, the cookies taste amazing - however I don’t think it needs the Sal added at the end, I did this and now my cookies taste too salty , it doesn’t compliment the cookie at all, I managed to get 11 cookies but my pistachio cream just leaked into the cookie , still tastes amazing apart from the salt … no one has mentioned that yet, so I thought I’d add my opinion before anyone makes these , the salt can be left off
Kellie says
Hi what type of brown sugar do you use? Is it soft brown or Demerara?
Toni Rennecker-Young says
Made these cookies.. delicious….i will make them again
Lexus says
Why did I only get 4 4 oz cookies and 1 3 oz cookie? I measured everything exactly.
John says
4 oz??? That’s massive. The recipe says to use a 4-tablespoon cookie scoop, which should give you cookies that are about 2 oz. You made your cookies twice as big as they should’ve been, which is why you only ended up with half as many as the recipe is supposed to make.
sina says
YUMMY
Eva says
I’m making it this week but my question is how many cookies come from this one batch?
Natacha says
i don’t know what i did wronggg. they were really good and came out great but it was a mess to make them. the dough was too sticky and i couldn’t roll it properly and the frozen pistachio started melting as soon as i got it out so instead of a block it was all just mixed into the dough. and i only got 8 cookies but they spread a lot.
Maarsbarr says
After making the dough and making then into a ball, you should cool it in the fridge for at least a few hrs. She doesnt state this. Also it matters to cream/mix your butter and sugar prior to adding egg and vanilla. This allows your ingredients especially the butter to be incorporated well. That way they dont separate when they bake. Using parchment to bake usually will absorb the butter from the cookies. So to avoid this Reynolds precut parchment are usually used best for baking cookies or those Silicone/perforated sheet mats allows for evenly cooking because of the texture of it. Usually some have tiny holes help evenly cook anything. Also you can just grab a tiny bowl to use the circumference to shape your cookies right out of the oven as they cool and continue to cook on the pan, take it off after 10 mins and place on cooling rack. Baking even simple cookies still require some trial and error to get then to your liking. Try a recipe a few times and make changes/try different things to figure out what needs changing. Sometimes recipes arent detailed because it takes time and no two recipe guarantee outcomes the same. Preheating your oven correctly to the right temp, making sure its hot to the temp you need, Tools you use, measurements and types of ingredients you use, this isn't going to be the fault of one recipe writer, its just the thing about baking. Hope it works out better next time.
Jules says
Yum, didn't make quite so large, but delicious ❤️ worked a treat
Dulce says
The cookies were sooooo good. I used campo d’oro pistachio cream and the frozen chunks held up. Also, this recipe made me 8 cookies.
Thank you for sharing this recipe, it was divine ❤️
Layla says
Unbelievably good! Just... wow....
I modified the recipe a bit and got sooooo many compliments! F.e. I added Kadayif to the pistachio cream to make a Dubai chocolate version. I also added 50% more pistachios and I used white Lindt chocolate instead of brown chocolate. The white chocolate complimented the pistachios even better in my opinion. I followed the other instructions of the recipe and the cookies came out perfect! Thank you so so much for this recipe! <3
safia says
Hello Layla,
Did you use raw kadayif? What ratio did you keep between the pista paste and the kadayif? Did the cookies hold up well after cooling or did the kadayif and pista paste become hard?
Thanks,
Safia
Alicja says
These are my new favourite cookies! i just made them for christmas eve and it was a huge hit (I served them warm after dinner). Thank you for this recipe!
I used organic pistachio spread that was very thick (100% pistachios) and it turned out amazing!
Carlie says
Sooooo yummy! Quite difficult to make, however. I froze my pistachio cream overnight and it still did not harden properly.
Leilani says
Yummy cookie but had the same issue as Carlie; froze my spread for a few days and it only kept form for maybe 2 mins before it immediately turned back into spread. You would probably have to dollop it, freeze, and only take out one dollop at a time as you go. Otherwise very delicious cookie, I roasted my pistachios before adding and highly recommend!
Nataliya says
Thanks for amazing recipe:) just few questions. Large egg - how much gram? 75 gram enough? Insulted pistachio ahould be fried or can be raw? Thank you for your answers
Ann says
The cookies were good but not gooey as presented in the recipe. It would’ve been so great if meanwhile the author was looking for the perfect pistachio cream, she would have left us with at least the name of the thickening ingredient she mentioned, the brand she used in her recipe, or the recipe of the spread if she made it herself…
It’s really a shame! Because the gooey pistachio filling is the selling point of this recipe
Lisa says
What brand pistachio cream do you use for this recipe?