Christmas cookies made from local pistachios, yummy!

I am very luck to have friends, the Orandi family, farming pistachios locally. My freezer had a large container of shelled unsalted pistachios that I saved for Christmas baking. The vibrant green natural color of the nuts, especially when chopped or ground, makes them prefect for the season. The Pistachio Icebox Cookies are a recipe my Mom has been making for several years. I really like ‘icebox’ dough because I can make the dough one evening and bake them the next day. The Brownie Thins with Pistachios, are from Bon Appetit’s Andrew Schloss of Homemade in a Hurry. These are very chocolaty and makes 24 cookies. They would be great alongside premium vanilla ice cream for a quick beautiful holiday dinner party dessert.
Happy holidays from the Seasonal Table ‘chef Debb’!

PISTACHIO ICEBOX COOKIES

INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
2 cups AP flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup ground shelled pistachio nuts
optional: 2-3 drop green food coloring
1 egg white beaten
1/4 cup + chocolate jimmies

DIRECTIONS
Cream together butter, sugar, egg and extracts.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, then add to butter, sugar mixture.
Take out 1 cup of dough and add nuts and green coloring; mix well. Form into 11-12” long roll. The roll should be the same length as the rectangle or butter dough that will cover it. Wrap this in waxed paper.
Roll out the remaining dough to form a 11-12”x4-1/2” rectangle; Wrap in wax paper and chill in the frig, with roll about 1 hour.
Encase the pistachio green roll with the uncolored rectangle. Carefully mold the dough, covering green completely. Wrap roll and refrigerate overnight or freeze.
To bake: Brush outside of roll with beaten egg white and roll in “jimmies”. The easiest way to do this is placing the Jimmies on a wax paper sheet, rolling and gently pressing them into the sides of the egg washed roll.
Cut into 1/8-1/4” thick slices and place 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheets on parchment paper cookies sheets. Bake in 375F oven 8-10 minutes.