Sparkle Kitchen

Sparkle Kitchen: Pistachio Ghoraybeh Thumbprint Cookies (Middle Eastern Shortbread)

There's nothing like a butter cookie and a cup of tea to signal that the time has come to relax. In "Episode 8: Who Do You Trust?" from the The Dory Horde: The City of Eight (Book 3) collection, Aurora and Bennu know this from their private jet experience, and we think you'd be hard-pressed to disagree with them. And although you could achieve this restorative effect with any old butter cookie, we suggest taking a moment to try an authentic Middle Eastern shortbread enriched with nuts and a dollop of sweet-tart jam. Before long, you'll discover the secret that butter cookies aren't only good for tea-time, but also for dessert-time and party-time! Plus, they keep beautifully at room temperature and ship well.

This recipe (along with many other incredibly tasty recipes) can be found on Heifa's website Fufu's Kitchen. Follow along for the latest recipes on Heifa's Instagram & Facebook.

This is one of the prettiest cookies to make in no time at all. It couldn’t be more simple to do too! It takes five ingredients and just a few steps to create absolute deliciousness! My mom loves to bake and she would often make ghoraybeh, which is a Middle Eastern shortbread. Often, it is just topped with one pistachio for decoration. I decided to incorporate crushed toasted pistachios into the cookie itself to really bring out the flavor of pistachio which I have been recently loving! I took another step by modernizing this cookie into something we all know which are thumbprint cookies! I filled the indents with some yummy jam which you can buy or easily make your own.

This is a cookie I am sure you will make because it is so easy and you will definitely love it. Why not give it a try?

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup toasted crushed pistachios

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• Raspberry jam/spread - or make your own Homemade Berry Jam

• Melted white chocolate (optional)

Instructions

• Combine the sugar and butter in a large bowl. Stir with a rubber spatula.

• Add in the flour, 1 cup at a time to the sugar butter mixture. Mix together. Add in the toasted pistachios. To toast my pistachios, I added them into a pan and toasted them on medium heat for a few minutes till lightly browning.

• Mix everything with floured hands so it doesn’t stick to your hands much. Form the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Place dough in the fridge for at least one hour.

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• Make 1 tablespoon-sized balls with the palm of your hands and place on the lined pan. You can make about 15-20 with this cookie dough.

• Once that is done, using your thumb make an indent in the center of the cookie.

• Add abut ¼ teaspoon of jam into each indent.

• Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Cookie should be lightly browned on bottom but still light on top. Take out and completely cool.

• Drizzle with white chocolate and top with crushed toasted pistachios for garnish.