Introduction
Want pistachio chocolate chip cookies with crisp edges, soft centres and plenty of chocolate in every bite? Start with roasted pistachios, a generous handful of dark chocolate and a little time in the fridge. That’s the short route to a cookie worth putting the kettle on for.
Our LoveRaw® take is made without dairy or eggs. It uses chopped pistachios for crunch, with options for white chocolate, a salty finish or a velvety pistachio centre. You don’t need a mixer, and you don’t need to choose between chips and chunks. Pick the chocolate you’d happily eat straight from the packet, and let it do its thing in the oven.
Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies lean towards soft in the middle, with golden edges and pockets of melted chocolate. Use a firm plant-based baking block rather than a soft spreadable tub: it’s easier to work with when you’re shaping the dough.
Serves: 12 cookies
Prep time: 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes chilling
Bake time: 12 to 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 3 tbsp water
- 115g firm plant-based baking block, softened
- 100g light brown sugar
- 50g caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ¼ tsp fine salt
- 80g shelled roasted pistachios, roughly chopped
- 120g dairy-free dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
- A little flaky sea salt, optional
Method
- Mix the ground flaxseed and water in a small bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes, until thickened.
- Beat the baking block, light brown sugar and caster sugar together in a large bowl until well combined. Mix in the vanilla and thickened flaxseed mixture.
- Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and fine salt in a separate bowl. Add to the sugar mixture and stir until no dry flour remains.
- Fold in the chopped pistachios and chocolate. Cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 180°C, or 160°C fan. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- Divide the dough into 12 portions and roll into balls. Place them on the trays with space between each one, and press a few extra chocolate pieces or pistachios into the tops if you like.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are golden and the centres look set but still soft. If baking one tray at a time, keep the remaining dough chilled.
- Leave the cookies on the trays for 10 minutes, then move them to a wire rack. Add a little flaky sea salt whilst they’re warm, if you like.
Let the cookies cool before judging the texture. They’ll be delicate straight from the oven and will firm up as they sit.
Choosing Your Pistachios and Chocolate
Pistachios: chopped, ground or spread?
Chopped roasted pistachios give you the crunch in this recipe. Remove the shells before weighing, then chop the nuts into a mixture of small pieces and a few larger bits. That way, you get pistachio throughout without losing the occasional big, satisfying bite.
Unsalted nuts let you control the seasoning. If yours are already salted, reduce or leave out the fine salt in the dough, then decide whether the cookies need flaky salt after baking.
Ground pistachios make a different style of cookie, with nut flavour spread more evenly through the dough. They aren’t a direct swap for the chopped nuts here because they become part of the dough rather than a chunky addition.
Pistachio butter and sweet pistachio spread are different again. Pistachio butter is usually made mainly from ground nuts, whilst a sweet spread can contain other ingredients that change its sweetness and texture. Both make excellent toppings, but don’t replace the baking block with either one in this recipe.
Chips or chunks?
Chocolate chips give you little hits of chocolate throughout the cookie. Chopped chocolate makes irregular pieces, from fine shavings to larger pockets. We’re firmly on the side of a few generous chunks, but both are good choices.
For a white chocolate pistachio cookie, replace the dark chocolate with the same weight of dairy-free white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate. You can also use half dark and half white for a sweeter cookie with a bit of contrast.
Check the label when you choose your chocolate. Dark chocolate isn’t automatically made without dairy, and the same goes for white chocolate alternatives.
Getting the salty-sweet balance right
For salted pistachio chocolate chunk cookies, use chopped dark chocolate and finish each warm cookie with a small pinch of flaky sea salt. A little goes a long way: you want the chocolate and pistachio to lead, with the salt appearing here and there.
Already using salted pistachios? Try one cookie before adding the finishing salt to the whole batch.
How to Make Pistachio Spread-Stuffed Cookies
A pistachio centre takes these from excellent biscuit tin material to a full-on dessert. Use a thick pistachio spread or pistachio butter, and allow extra time to firm it up before shaping the cookies.
- Line a small tray or plate with baking paper. Add 12 small teaspoonfuls of pistachio spread, keeping them separate.
- Freeze until firm enough to handle. Timing depends on the spread, so check the portions rather than relying on the clock.
- Make and chill the cookie dough as directed. Divide it into 12 portions.
- Flatten one portion, place a firm piece of spread in the middle, then wrap the dough around it. Pinch the edges closed so the filling is completely covered.
- Repeat with the remaining dough. Chill the shaped cookies if they’ve become soft, then bake as directed, checking the edges for doneness.
A pistachio cookie demonstration uses the same idea of freezing portions of filling before enclosing them in dough. For this recipe, choose a plant-based filling and keep it fully sealed inside.
The filling may make the cookies taller and can affect their baking time. Look for set, golden edges rather than waiting for the centre to feel firm. Give a filled cookie time to cool before biting into it: the middle can stay hot.
For a simpler pistachio spread cookie, skip the stuffing. Once the baked cookies are cool, add a small spoonful of Pistachio Spread "Pistachio Bliss" on top and finish with chopped pistachios.
Tip: If your spread won’t freeze firm enough to handle, use it as a topping instead. You’ll still get the pistachio-chocolate combination without wrestling with sticky filling.
More Ways to Make the Recipe Yours
Dark chocolate and sea salt
Use all dark chocolate chunks in the dough and add flaky sea salt after baking. The slightly bitter chocolate balances the sweet dough, whilst the pistachios add crunch.
For an extra chocolatey version, replace 15g of the plain flour with 15g cocoa powder. Mix it with the remaining flour before adding it to the dough. The result will be a cocoa cookie with chocolate pieces, rather than a pale chocolate chip cookie.
White chocolate and pistachio
Swap the dark chocolate for dairy-free white chocolate, keeping the total at 120g. White chocolate brings a sweeter flavour, so roasted pistachios and a light sprinkle of salt are particularly good alongside it.
Want a little of both? Use 60g of each chocolate and chop them to a similar size. You’ll get a mixture of sweet white chocolate and deeper dark chocolate in every batch.
Brown butter flavour
Classic brown butter pistachio cookies use dairy butter heated until golden and nutty. They aren’t vegan, and plant-based baking blocks don’t all behave the same way when heated, so melting one won’t necessarily give you the same result.
For this dairy-free recipe, use roasted pistachios and light brown sugar for a toasted, caramel-like flavour. If you want to make a traditional brown butter version, choose a recipe developed for brown butter rather than swapping it into this dough: browning changes how much moisture is in the butter.
Pistachio butter cookies
For a straightforward pistachio butter variation, spread a little pistachio butter over each cooled cookie. Add a few dark chocolate shavings or chopped pistachios on top.
You can also use pistachio butter as the frozen centre in the stuffed-cookie method. If it’s runny, serve it on top instead. The flavour’s still there, and your dough will be much easier to handle.
Chocolate pistachio thumbprints
Turn the dough into thumbprint-style cookies when you want a visible pool of pistachio spread. Divide the chilled dough into 12 balls and press a shallow hollow into each one before baking.
If the hollows puff up, gently press them again whilst the cookies are still warm, using the back of a small spoon. Once the cookies have cooled, fill each hollow with pistachio spread and add a little chopped chocolate. Keep the filling modest so it stays in place.
A St Patrick’s Day spin
For pistachio and chocolate leprechaun cookies, give the thumbprint version a St Patrick’s Day finish. Top the pistachio spread with finely chopped pistachios, or pipe a small shamrock onto a cooled cookie using green icing.
Pistachios give you green flecks, but don’t expect the baked dough to turn bright green. If you want a stronger colour, choose a suitable plant-based food colouring and follow its label.
Troubleshooting Your Cookies
The dough is sticky
A little softness is normal, especially before chilling. Give the dough its full 30 minutes in the fridge before deciding it needs anything else.
If it’s still difficult to handle, chill it for longer and work with one portion at a time. Different baking blocks can have different textures, so a firm block is your best starting point.
The cookies spread too much
Warm dough can spread quickly. Keep the second tray of dough chilled whilst the first bakes, and let a hot tray cool before putting another batch on it.
Weigh the flour rather than estimating it. Too little flour can leave the dough without enough structure, whilst a very soft baking spread can make it harder to shape.
The cookies are thick or dry
Check your flour measurement and take the cookies out when their edges are golden. They continue to firm up on the tray, so waiting until the centres feel hard can leave them overbaked.
Mix the flour in only until the dry streaks disappear. Once the chocolate and pistachios are distributed, the dough is ready for its rest.
The filling escaped
The usual culprit is a gap in the dough. Make sure each portion of pistachio spread is small enough to wrap completely, and pinch the seams together before baking.
If the filling becomes too soft while you work, return it to the freezer for a little longer. A thicker spread is easier to enclose than a runny one.
Serving, Decorating and Storing
These cookies are excellent slightly warm, when the chocolate is still soft. Let them rest first, then serve with a cuppa or add one to a plate with a spoonful of pistachio spread.
For extra crunch, chop a LoveRaw M:lk® Choc Cre&m® Wafer Bar and scatter the pieces over cooled cookies with a little spread to help them stick. Add the wafer just before serving to keep its texture.
Once completely cool, store the plain cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They’re best enjoyed within a few days. If you’ve added a topping or filling, follow the storage directions on its packaging too.
You can freeze portions of unbaked dough in a suitable sealed container. Defrost them before baking, then check the cookies for golden edges and soft centres. Baked cookies can be frozen once completely cool; separate layers with baking paper and defrost before serving.
Conclusion
Our favourite pistachio chocolate chip cookie has plenty of roasted nut crunch, generous chocolate chunks and just enough salt to make both stand out.
- Chill the dough before baking for easier shaping.
- Choose dark, white or a mixture of dairy-free chocolate.
- Add pistachio spread after baking, or freeze small portions for a filled centre.
Tip: For your next batch, try LoveRaw Pistachio Spread "Pistachio Bliss" as a topping for cooled cookies.
FAQ
Are these pistachio chocolate chip cookies vegan?
The recipe uses a plant-based baking block and a flaxseed mixture instead of dairy butter and eggs. Check the labels on your chocolate, baking block and any toppings to make sure they’re suitable for you.
Can I use salted pistachios?
Yes. Reduce or leave out the fine salt in the dough if your pistachios are salted, then taste a baked cookie before adding any flaky salt.
Can I make the dough ahead?
Yes. Cover and chill the dough, then portion and bake it when you’re ready. If it has become very firm in the fridge, let it sit briefly until you can shape it.
Can I use pistachio spread instead of chopped pistachios?
They do different jobs: chopped pistachios add crunch, whilst spread adds a smooth, sweet or nutty centre or topping. Keep the chopped nuts in the dough and add spread separately for the most reliable result.
