Christmas baking is one of our favourite ways to slow down over the festive period. Making some homemade sweet treats is also a great way to have some last minute gifts on hand or something to offer unexpected visitors. These soft-centred cookies will be crowd-pleasers and an easy alternative to iced biscuits.

Our pistachio cream stuffed Christmas cookies are full of festive flavours, including orange zest, dried cranberries, pistachio and white chocolate. They’re easy to make and the colour combinations of ruby red dried cranberries and green pistachios will certainly get you in the festive spirit as you bring them together.

You will need some freezer space to freeze the pistachio cream centres before baking – this is an essential step to ensure the middle of the cookies stay soft. They’re most delicious when warm from the oven.

Pistachio cream stuffed Christmas cookies

Delicious pistachio cream stuffed cookies with orange zest, dried cranberries, white chocolate and crushed pistachios

Prep Time 1 20

Cook Time 12

Servings 12

Ingredients

12 ½ tbsp pistachio cream
115 grams unsalted butter
175 grams light brown sugar
¼ tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 egg (medium)
275 grams plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
1 tbsp cornflour
100 grams chopped white chocolate
50 grams finely chopped dried pistachios
50 grams crushed pistachios

Steps

Make 12 ½ tablespoon balls of pistachio paste and place in the freezer for at least an hour.
When frozen, preheat the oven to 190℃ (170℃ fan). But leave the pistachio paste in the freezer until you need it.
Cream the butter and sugar using a stand mixer or electric whisk, and then add the orange rind, vanilla bean paste and egg. Mix again to combine.
Add the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cornflour and combine into cookie dough.
Mix in the white chocolate, dried cranberries and pistachios by hand.
Make 12 equal sized balls of cookie dough.
Take each ball and flatten it. Place a frozen ball of pistachio paste in the centre of each cookie dough disc and fold the edges of the dough in to cover the pistachio paste. You may need to press the cookie down a little, but take care to not squash the pistachio paste out of the dough.
Lay out 6 cookies per lined baking sheet and bake for 11-12 minutes until the edges are golden.

Recipe Notes

You need to work quickly when forming the cookies as the pistachio paste will get sticky after coming into contact with your warm hands.
Overbaked cookies will set the centres – try to stick to 11-12 minutes of baking time for soft cookies.
The cookies will keep for a couple of days, but are delicious warm. When warm, the centres will be particularly gooey. Putting the cookies in air fryer for a couple of minutes to reheat works well.

For more inspiration this festive season, read our guide to a slow Christmas.

Recipe