Rose Pistachio Biscotti Cookies
These pretty Valentine's Day, heart-shaped cookies have a delightful rose water flavoring, finely chopped pistachios and the crunch of biscotti. They are decorated with a pink glaze, dried rosebuds and chopped pistachios.
Servings: 36 Cookies
Ingredients
For the Rose Pistachio Biscotti Cookies:
- 2-¼ cups all-purpose flour (270 grams) , plus a bit more for the work surface
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
- 1 cup roasted pistachios finely chopped, reserve 1/4 cup
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon rose water
For the Cookie Glaze:
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar (250 grams)
- 1 teaspoon rose water
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup optional
- 1 to 3 tablespoons water
- Pink food grade coloring
- 1 cup dried red edible rosebuds
Instructions
For the Rose Pistachio Biscotti Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two 11 x 17-inch rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a shallow bowl and stir in the 3/4 cup of pistachios. (The remaining 1/4 cup pistachios will be used for decorating the cookies). Push the mixture into a mound and make a well in the center.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and rose water.
- Add the mixture to the well in the flour mixture. Using a spoon, spatula or a fork, stir the mixture into the flour in a circular motion, gradually incorporating the flour in small amounts in a wider path until the flour is completely mixed and smooth.
Roll and Cut the Dough:
- Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it a couple turns, add additional flour to the work surface if necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface. Pat the dough into a disk. Divide the disk-dough into two portions.
- Dust the work surface lightly and roll one portion of dough into a circle 1/4-inch thick. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut cookies and place onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Repeat the rolling and cutting with the remaining portion of dough.
Bake the Cookies:
- Transfer the baking sheets to the oven and bake the cookies for 12 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet while the oven temp is adjusting.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 300°F
- Flip the cookies over and bake another 8-10 minutes until they are crisp. Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack and cool completely. When cool they should be crisp and crunchy.
To Make the Glaze:
- Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper and set a wire cooling rack over it.
- Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a medium size bowl. Add the rose water, corn syrup if using and 2 tablespoons of water then stir until well combined.
- Add pink food color to desired shade.
- Check the consistency of the icing and drizzle in more water if it is too thick. Only add ¼ to ½ teaspoon of water at a time (a little goes a long way).
- The glaze should be fairly thick but you should be able to slowly drizzle it off of a spoon. When it falls back into the bowl, it should fall in a ribbon-like pattern and take a couple of seconds before blending back into the rest of the icing.
- Spread the glaze onto the cookies and place on the wire cooling rack. At first it will appear to be coated too thick but will drip and settle into a smooth glaze.
- While the glaze on the cookies is still tacky, sprinkle the reserved chopped pistachios on the cookies and add decorative dried rosebuds.
- Let the cookies dry completely before storing them.
Notes
- A stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a food processor can be used instead of the traditional hand mixing method. Begin with the dry ingredients and after a good blending add the wet ingredients until a soft dough is formed.
- When using a food processor to mix the biscotti dough, hold back the nuts and mix them into the soft dough by hand.
- Roll the biscotti dough on a well-floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thickness.
- Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, do not brown them.
- Wait for your cookies to cool completely before icing them. If you add too much water just add a bit more confectioners' sugar to thicken the icing again.
- Corn syrup gives the icing a slick shiny coat and keeps it from getting rock hard but it will firm up enough to stack the cookies on top of each other once the icing is dry.
- If you are not using the icing right away, lay some plastic wrap directly on top of the icing so the air doesn’t dry it out. It will store like that for 24 to 48 hours.
- Add a few drops of food coloring if desired. If you use a lot of liquid food coloring you may need to stir in a bit more confectioner's sugar to thicken the icing again. (Gel food coloring will not thin the icing out).
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 110kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 47mg | Sugar: 12g
