Pistachio Ghoraybeh Thumbprint Cookies (Middle Eastern Shortbread)

Hi friends! Hope you are all well. I’m super excited to share this Middle Eastern American hybrid of a cookie.

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 5 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 because Why not?? 🙂

Ingredients

1/3 cup toasted crushed pistachios

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.

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 tbsp 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 1/4 tsp 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.