Salted Honey Pistachio Cookies are soft, extra flavorful cookies made with browned butter, sea salt, honey and salted pistachios. This sweet and salty treat is easy to make, too!
You know I love a good cookie recipe. I basically built my whole business around my cookie obsession. I mean find what you love, right? Anyhow, over the coarse of the almost TEN YEARS I feel like I have perfected the art of the cookie. At least, I have perfected MY version of the perfect cookie. Chocolate Chip, Snickerdoodle, White Chocolate…yep, I’ve made them all hundreds of times. So coming up with new, and interesting cookie recipes over the last few years has gotten a little tougher. I have to get more and more creative…which is cool, I’m all about a challenge.
Anyhow, that brings me to today’s (delicious) recipe, Salted Honey Pistachio Cookies. I generally am a no-nut kinda gal…especially in cookies. I do make an exception from time to time, though. And pistachios are the perfect excuse to go nuts in.
What Makes These Special?
These easy pistachio cookies are packed with flavor! I browned the butter, so there’s that. I also included coarse sea salt and honey to give them a different type of sweetness. AND white chocolate, because why not. You could also, certainly, use dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet chips in these cookies. Yes, totally.
Ingredients:
- Butter. I prefer salted butter in this recipe because it really pairs with the pistachios!
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Honey
- Large egg
- Vanilla extract
- Coarse sea salt
- Baking soda
- All purpose flour
- Chopped pistachios
- White chocolate chips
- optional – flaked sea salt for garnish
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat melt the butter and bring to a boil. Stir or swirl pan consistently as the butter boils and begins to brown (about 5 minutes). It will turn a deep amber color. Remove from the heat and allow the butter to cool for 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- When the butter is cooled add it to the bowl of your stand mixer, along with the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add in the honey, egg, vanilla, sea salt, and baking soda. Mix for an additional minute, until combined.
- Turn mixer to low and add in flour, mixing until just incorporated. Stir in the pistachios and white chocolate chips until evenly combined.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (2 tablespoons) drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet about 2- inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Don’t over-bake.
- Allow the cookies to cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Sprinkle with flaked sea salt if desired.
TIPS:
- When you brown the butter, just let it cool for a bit. You don’t want it to be piping hot.
- The coarse sea salt throughout the cookie adds little pockets of salty. If you don’t love this, go ahead and sub out the coarse sea salt for kosher salt.
- Make sure not to over-bake these. The key to getting an extra soft cookie is to take them out of the oven slightly underdone and allow them to “carry over” cook on the pan for a few minutes on the baking sheet before cooking them on a wire rack.
I love the extra flavor the browned butter and honey give to these cookie to make them really unique!
Print
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 38 minutes
- Yield: 36 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Salted Honey Pistachio Cookies are soft, extra flavorful cookies made with browned butter, sea salt, honey and salted pistachios. This sweet and salty treat is easy to make, too!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped pistachios
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- optional – flaked sea salt for garnish
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat melt the butter and bring to a boil. Stir or swirl pan consistently as the butter boils and begins to brown (about 5 minutes). It will turn a deep amber color. Remove from the heat and allow the butter to cool for 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- When the butter is cooled add it to the bowl of your stand mixer, along with the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add in the honey, egg, vanilla, sea salt, and baking soda. Mix for an additional minute, until combined.
- Turn mixer to low and add in flour, mixing until just incorporated. Stir in the pistachios and white chocolate chips until evenly combined.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (2 tablespoons) drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheet about 2- inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Don’t over-bake.
- Allow the cookies to cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Sprinkle with flaked sea salt if desired.
Notes
Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days for best freshness. Freeze airtight for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature.
The trick to keeping these cookies soft is to watch the bake time carefully. All ovens bake slightly differently, also the baking sheet you use can make a huge difference. I bake these for exactly 8 minutes in my oven, and the cookie gets slightly golden at the edges while looking slightly underdone on top. They will continue to bake as they sit on the hot baking sheet, so make sure to let them sit on the sheet for 4-5 minutes after you take them out of the oven.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 152
- Sugar: 10.3 g
- Sodium: 107.5 mg
- Fat: 8.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 17.7 g
- Protein: 2.1 g
- Cholesterol: 19.7 mg
The best new cookie recipe I have tried. My whole family loves them. I pulsed the pistachios and white chocolate in a processor for a few seconds and it worked well. Not too many large chunks and some ground pistachios in the dough was so good.
Love that idea! I’m going to try that next time!
omg these cookies are amazing!! every time i make these they are gone in a few hours!! they are definitely a go to in our house. bonus…they are super easy. thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!!
I have made these cookies a couple times now and have gotten amazing reviews for them! As the baker friend, I make a lot of treats and people have been saying this is the best recipe I’ve made for them. One girl wants me to make them for her wedding. My mom made them for an event she went to and got stellar reviews also. I even overcooked a batch on accident and gave them to my boyfriend and he says they are his favorite cookies I’ve ever made!
Made these cookies and they’re amazing! I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to give them more of a spread? They didn’t spread at all but were delicious anyways!
Looking forward to this. Quick question. What do you think of replacing the white chocolate chips with cinnamon chips? I have a bag I am looking to use up 🙂
I bet that would be delicious!
I don’t see anything about storage and shelf life – can you please advise there?
They’re absolutely delicious and I’m hoping they will keep in an airtight container for a few days so I can give some to my sis!
They’re great stored airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days for best freshness! Honestly you can push it to 5 days, but I find for the best tasting cooking I don’t prefer longer than 3!
These are hands down my favorite cookies. They have so much flavor. They always turn out really well. My husband requests them often. Thank you for such a delicious recipe!
Love hearing this! They are one of my husband’s favorites too… probably because he came up with the original idea! lol!!
Soo good! Made them with white chocolate chunks and extra pistachios, and my oven must run hot because I found that about 6 mins was perfect. They kind of remind me of white choc macadamia nut cookies but with a little more attitude. 10/10 would make again and will be adding to the recipe book!
Delicious! Made them for exactly according to the recipe. Now I plan to try making them with chocolate chunks instead of white chocolate. Wish me luck.
A-mazing! Incredible flavor and easy to make. This could totally pass as a high end bakery item. And I anticipate these will be a hit at future gatherings! I couldn’t stop after even 2-3 cookies!