Pistachio White Chocolate Cookies

Jump to Recipe

These white chocolate pistachio cookies feature a soft cookie dough that's made with melted butter. No mixer required!

If you're looking for a cookie recipe that's a perfect bridge between cozy and fancy, we've got you covered with these white chocolate chip and pistachio cookies.

We're using our go-to melted butter cookie dough here. This useful shortcut saves a ton of time (no waiting for cold butter to soften!) and yields soft cookies with crispy edges and thick, chewy centers.

You don't need a stand mixer for this recipe - just a large mixing bowl and a sturdy spoon or spatula!

Jump to:

Ingredients
Variations and Substitutions
Step by step instructions
Storage and Freezing
FAQs
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments & Reviews

Ingredients

Scroll to the recipe card below for a full ingredients list with exact quantities.

This recipe is fairly straightforward, but we want to highlight a few quick things before you jump in:

Melted butter makes this dough quick and easy: Just pop it in the microwave and you're ready to go! We prefer unsalted butter in this recipe, because it gives us more control over the final flavor.
Pistachios. Look for pre-shelled pistachios at the store to keep things simple. We prefer lightly salted pistachios here, and usually leave them whole (but you can give them a rough chop if you prefer smaller pieces!)
Brown sugar. We prefer light brown sugar here, as it doesn't compete too much with the delicate white chocolate flavor.
White chocolate chips. We love Ghirardelli White Chocolate Chips; you can also use mini white chocolate chips or a roughly chopped bar of white baking chocolate.

Use a kitchen scale

Measuring dry ingredients by volume (with cups) is notoriously unreliable. Because each person measures one cup a bit differently, it's easy to accidentally use too much flour, sugar, etc., and alter the texture of your cookies (see an example in our cinnamon cookies recipe).

For accurate results, use a kitchen scale to follow the gram measurements in the recipe below. No kitchen scale? Measure your flour with the scoop and level method for best results!

Variations and Substitutions

Adjust the mix-ins! Swap some or all of the mix-ins here for dark or milk chocolate chips, dried cranberries, toasted walnuts, almonds, or other popular cookie ingredients (see our kitchen sink cookie recipe for ideas!)
No butter? Use melted coconut oil (à la our butterless chocolate chip cookies), vegetable or canola oil, or olive oil (like we do in our dark chocolate sea salt cookies recipe).
Sprinkle a bit of flakey sea salt over the top of each cookie immediately after baking for a gourmet touch.

Step by step instructions

Mix the dough

Whisk melted butter, vanilla extract, eggs, and sugars together in a large bowl (Image 1, above) until smooth (2).

Add the all purpose flour, baking soda, and kosher salt (3) and stir until just combined (4).

Mixing pistachios and white chocolate chips into dough.

Fold white chocolate chips and pistachios into the cookie dough.

You should have a thick, fairly soft dough. Don't worry if it looks a little looser than other cookie doughs! It will settle and thicken a bit within a few minutes of mixing (as the melted butter starts to solidify).

Pro Tip: Reserve a handful of white chocolate chips and pistachios to press into the tops of cookies before baking. This ensures the mix-ins are visible on each cookie, giving them a picture-perfect look!

Bake the cookies

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Use a cookie scoop (we love this 3-Tablespoon scoop) to portion out the cookie dough, leaving an inch or so of space between each cookie.

If you like, press a few chocolate chips and pistachios onto the surface of each cookie. (This step is purely for aesthetics: You can skip it if you like!)

Bake cookies at 375° for 10-13 minutes, until they're lightly browned around the edges. Let them cool for a few minutes right on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool fully.

Pro Tip: Pull the cookies out before they look all the way "done" in the center. They might look a bit puffy or domed in the middle, but don't worry: They'll settle as they cool and you'll be left with soft, chewy cookies.

Storage and Freezing

Store baked, cooled cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to 5 days. (The cookies taste best within 3 days of baking; past that, they can start to dry out a little).

These cookies also freeze very well! Freeze baked cookies in an airtight container, then defrost for a few hours on the counter when you're ready to eat them.

A cookie cut in half to show the interior.

FAQs

Can I make this cookie dough ahead of time?

Yes! Mix the dough as directed, shape it into dough balls, and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Transfer refrigerated cookie dough balls directly to a lined baking sheet, and bake normally.

To freeze cookie dough, scoop the dough into balls and place them on a baking sheet or large plate lined with a piece of parchment paper, waxed paper, or a nonstick baking mat. Place the cookie dough in the freezer for 2-3 hours, until frozen solid. Transfer frozen cookie dough balls to an airtight container and return to the freezer until you're ready to bake.

To bake frozen cookie dough balls straight from the freezer, we recommend reducing the oven temperature to 350° F (a lower temp helps frozen cookies spread out more evenly!)

What size cookies can I make?

This recipe makes 24-30 large cookies (formed with a 3-Tablespoon cookie scoop) or 72-90 bite-sized cookies (formed with a 1-Tablespoon cookie scoop). Use any size cookie scoop you like here! Keep in mind that if you use a different size cookie scoop, you will likely need to adjust the baking time.

Can I freeze these cookies?

Yes! Like classic chocolate chip cookies, these cookies freeze quite well. Let them cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 4 months. Let frozen cookies defrost for a few hours on the counter when you're ready to eat them.

Can I use a stand mixer or hand mixer?

Yes! If you prefer to use a stand mixer or hand mixer in your baking, you can certainly use those appliances for this recipe.

Can I make a half batch or small batch of these cookies?

For just a few cookies, we recommend following our small batch chocolate chip cookie recipe (you can add a handful of nutty pistachios to those cookies, and swap the chocolate for white chocolate chips!)

Can I add a green color to my pistachio cookies?

Yes! If you'd like your cookie dough to have a green tint (a fun addition when you're cooking with kids!), add a few drops of your preferred green food coloring to the cookie dough when you first mix it. (Our favorite soft and chewy sugar cookies are also great if you want to make colorful cookie dough!)

We find it's easiest to smoothly incorporate food coloring if you add it along with the melted butter, before stirring in the flour mixture.

Should I toast the pistachios?

You can certainly toast the pistachios if you like, but it's entirely optional!

If you've tried many of our baking recipes, you know that we almost ALWAYS recommend toasting nuts for added flavor, especially in recipes like our chocolate chip pecan cookies or cranberry pecan bread.

Toasting nuts is also a worthwhile step in most salad recipes (like the walnuts in a chicken arugula salad or strawberry spinach salad, or the pepitas in our spinach sweet potato salad).

That said: We've tested this recipe with toasted pistachios and untoasted pistachios, and in this particular case, our testers didn't think the toasting step made that much of a difference.

Pistachios are quite flavorful on their own. When you pair them with high quality white chocolate chips (or white baking chocolate), you really don't need to add that extra toasting step.

This may of course vary by brand - in our testing, we used Wonderful Lightly Salted Pistachios, which we've found to be quite flavorful on their own. If you're using unsalted pistachios or older pistachios that may be losing their freshness, it might be worthwhile to add a toasting step to enhance the nutty flavor.