Triple Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

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Triple Chocolate Pistachio Cookies; big chewy bakery style cookies crammed with toasted crunchy pistachios and three kinds of creamy chocolate chunks.

I’m never sure whether cooking with assorted leftovers is actually fun or just intimidating.

Those evenings when you know you can’t quite justify another takeaway, but a walk to the shops is something your own laziness will not allow either. You open and close the fridge a few times, you rifle through the cupboards. There are a few packets open, a few bags twisted closed, a few tubs with the lid ajar, a few bowls wrapped in condensation-dripping clingfilm. But what to do with it all?

I had one of those this week. After finishing my final working day at my current job, and happily sinking several gins with friends, I found myself at a wonderfully welcome loose end late into Friday night. I wanted to make something to snack on, to have for breakfast the next morning, to feed Francesco when he got home from his shift, and to bring to my mum when I saw her the following day. That’s a lot to ask of one recipe, especially when all you have are a selection of part-empty packets in front of you.

Among the assortment of stuff in the cupboards were three half-eaten chocolate bars, and a half-empty bag of pistachios (the latter admittedly being a few weeks past their best). Not quite enough for a cake, definitely not enough for brownies…

Triple Chocolate Pistachio Cookies it is.

Based loosely on The Best Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies, these cookies combine a few slightly unusual ingredients to make an utterly unique and delicious treat. The recipe uses extra virgin olive oil, which provides a gloriously earthy savouriness to the background flavour of the cookie dough (and also because I didn’t have enough butter oops). It also uses self-raising flour instead of the more commonly used plain flour, to give it a nice puffiness and crisp outer edge (aaaaaand also because I didn’t have any alternative).

Armed with an eclectic range of ingredients, these Triple Chocolate Pistachio Cookies were born. Big palm-sized cookies, soft and chewy with just a whisper of crispness at the edges. Generously crammed with sweet white chocolate, creamy milk chocolate, bold dark chocolate, and green nutty jewels of pistachio.

These offer a real grown-up kind of flavour thanks to the nuts and the subtle hint of olive oil, balancing out the nursery sweetness of the vanilla and chocolate laced cookie dough. Thankfully though, they don’t carry the offensively artificial taste that many pistachio desserts can thanks to the marzipan-like flavourings added to them. These cookies are straight up rich, nutty, chocolatey, but still nothing too crazy to convert someone. Except someone with a nut allergy of course…

I must admit that not every baking-with-leftovers session ends up productive or successful, especially not enough to share. However, it felt unfair not to offer this recipe, as all of these cookies were devoured within 24 hours and I was bursting with enthusiasm to flex the photos on social media. So here, have it, and love it.

While I’d usually always recommend Cocoa Runners (and using code MaverickBaking10 for 10% off!) for the best baking chocolate, this recipe was created in a pinch, and worked very well in a pinch, so feel free to use whichever kinds of chocolate you have lying around. Similarly, I realise the concept of “leftover pistachios” is a very baker-specific problem, so enjoy getting creative with any kind of nuts you would normally have lying around. Walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts would all make a cracking cookie! Enjoy!

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To make these Triple Chocolate Pistachio Cookies, simply follow the recipe below!

BE A MAVERICK: why not stir a shot of espresso through the cookie dough before baking for an extra bold flavour?

These Triple Chocolate Pistachio Cookies will keep well in an airtight container or covered cake stand for up to 5 days.