Cubicle kitchen: Pistachio Sandies

Generally, I make cookies the same way I spin yarn: by dropping.  Drop cookies are easy and don't require a lot of space or time, like my beautiful Turkish drop spindle.  But more and more I find myself drawn to recipes that 'demand' a little more, like chilling the dough and rolling it either for slicing or cutting out.  The more I bake, the less I see those extra steps as more chances to mess up.  Each recipe that doesn't end in disaster, leads me to believe that even if I do make a mistake, it can either be fixed or ignored completely because it tastes good anyway.

And in fact, I did technically make a mistake in baking these cookies.  I was reading it from another blog, which listed the sugar in a way that confused me, and instead of 3/4 cup of sugar, I only added 1/4 cup.  I realized this while the dough logs were chilling, so I just made sure to be generous when rolling and sprinkling with additional sugar.  Even so, these were not too sweet.  One person commented on that, but not in a negative way.  I think it turns out to be a really nice cookie that allows the mild flavor of the pistachios to shine through.  The kind of cookie I imagine could be served at a tea party.  Or in my case, a coffee klatch.

Pistachio Sandies

Recipe from Martha Stewart: Pistachio-Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

My notes:

• Sugar: I used regular white sugar rather than confectioner's, and I only added 1/4 cup directly to the dough (you could always add 1/2 cup and split the difference between me and Martha).  I then rolled the log of dough in another 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar, as well as sprinkling it on top of the sliced cookies before baking.