Pistachio Porn
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 at 2:00AM | Seeley deBorn 
Around the same time I posted the request for recipe requests, I also asked the guys at work. Most of them defer and claim they’ll love anything I make. I think they’re just afraid I’ll stop bringing them cookies if they offer any critical feedback. Anyone who’s ever critiqued my writing knows that’s just not true. I’ve been absolutely shredded in the past and I’m still… um, if I wasn’t in school I’d still be… writing.
Fortunately, we’ve got a new guy at work.
When I told him I’d make anything, any recipe that would challenge me, but still fit in the magic cookie tin, he came back with this:
Wow. Neat! I’ve used garam masala in curries, but I’d never seen garam masala used in a dessert.
Garam masala isn’t a spice on it’s own, so this isn’t quite like making a snickerdoodle which has the cinnamon on the outside… and it’s not quite like a gingersnap. Ginger snaps use a mixture of spices, but they’re all “sweet” spices. Garam masala includes things like cumin (used in making chilli and curry) and black pepper!
I was so making these things.
But of course I can’t just make a plain old cookie even if it was crazy spiced. But I didn’t want to mess with the reportedly soft and chewy texture by adding nuts or something, so I decided they needed some kind of prettying up. A little bit of icing never hurt any cookie. So I made a rosewater glaze and then pressed the damp glaze into finely chopped pistachios.
A bit of a gilded lily, yes, but I think the sweetness of the nuts and glaze worked well to balance the amazing bite of the cookies.
These went over amazingly well with the guys in the construction trailer. And yes, I know, I’m shooting fish in a barrel, but I figure if the cookies weren’t great, 6 guys wouldn’t have cleaned out the entire tin in half a day.
Unfortunately I didn’t actually have garam masala on hand. What I did have were many of the spices that often go into the mixtures that you find in the spice section. Those mixtures can vary in content, and in heat level so I made my own, and scaled down the more savoury spices. If you’ve got some in your cupboard already, give it a shot. If not, here’s what I did for mine:
Garam Masala:
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 1/2 tsp ground pepper
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves (I think I may have used allspice though)
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Put them all together in a jar and shake.
Now that you’ve got perfectly balanced garam masala, you can make the cookies.
What you need:
Cookies:
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 1 tsp. Garam Masala
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
Topping:
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 tsp rosewater
- About 1/2 to 3/4 cup of very finely chopped pistachios
What you gotta do:
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Cream the butter and brown sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
If you feel like dirtying another dish, sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl. If not, pile the flour on one side, and put the other dry stuff on top.
Mix the dry stuff together a bit before starting to incorporate it into the wet part.
Spicey!
Drop teaspoons of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment if you don’t want to have to wash it afterwards.
Bake the cookies for a mere 10 minutes. Watch them. Don’t let them get too brown. They’re quite golden in colour already and a little extra will have them looking too dark.
Cool them on a rack while you chop the nuts.
put all the glaze ingredients (not the nuts) in a bowl and mix them.
Dip the cooled cookies into the glaze 
and then press them into the nuts.
Once they’ve set, pack them up in the cookie tin, take them to work, and see if anyone can guess what they’re seasoned with.
I’m going to give Lyra Marlow’s suggestion of creamsicle cookies a shot in a couple weeks. And I’m really wondering how I can pull of angel’s suggestion of strawberry shortcake!
What’s the strangest ingredient you’ve ever put in a cookie or dessert??
Reader Comments (2)
you're a brave woman, Seeley. Cumin? In a cookie? Totally awesome.
it sounds a little wacky, I know, but really, once you mix up the spices and take a mere teaspoon out, less than 1/8 is cumin. It's present, but only obvious if you know it's there, if that makes sense. I thought the black pepper a little more significant, strangely, but then I have seen recipes that include pepper on strawberries.... hm....