Pistachio Cream and Salted Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies

This might be a bit controversial but I don't particularly love thick cookies. Don't get me wrong, they look spectacular. For photography purposes who can beat a picture of a fat cookie, big as your hand stuffed with chocolate and topped with candy bars. And for video purposes the break and pull shot with oozy filling spilling out is hard to beat.

But I need more than pretty looks, I need substance, and soul, and layers of flavour and texture instead of dense sugary propped up dough.

Enter these pistachio and salted chocolate brown butter cookies. Caramel undertones of browned butter, fragrant vanilla, crunchy chopped pistachios, smooth creamy pistachio butter, melt in your mouth dark chocolate, crisp cookie and flakes of salt weaving together to produce a harmoniously satisfying experience with every bite.

I made quite a few versions of this cookie while creating my favourite, adding a few grams extra flour here, taking out some butter to come up with the most pleasing mix between buttery candy like texture that was firm enough to keep it's shape and hold up to cookie like treatment. 

In the final version I have melted the butter with a tablespoon of milk powder which results in a crazy amount of browning in the butter. If you are not keen to brown the butter, you can just melt the butter and you will still end up with a lovely cookie, if you are not browning the butter and just melting it, reduce the amount of butter to 130 grams(4 5/8oz) to account for evaporation during the browning process.

As these cookies are soft and buttery, they need to rest on the trays to cool. 

\I shaped my cookies after baking using a round cookie cutter, by placing the cutter over the cookies and swirling them around in little circles. If are not quick enough or bake the cookies too much this technique will not work.

I bought my pistachio cream from Costco - I have seen the exact same brand on Amazon (CLICK HERE). If you don't want to buy pistachio cream you can save yourself some money and time, leave it out and the cookies will still be delicious. While I was making the cookies I thought they would make be amazing with Nutella and hazelnuts in place of the pistachio.

Happy Baking XX

Linda M

Pistachio Salted Dark Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies

makes 10 cookies x 10cm (apex 4") in size (60gram or 2oz uncooked dough). Store in an airtight container up to 3 days. Uncooked dough can be portioned into cookie serves, frozen wrapped in plastic wrap and defrosted for baking. 

I shaped my cookies after baking with a circle cookie cutter around 10cm (4 inches) across .

140g (4 7/8oz)salted butter

1 Tbsp dried milk powder

170g (6oz) plain (all purpose) flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 baking powder (baking powder)

120g (4 1/4oz) brown sugar

50g (1 3/4oz) granulated white sugar

1 egg room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

120g (4 1/4oz) dark chocolate cut into chunks - reserve some for adding to top half way through baking as mine was chunks I reserved around 55g (1 7/8oz) if you have chips reserve a few chips per cookie

45g (1 5/8 oz) or 1/3 cup shelled raw pistachios chopped (reserve 1 Tbsp of finely chopped nuts) 

70g (2 1/2oz) pistachio cream

1 tsp flaky salt

Prior to starting to brown the butter have a heat safe container which can hold 2 cups of more ready to pour the hot butter into. 

In a saucepan heat the butter over medium heat until melted. Stir with a rubber spatula or whisk so the butter cooks evenly. When the butter is melted add the 1 tbsp of milk powder. Continue to cook until the milk solids start to brown and immediately remove the saucepan from the heat and pour into the heat safe bowl. Make sure you scrap all the browned milk solids from the saucepan into the melted butter.

Allow the butter to cool a little while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar and white sugar into a large bowl.

Add the melted brown butter, egg and vanilla to the large bowl of dry ingredients and mix until combined using a large spoon or spatula. Make sure all the ingredients are wet and mixed in.

Add the chopped chocolate (making sure to save some to add later to the top during baking) and the chopped pistachio and mix until distributed evenly. Pop bowl into fridge to chill around 30 minutes.

Cover 2 cookie trays with parchment paper or silopat mat* Divide the cookie dough into 10 equal portions of about 60g (2 1/4 oz) each. Shape into a tall cylinder and poke an indent into the top of each cookie. Add pistachio cream into the middle indent of each cookie. Chill the dough for at least another 30 minutes. You can chill for longer up to overnight if you like but keep the cookies in an airtight container if chilling for longer than an hour.

Preheat oven to 175C (350F) fan forced. Once oven is heated put cookies in oven and bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven, add extra reserved chocolate on top of cookies, rotate tray positions and return to oven to bake further 6-7 minutes until the cookies start to brown around the edges.

Remove from oven, if you are shaping the cookies using the round cookie cutter, quickly do so by putting the cutter over the cookie and swirling it around if a small circle lightly to result in an even shape, Sprinkle the reserved finely chopped pistachio and flaked salt onto the top of the cooked cookies.

Allow cookies to cool on tray until set.

* I trialed baking the cookies on both a silo pat mat and parchment paper. The silopat mat ended up a more pleasing shape as they spread more evenly, the parchment paper lined trays ended up a crispier cookie, both were very good, I will probably use the silopat mat for aesthetic purposes in future.

Original photos and recipe from the Bubble and Sweet blog ©Linda McCubbin 2025. I love when people share my blog ideas and give credit. Please feel free to link back to my blog for non commercial purposes or contact me. Affiliate links and adds may earn me money, however all ideas and opinions are my own.

Linda Mccubbin is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US in 2011 (under my previous name Linda Vandermeer).

Woodland Toadstool macarons its giving fairy queen vibes

 

I was so excited by the technique I used to make the cottage rose macarons in my last post I decided to keep on going and make something even more whimsical and magical and that's how these woodland toadstool macarons came to be.

How adorably cute are they, and look at the perfect shiny shells! I am smitten with this technique. It's the opposite of textured macarons and I love it to bits.

I made a YouTube video <click here> that's only a few minutes long so you can watch the piping technique. Honestly I am mesmerised by the way the piped mixture falls back into the shells and can watch it endlessly. Once they are piped they look like beautiful necklace pendants sitting on a tray.

The secret to shiny macron shells that withstand the wet on wet piping technique is a recipe with the right consistency, not all recipes will work. My recipe is an Italian Meringue base that I have personally tried, tested and tweaked for 15 years. It was used commercially in my cafe and was no fail time after time for thousands of macarons. You can get it for free <HERE>

and if you know me you know I haven't stopped here. I have a few more designs floating around in my head that I have to try before I move on. If you make your own batch up make sure to tag me on instagram so I can see how they work out 👀

I filled these macarons with a whipped pistachio ganache that is so yummy you can eat it with a spoon, I've included quick instructions at the end of the post below.

Happy Baking

xx Linda 

Shopping links   

(may have affiliate links which may earn me commissions and contribute to the running of this blog):

Red Food Powder like <AMERICOLOR RED CLICK HERE FOR LINK> I prefer a powder for red as you need to use so much gel food colour it impacts the batter consistency.

Green food colour - any gel type can be used as only a drop is needed I used moss green. You only need a drop or 2 for the soft hue I achieved.

Pistachio Cream - I picked mine up at Costco her is an online link <PISTACHIO CREAM AMAZON> You can make your own or buy any brand you like. Or you can use just white chocolate ganache without adding the pistachio cream to save money.

I piped my ganache with a Wilton piping tip - 4B <link to set of 4 piping tips>

RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS/LINKS

You can get the recipe from my last post where I made wet on wet cottage core rose macarons <CLICK HERE FOR MACARON RECIPE>.

PISTACHIO GANACHE - I filled the woodland toadstool macarons with a decadently delicious whipped pistachio white chocolate ganache. Mix 3 parts white chocolate to 1 part cream (ie 300g (10+5/8oz) white chocolate to 100g (3+5/8oz cream)) heat in microwave for 2 minutes on high, cool/set, whip in a mixer and then and mix in 1 part pistachio cream (ie 100g (3 5/8 oz))

Original photos and recipe from the Bubble and Sweet blog ©Linda McCubbin 2025. I love when people share my blog ideas and give credit. Please feel free to link back to my blog for non commercial purposes or contact me. Affiliate links and adds may earn me money, however all ideas and opinions are my own.

Linda Mccubbin is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US in 2011 (under my previous name Linda Vandermeer).

How to make the prettiest cottage core rose macarons using wet on wet piping

Honestly these Cottagecore rose macarons might be the prettiest macarons I've ever made. Are they cottage core? I'm not sure we used to call it shabby chic. Anyhoo those sweet roses are piped into the still wet macaron batter with different coloured macaron batter. I was so happy when it worked and I ended up with super shiny deliciously gorgeous patterned shells.

They are definitely the macarons of my dreams. It is so satisfying when the piped mixture falls back down into the shells.

I was so excited I even made a 5 minute Youtube video showing how I made them which includes mixing up the macaron batter so you can easily follow along and make your own here. Like I said it's a pretty short video and you can see the consistency required for the batter so I recommend watching it if you're going to try make your own macarons (patterned or not).

I filled these ones with a white chocolate rose ganache to match in with the rose decorated shells. I also did a version with a whipped white chocolate buttercream and raspberry puree centre for Mother's Day which was reminiscent of Devonshire tea and totally delicious..

They do require a little bit of work and I'm not sure every macaron recipe will work. Some of the recipes out there are different batter consistency to mine and as a result the piped roses will not fall back into the shells as well, so I've included the exact recipe I used which is the same recipe I've used for 15 years, modified slightly over the years. While I had a cafe I made thousands of these gorgeously delicious treats and fine tuned the recipe until it was no-fail for me.

I've already made up a few more batches of these wet on wet designs to share with you so check back to see all the macaron gorgeousness over the coming weeks.

XX

Linda 

Cottagecore Macarons (wet on wet instructions - see also my YouTube video)

Mix up macaron batter. I've included my recipe for Italian meringue macarons below. Just before the batter is ready spoon out a small amount into 2 small bowls around 1/3 cup in one and 1/2 cup in the other.

Colour the large portion sky blue, and then colour the 1/3 bowl green (I used one drop mint green), then colour the 1/2 cup pink (I used one drop) then split a small amount of the pink into another bowl and put another drop of pink to make it a darker hue of pink. Put all the batter into seperate piping bags. 

Batter waiting to be piped. I made my own parchment bags for the small amounts

Pipe the main batter onto trays lined with parchment paper. I did one tray at a time so the macarons did not start to form skins.

Once you have the blue macaron shells piped, tap the tray on the counter to remove any air bubbles and then pipe 3 light pink dots (see picture 1 in the collage below).

Using the darker pink pipe a curve or c on top of each light pink dot. (see picture 2 in collage below)

Using a toothpick, skewer or scribing tool swirl in little circles back and forth to look like little rose swirls (see picture 3 in collage).

Pipe little leaves on the sides of each rose by piping a dot then letting go of the pressure on the piping bag and pulling the bag out sideways (see picture 4 in collage below) My leaves fell into the batter, however you might need to pipe a dot and use the scribing tool to pull the 'leaves' outward. 

Repeat for remaining batter and then allow to rest on the trays until set (see picture 5 in collage below).

Linda's Macaron Shells makes around 40-50 shells or 20-25 filled macarons. See below macaron recipe for simple instructions for ganache filling.

150 gram (5 +1/4 oz)almond meal (almond flour)
150 gram pure icing sugar (5 +1/4 oz powdered sugar)
150 gram granulated sugar (5 +1/4  oz) 
37 grams water (1 +1/4 oz)
110 gram (3 + 7/8oz) egg whites aged split into 2 lots of 55grams each (2 lots of 1 + 7/8 oz each)
food color of choice (I used sky blue, pink and mint green gel type food colour)

*ageing egg whites refers to separating the yolks from whites and then leaving the whites to age for a few days. This can be done on the counter if your countries climate permits or in the fridge, wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and then pop a few holes in the top. Alternately you can pop fresh egg whites in the microwave on high for 10 seconds or so - I used the aging on counter method in this batch pictured. 

1. Mix the ground almonds and icing sugar together and pulse a few times in food processor to make almond meal finer. Do not over process as the meal can become oily. Sieve into a large bowl. Add colour and 55g (1 + 7/8 ounce) of the egg whites to the sugar/almond mixture but don’t mix in.

2. Place remaining 55g (1 + 7/8 ounce) of egg whites in bowl of mixer fitted with the whisk.

3. Pop granulated sugar and water into saucepan, stir to combine and cook without stirring to 118 C (245F). Brush down the sides of the saucepan with a pastry brush dipped in water as required to avoid sugar crystallising. Make sure you have a pouring shield on your mixer, once the syrup has reached 118C pour in a thin stream down the side of the mixer bowl continuing to whisk on medium low.

4. Continue to whisk the meringue on high until the side of the bowl is only a little warm to touch, around 50C (120 F).

 

5. Add meringue mixture to almond mixture and using a large spatula fold the mixture together until it starts to shine and forms. If you run the spatula through the mixture it should form a ribbon that disappears back into the mixture after about 20 seconds.

6. Add the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a plain tip (or just cut the end of a disposable piping bag, that's what I do) and pipe in lines onto parchment lined baking sheets. To make the macarons as even as possible I apply a constant slow pressure to the piping bag and count a few numbers like up to 3 for each one. 

7. Set aside for about 30 minutes or until the macarons have formed a skin so that the macaron mixture does not stick to your finger when gently touched. If the weather is humid this step may take longer up to 2 hours. I pop on the aircon if it's humid at my house.

8. Meanwhile preheat oven to 130-135C (275 F) fan forced. Once ready bake the macaroons for around 19-23 minutes depending on size, it may take less of longer, all ovens are different. If they are baked and you gently push on the side the tops will not move, if the tops do move bake for another minute or 2. Also they should not be browned if they are reduce the heat for the next batch or bake for less time.

9. Once baked remove the baking trays and immediately slide off the macarons and the parchment onto the work surface and let cool completely before removing the shells.

10. Once cooled match disks into like sizes and sandwich together using the ganache.

Ganache Recipe

To make ganache melt white chocolate with cream in the microwave for 2 minutes on high and mix gently until combined, use a ration of 3:1, so for example 240 grams (8+1/2 oz) white chocolate to 80 grams (2 + 7/8 oz) cream. Add some gel color and rose oil/flavor to taste.

Original photos and recipe from the Bubble and Sweet blog ©Linda McCubbin 2025. I love when people share my blog ideas and give credit. Please feel free to link back to my blog for non commercial purposes or contact me. Affiliate links and adds may earn me money, however all ideas and opinions are my own.