Chocolate and Pistachio Cookies
Are you a chocolate lover like me? If I have one weak point on the nutrition front it is my addiction to chocolate.
What sort of chocolate you enjoy as part of your nutrition does matter. There are different types of chocolates on the supermarket shelves ranging from bars with small amounts of cocoa and cocoa butter, loaded with sugar and fillers ingredients to ones with high cocoa content and cocoa butter and a minimal or zero sugar content. There are chocolate bars with no sugar content such as Montezuma’s 100% chocolate bars. As you can imagine this is on its own tastes very bitter and is only suitable for hardcore chocolate lovers. However, it is great to use in baking projects as you have control over how much sugar/sweetener to add in your recipe – you are in total control. If I add sweetener I would use Xliytiol as it does not play havoc on your sugar levels unless other sweeteners. For sugar substitutes I prefer Maple syrup and honey – again for the reasons of avoiding sugar spikes.
Makes: 16 Prep Time: 20 min. Cook time: 15min.
Ingredients
- 150g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
- 100g unsalted butter, melted
- 50g golden caster sugar
- 75g soft brown sugar
- 200g plain flour
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 egg
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 75g pistachio kernels, chopped into chunks
- a pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Melt 100g of the chocolate chunks in a Bain-Marie (Hot water bath)
- Beat the egg and then add in the butter, and both brown and golden demerara sugar gradually whilst beating – in medium speed- to an even mixture.
- Stir in the melted chocolate, chocolate chunks, pistachio kernel chunks. Mix with a spatula.
- Mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda through a sieve whilst working it into the chocolatey mixture until you obtain a nice slightly sticky cookie dough.
- Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Form the cookie dough into equal size of balls and place them apart an inch from each other on the tray.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until the cracks start to appear on top. Transfer to a cooling rack to allow it completely cool down before serving.
