12 Days of Cookies: Day 8, Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

While shortbread cookies go down in history as one of the oldest treats (they date back to medieval times), the very first shortbread recipe appeared in “Mrs. McLintock’s Recipes for Cookery and Pastry-Work,” a Scottish cookbook published in 1736. The quaint recipe reads:

To Make Short Bread

Take a peck of Flour, put three lb of Butter in amoung a little water, and let it melt, pour it in amoung your Flour, put in a Mutchkin of good Barm; when it is wrought divide it in three parts, roll out your cakes longer then broad, and gather from the sides with your Finger, cut down the Middle and job it on Top, then send it to the oven.

One of the reasons we have loved shortbread for centuries is the cookie’s adaptability. Mary, Queen of Scots, adored the herbaceous notes of caraway seeds folded into the dough; Queen Victoria preferred hers with a pinch of salt; and the Girls Scouts gravitate toward shortbread with a lemony lift.From Pine Nut Rosemary to Salted Orange, we include a handful of shortbread cookie variations in our Holiday Cookie Box. But, the Pistachio Shortbread Cookie is a classic at Macrina. The pistachio’s pale green hue naturally points to holiday celebrations and its buttery flavor highlights the cookie’s simple ingredients.Find our Holiday Cookie Box in our cafés through the holidays, and pick up our latest cookbook, More from Macrina, to enjoy our Pistachio Shortbread Cookie recipe all year long!