Pistachio Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love the name of this recipe.  I’m all about anything pistachio or dark chocolate.

I survived my first week in pastry school!  Yaaa!  This week went well.  I didn’t miss the bus, I was early every day, I had Starbucks every day (thanks to a gift card), and ate my first egg McMuffin.  Not bad, those egg McMuffins.  No judging.

Yesterday we talked about ingredients – sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder, baking soda, milk, and talked about some of the science behind baking.  It was very interesting.  A lecture about Plugra butter?  Yes, please.  Croissant breaks in between butter and sugar lectures?  Sure!  I feel like I belong. 

I’m kind of crazy about the staff and instructors at French Pastry School; they’re all so great.  I cannot believe how nice and funny they are!  The chefs are all wise and knowledgeable – I’m in complete awe.  The chefs have a ton of professional experience under their belts.  Executive pastry chef for Charlie Trotter for a decade?!  Pastry chef at the Ritz Carlton?! Geez.  I could go on and on.

We start working in the kitchens on Monday.  I’m pretty excited, and surprisingly not nervous.  Maybe I will be on Monday.  Last week I was so nervous about school starting, but the nerves went away after the first day.  Now I’m feeling good. 

I feel like I want to be in school right now even though it’s Saturday.  I really need to stop watching these Youtube videos on making macarons and get out of the house.


The cookies are great when they’re freshly baked and they’re also good when they’ve been in the freezer for a month.  I’m serious.  I zapped one in the microwave last night for “taste testing” purposes to see how they held up. 

I love those big Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips.  I can’t ever use regular semi-sweet chocolate chips anymore.  They will be too disappointing.


These cookies are made with butter, coconut oil (loving coconut oil lately.  It smells so good I want to use it as lotion), sugar (or sucrose as French Pastry School calls it!), chopped toasted pistachios, cake flour, baking powder and baking soda.  The cake flour makes these a little lighter in texture, and the baking powder makes them puffier. 


Pistachio Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup coconut oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup finely chopped salted pistachios, toasted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:
In a large bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, coconut oil and sugar until creamy - about 1 minute.  Beat in egg white, vanilla, pistachios, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined.  Reduce speed to low and beat in flour and chocolate chips until combined. 

Drop rounded spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet, spacing about 3/4-inch apart.  Freeze cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes, or until dough is frozen. 

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake 15-17 minutes or until light golden brown.  Cool 1 minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Makes 1 dozen cookies