Pistachio-orange shortbread wedges

shortbread recipe

Makes 12 slices

Adapted from “Dorie’s Cookie’s” by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup sugar

  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

  • Finely grated zest of 1 orange (I use a microplane zester)

  • 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, chopped up, at room temperature

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1/2 cup chopped, lightly toasted pistachio nuts

Instructions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Butter the bottom of a glass pie pan and then dust it with flour, knocking out the excess flour. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar and salt, then add the orange zest and rub it together with your fingertips. Mix the butter in well using either a hand mixer or stand mixer until smooth. Add flour all at once and mix on low until it is just incorporated. Mix in the pistachios to disperse evenly. The dough should be crumbly but moist and buttery. If it does not hold together when pinched, you can add just a few drops of milk or orange juice to bring it together.

  2. Transfer dough from bowl to pie pan, then press it down into the bottom of the pan. You can use the bottom of a measuring cup to compress the crumbs together. Next, pre-divide your wedges: using the tines of a fork, press straight down into the dough to create “dotted lines”, dividing the round into 12 even wedges (this will help them cut cleanly later). Crimp the outside border of the dough with the fork tines, to create a decorative edge.

  3. Place the pie pan in the center rack of the oven and bake for 25 minutes or so, rotating halfway through. The edges should be golden brown but the rest of the shortbread light-colored. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then using a sharp knife, cut carefully along the dotted lines. Allow to cool completely before removing the wedges.