Brown Butter Pistachio Protein Cookies w/ Pistachio Cream

Perfect Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, make them with protein, gluten free and with Pistachio butter for even more protein was my idea, then fill with Pistachio cream.
The result is this very special Pistachio Cream Cookie that has everything you want in your favourite dessert: 6g Protein per cookie for great nutrition, Nutty browned butter, crisp edges, fudgy center, satisfying butterscotch flavor, lots of chocolate and an absolutely irresistible creamy filling.

 

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• Why You Will Love This
• The Ingredients
• The Process
• How To Store
• FAQ

Why You Will Love This 

Read on if you’d like to know what secret ingredient and technique I used to get the perfect balance of textures and flavor you want in your favourite cookie, even when it’s gluten free.

Indulgent, creative and with protein

Is it just me loving the feeling of eating something really indulgent, yet knowing it’s reasonably good for me? Ideally with protein? God, I hope not, because then I’d be talking to myself here all the time!

See, I really want dessert every day and I want to have all the exciting and creative versions I see everywhere. But I want it to be functional too, to give my body something it needs. And most of the time what I don’t eat enough of is protein. So my solution is, to include it in my desserts of all shapes and forms.
These Pistachio packed cookies for example come with 6g protein per piece from both the Pistachios and the added protein powder.

Why Do I Add Protein?

You mean apart from the well known physical benefits of protein for the body like helping you to build muscle, keeping your bones strong and increasing satiation, meaning you stay fuller for longer and with that can maintain your weight easier?

Lesser known is, that it also effects the brain by helping it to effectively transport information through neuropathways using the amino acods found in Protein.
This even has been shown to help protect from age related dementia.

If you’d like to read more about how and why I use protein, I wrote a blog post about it.

The Perfect Brown Butter and Chocolate Cookie

If you ever watched Claire Saffitz’ incredible Chocolate chip cookie video, made the cookies and had your life changed forever, you know there is no going back from her recipe.

She not just browns the butter to include it’s nutty goodness but cools it down to get it back to the perfect texture, avoiding greasy cookies.
The chocolate is from good chocolate bars, not ready made chips, so it melts into delicious puddles instead of holding its shape like chocolate chips that are created for baking would.

The balance of brown sugar for chewiness and white sugar for crunch is on point and the cookies are refrigerated overnight to get the perfect spread while baking.
There is no way to improve that recipe.

Except…change it into something else but use her techniques.

That’s exactly what I did here. Though it took me nearly a year and a book to get it just right.

No Pistachio Pudding Used

Contrary to many recipes I saw, I’m not using any pistachio pudding powder in my recipe. For one it’s really hard to find in Ireland, but mainly because I don’t like the artificial flavor and colour of it. I prefer the pistachio flavor to come from the real nuts.

This means my cookies won’t come out with the super bright green you get from artificial food colouring. If you really want the bright green, say for St. Patrick’s Day, add a drop or two of green food colour.

The Journey

Or how I got from the cookie on the left to the one on the right.

I started by translating Claire’s recipe essentially 1:1 into a pistachio cookie but replacing ¼ of the flour with protein. Which came out delicious but way too soft and puffy. No chew to speak of. Not gluten free either.

Spotting a gluten free protein cookie made with peanut butter and without refined sugar from Half Baked Harvest, which was delicious, I figured I’d use that one to convert into Pistachio. And it sure looked promising, yet again acute lack of chewiness (due the missing brown sugar).

I nearly gave up until I stumbled pretty much simultaneously over the salted pistachio chocolate chunk cookies from Scientifically Sweet, looking absolutely amazing and bought the book “The Elements of Baking*”, with the instructions for modifying chocolate chip cookies. These two gave me the final clues which ratios and “secret” ingredient to use for the perfect texture and spread.

I used the same book to get the amazing results for my Sourdough Discard Protein Muffins.

The Secret Ingredient

While many of you who bake gluten free probably already have it at home, I still sometimes get some confusion around the incredibly versatile Xanthan gum *. Yes, yes, I know, it starts with “X”, so it can’t be good! Right?
Actually, no need to worry!
While it is in fact made in the lab, it’s linked to some possible health benefits like lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

It’s used in many industrial products and is slowly arriving in households, due to its ability to thicken and stabilize.
The mouthfeel of ice cream without the eggs? Chances are, it’s Xanthan gum *.

Gluten free baked goods that have a satisfying texture, usually only achieved by the gluten strands developing? Yup, Xanthan gum *.

Creamy low fat foods? You guessed it. Xanthan gum helps with the creamy mouth feel.

And because it is consumed in tiny amounts, usually ¼ tsp on a whole batch of cookies for example, and any possible side effects only occur when eating around 15g and more on any given day (that would be 30 batches of cookies. Nope, not 30 cookies. 30x 9-12 cookies, which is how much this recipe makes), it is very safe to eat.

You can find it usually in the baking section of supermarkets or health food stores.

Why I’m still using Sugar

While I have tried to reduce my sugar intake over the years, especially during my 70lb weight loss period, I’m still not convinced sweeteners are any better. Aside from being crazy expensive! I mean, a 1lb bag of Xylitol, which is the only sweetener I found that tastes reasonably good, costs about 10€ in Ireland. While 1lb sugar costs just 1€. That’s honestly a difference I’m not willing to pay.

Also, according to research, they might even cause you to crave more sweets, by giving your brain a sweet signal, but not the calories associated with it. Meaning your body will try to get the promised calories in another way.

So, as with most adjustments I made and am talking about on my blog, I use everything in moderation. Now, I realise protein powder has sweeteners, but since I’m only replacing part of the sugar in classic cookies with it and give my body nutritionally valuable protein instead, I found I do not crave any more sweets after eating one of these cookies. Or any of my sweet recipes for that matter.

The Filling

Right. Onto the best thing about these incredible cookies: The Pistachio Cream filling.

If you follow my blog, you might have seen last weeks recipe and my hint to the adventures we will take it on. My 2 ingredient, 5 minute Pistachio cream is everything you need for Dubai Chocolate, irresistible filled croissants and a million more treats.
And of course these Brown Butter Pistachio Cream Cookies.

Freezing it, filling the cookies and baking them results in a luscious and luxurious cream oozing out when you break the still warm cookie apart. Roasted, super creamy pistachio butter gives it the full flavor hit you’d expect if you ever snacked on these addictive green nuts.

Mixed with white chocolate, your dream desserts couldn’t be any easier. Oh and it’s fabulous on toast too! Honestly, don’t buy Pistachio cream. Make your own!

No Food Processor needed

Just like Claire Saffitz’ original cookie, these beauties need no machines. Using ready made pistachio butter makes them super simple to throw together with just a bowl, whisk * and spoon.

Tip:
If you can’t find Pistachio butter, you can use ½ cup roasted and shelled pistachios plus 1 tbsp olive oil and process them until finely ground.
In which case you would need a food processor* or Vitamix*.

The Ingredients

The complete list of ingredients is in the recipe. I’m only listing those worth adding comments to here. Admittedly that’s a fair few of them. Ahem.

The Wet Mixture

• Butter – I realise the mix of the above mentioned nut butter plus butter sounds odd, but browned butter adds additional layers of nutty flavor to these cookies, so I really wanted to include it. Instructions on how to make this recipe vegan are below.
• Pistachio Butter – Has more solids than butter, hence using half butter, half Pistachio butter, to get to the correct consistency. Please use roasted pistachio butter. Most are anyway, as it makes the flavor really pop.

Note:
Chances are, roasted pistachio butter won’t be bright green, as the pistachios are usually roasted with their skin.

You could make your own, using blanched pistachios, following this fabulous post from “Love& Olive Oil”, but in my tests with both food processor * and Vitamix *, I never got a perfectly smooth butter, like the one I buy from KoRo or Bulk (neither sponsored nor affiliated)
That isn’t an issue when I use it as a spread, so making your own still has value, but for perfectly smooth pistachio cream, I’d use shop bought.

• Brown and granulated sugar – Brown sugar provides chew, which gluten free cookies are often lacking, so I’m adding more of it than granulated sugar, which gives the crunchy, caramelised edges and the perfect butterscotch flavor in combination with vanilla and butter. Both sugar types are needed for the perfect consistency.
• Vanilla extract – While my protein powder has vanilla flavor, I don’t find it adds enough, so I use additional vanilla extract. I tend to make my own, using about 10 vanilla beans on 2 cups of vodka, leaving it with the occasional shake for about 1 year. Yes, I know I’m occasionally a bit excessive in making my own stuff. Shop bought is fine, just make sure it’s real vanilla.
• The almond extract – Emphasizes the pistachio flavor, as both a pretty similar. It’s optional though. The cookies will be perfectly yummy without.
• Kosher Salt – 1 tsp might sound like a lot, but I feel it really lifts the flavor of the cookie and stops it from being too sweet. If you are using sea salt, halve the amount.
• Protein powder – MyProtein Whey, preferably Vanilla is my favourite choice for anything sweet really. It works marvellous in all my recipes and tastes good as shake too. This is neither affiliated nor sponsored. Just the powder I found to taste best after trying a fair few. If you never found one you actually enjoy, give this one a try.
  

Optional for colour

• Matcha powder – If you want your Pistachio cookies be a bit greener, but by natural means, try 1 tsp of matcha powder. It barely influences the flavor and adds a bit of a greener tint. I did one version with and one without it and found barely any difference. What made more of an impact are blanched, bright green pistachio pieces on top, if you want to go for stunning looks.

The Dry Mixture

• Gluten free flour – While I’m not gluten intolerant, a friend of mine is, and I know many of you are. I will give instructions on how to make this recipe with all-purpose flour below.

Note:

Cups, due to the possibility of compacting the flour while dragging the container through it, can give you wildly different results. Use a tablespoon to gently fill the cup with flour, then drag the back of a knife over it to level. This should give you the closest to the standard 120g per cup of flour.

Alternatively, if you have kitchen scales, assume 120g flour per cup and weigh it out.

In some of my recipes I will give gram measurements for this reason, but I mostly try to accommodate the American cup system.

• Xanthan gum – The “secret” ingredient to take these cookies from way too soft and not spreading to the crunchy on the edges, fudgy in the middle texture, which the perfect cookie (in my mind) should have. I promise you won’t be able to tell the difference between this and a classic cookie.
  I handed essentially everyone around me a bunch of these to test, and not one of them could tell it’s gluten free.
• Baking Soda – I halved the amount I found in most recipes, as the cookies where still puffing up too much. So don’t add more. Unless of course you want them puffy. Your cookies, your way!

Mix In and filling

• Chopped dark chocolate – I’m using 70% cocoa chocolate and chop it, as the different sizes of the pieces disperse through the cookies and give you a lovely mix of tiny bits and large puddles of chocolate flavor. I would not use chips, as they are produced to stay in shape, robbing you of said melted chocolate puddles. And at least for me, they are the whole point of chocolate chip cookies!
• Pistachio Cream – As mentioned above, I’m using my very own 2 ingredient, 5 minute pistachio cream for this recipes. Not only because the Sicilian Original is crazy expensive and usually sold out, but also because the pistachio flavor in my version is more intense due to using roasted pistachio butter.
  You can absolutely use shop bought cream if you can find it. But considering the current Dubai Chocolate hype, you’d have to get pretty lucky.

Toppings

• Chocolate chunks – I simply used the chunks that fell out of the cookie dough when filling them and plopped them on top. Maybe keep a few chunks on the side, just in case a cookie doesn’t lose a chunk.
• Chopped Pistachios – These are for both looks and added crunch. I’ve used both bright green blanched ones (in the version of the photos) and the simple shelled ones with their skin on. Apart from the colour there is no difference in the final result. Use what you have.
• Maldon Salt – Or any other salt crystals. I find Maldon salt to be the absolutely perfect finishing salt. The very gentle saltiness and perfectly shaped crystals just make for the prettiest topping. And they take the flavor to the next level, by bringing out all the other components in a more pronounced way.
  Leave them out at your own risk.
• Pistachio Cream pieces – The final touch are the surprising green flecks on top of the stunning and huge cookies. Those are pieces of pistachio cream. Frozen for the filling, I simply put half a piece on each cookie for the extra colour and burst of white chocolate & pistachio, which caramelises in all the best ways while baking. If you ever had baked white chocolate you’ll know what I mean. If you didn’t, please go try it!
  

Alternatively, make them with Almond Flour using these swaps:

I made a version with almond flour, psyllium husk powder, and Xanthan gum, which worked marvellously.

Use 1 2/3 cups almond flour, ½ tsp Xanthan gum (almond flour needs more structure than GF), 1 tsp psyllium husk powder and ½ tsp baking soda.

They were essentially indistinguishable from the original above. So much so, that I have a really hard time figuring out which is which in the photos and can’t tell from the flavor if I blind test them.

Here are the two in comparison. On top is the gluten free flour version, below the Almond flour version.
I think. I mean I know I took this picture to compare both and there is a tiny bit more texture in the lower cookie. Am I sure which one is which? Nope. Should I have marked them? Yup.

The Process

Line a sheet pan* with baking parchment.

Freeze the Pistachio Cream

First things first:
Line a half sheet pan* or similar with baking parchment.
Spread your pistachio cream in a ¼ in/5mm layer (this doesn’t have to be exact.) and pop it in the freezer while you prepare the cookies. It freezes within about 20min.

Brown the butter

Prepare a large bowl* with an ice bath and grab a slightly smaller (ideally metal* for better heat/cold distribution) bowl that will fit into it while being about 1 inch deep in the ice water.
Unless you are very patient and willing to wait until the butter has firmed up after browning without putting it into the fridge, which would leave it too firm to whisk *.

In a small pot*, melt the butter until foaming and popping, Then, when the popping slows down and things get quiet, turn the temperature down to medium, stir and peer through the dense foam, until you see deep amber brown speckles and it smells deliciously nutty.
Immediately pour into your metal bowl, to stop the browning. I left it in the pot 1 minute longer in one try, while scrambling for the right bowl and it promptly burned.

Whisk until creamy

Set the metal bowl into the ice bath (Personally I adore using the metal bowl from my Kitchen Aid* for this, as the handle is super practical!) and whisk * continuously, scraping the bottom until the butter becomes opaque. Take out of the ice bath and continue whisking until it’s creamy, but not firm.

Add the sugar, wet and protein

While still whisking, so the butter doesn’t solidify from the remaining cold of the bowl (I switched to the glass bowl from the Kitchen Aid * here, so you can see what I’m doing), add your egg, sugar, salt, pistachio butter, vanilla and almond extract, protein powder and matcha powder if using. Whisk until combined, but don’t beat until fluffy. We want the cookies to spread, not get fluffy.

Add the dry

In a small bowl, whisk flour, xanthan gum and baking soda until combined. Add to the cookie dough and fold in, using a spatula. It will be too firm to effectively use a whisk at this point.

The chocolate

Chop your chocolate into chunks. It’s fine if parts of it crumble and the sizes are irregular.  Put about 1 tbsp aside for topping later. Fold in the rest until just combined.

Pre-shape the cookies

I find it easiest to use a cookie scoop* for this. The medium scoop of my set gives me the exact cookie size I want in pretty equal portions and without sticky hands. Alternatively you can use 2 tablespoons. The cookie heaps should be roughly the size of golf balls.

Try some of the remaining cookie dough in the bowl, close your eyes and taste the perfection of brown butter and pistachios. Decide to make the whole thing without egg next time, to just eat it raw. (See vegan version notes in the FAQ on how to do that).

You can put them all on one sheet at this point, then cover with cling film because you have to…

Refrigerate

Put them in the fridge overnight.

I know, I know, that’s not what you wanted to hear!
But if there is one thing I learned from Claire’s cookies, it’s this: The flour will absorb moisture and butter, the butter and sugar will solidify again, and the flavor will “ripen” and gets even richer if you leave them overnight.
At the very minimum you need to leave them in the fridge for 2h. But really, overnight is best. The spread and taste will just be so much better for it.

Equipment used for this recipe:

Cookie Scoop

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Stainless Steel Pan

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Mixing Bowl

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Chef’s Knife

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Saucepan

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Xanthan Gum

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The Elements Of Baking

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Half Sheet Pan

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*

The Next day

Now it’s time to fill your cookies with pistachio cream and decorate them.

Grab the pistachio cream, now in a solid sheet, from the freezer and chop into about ½ in squares. They can be a bit irregular, that’s fine.

Chop 1 tbsp of pistachios into pieces. Different sizes are perfect.

Take the sheet pan * out of the fridge and get your toppings ready on the side.

Now grab a cookie dough piece, flatten it in the palm of your hand. Put aside any chocolate chunks that fall out. Fill each cookie with a stack of 3 frozen pistachio cream pieces, then pinch to close and roll in your hand briefly. Continue with the remaining dough balls.

Side note:

In the above pictures you can see the cookie dough without Matcha powder in the first 2 pictures of the dough balls being shaped and with matcha in the other 2. There is very little difference.

I used photos from making 2 batches, as I didn’t catch the focus point perfectly on the matcha version, but wanted to show you the whole process of filling.

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F/175°C.

Line a second sheet pan * with baking parchment.

Decorate

To decorate your cookies top them each with 1 large chocolate chunk, ½ piece of frozen pistachio cream, a few pistachio pieces, all of the above pushed gently onto the dough, so they stick and a sprinkle of Maldon salt or any sea salt flakes you have around.

Bake

Add max. 6 cookies to each sheet pan *, spaced well apart, as they spread a lot. (This recipe makes about 10 cookies, so 5 per sheet works out great.)

Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, rotating once, depending on your oven (most ovens don’t bake evenly) until golden brown on the edges, but slightly underbaked in the center.

You never want to bake them all the way through, unless you want a really crunchy cookie, as they will continue to bake while cooling.

Scoot

Wait what?
I just recently discovered this technique to get the perfectly round cookie every single time. Take a cookie cutter or small bowl that is just slightly bigger than your cookies. Pop it over the top, then “scoot”, meaning to move the cookie cutter in a rotating motion around the still soft cookie, creating not just the perfect shape, but also giving it the classic wrinkle.

This step isn’t just for the optics. It also ensures that the edges are crispy, but the middle remains fudgy and chewie, just as you want your perfect chocolate chunk cookie to be.

The hard part

And now wait. At least 10-15 minutes, so your Brown Butter Pistachio Protein cookies can firm up to utter perfection.

Eat while still slightly warm, with chocolate puddles on top. Maybe add a tiny bit more salt. Get to the center and find the warm, luscious Pistachio cream.

How To Store

These cookies freeze both in raw form (I would freeze the ready decorated balls in small freezer bags in portions) or baked perfectly well.
When you bake them, just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.

They will last in an airtight box on your counter for about 3 days and in the fridge for about a week, but I would advise to reheat them before eating. A few seconds in the microwave are ok, but they are at their best when reheated for about 4-5 minutes in the air fryer * at 350°F/175°C.

FAQ

Now I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Have you tried this? Did you enjoy it?
What other recipes would you like to see?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please share. It helps me a lot.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like these Pistachio based treats:

Pink Protein Orange and Pistachio Cake

Apricot Pistachio Muffins with Protein

The perfect dessert for strawberry season:
Mini Pavlovas made with brown sugar, topped with protein pistachio mousse and lime strawberries.