Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had to buy a bag of shelled pistachios for dinner, and because they were kind of pricey I wanted to find a way to use up the rest. I LOVE pistachios, but had never used them in cooking or baking before, but now I may have to find more ways to use them. I normally despise nuts in my chocolate chip cookies, but pistachios have more of a 'smooth' crunch than the typical crunch of other nuts, so they are a lovely addition that I will totally allow in my cookies in the future.

The original recipe calls for white chocolate, but since I didn't have any on hand I used a mix of bittersweet and semi-sweet chips. I think the white chocolate would be great though, possibly reminiscent of a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie?

Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Adapted slightly from Simply Recipes

Ingredients
1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of dark brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of kosher salt (regular salt will suffice)
1 cup of rolled oats
1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped pistachios, raw and unsalted
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Cream the butter and sugars together on high speed for three minutes.

2. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and beat for 3 minutes, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and rolled oats. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture slowly, being sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl once or twice to ensure even mixing.

4. Fold in the pistachios and white chocolate chips. Drop heaping teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets, add an extra pistachio or two on top of each bit of dough for decoration if desired.

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to set up on the cookie sheets before moving to a baking rack to cool completely.

Makes 6 dozen.