Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pistachios (Dairy Free)

Name: Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pistachios (Dairy Free)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: Cookies
Ingredients: 1/2 Cup (60g) Roasted Unsalted Pistachios; 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons (160g) All-Purpose Flour; 1/2 Cup (110 G) Packed Brown Sugar; 1/4 Cup (50g) Granulated Cane Sugar; 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder; 1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda; 1/4 Teaspoon Salt; 1 Teaspoon Matcha Powder; 1 Cup (150g) Dark Chocolate, Chopped (See Note 1); 7 Tablespoons (100g) Vegan Unsalted Butter; 1 Flax Egg See (1 tablespoon ground flaxseed + 2 tablespoons water; see Note 2); 1 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract; 3 Tablespoons Unsalted Pistachios, Roasted or Unroasted, Roughly Chopped; A Sprinkling of Flaky Sea Salt

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These Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pistachios are cozy and delicious with a sweet and nutty flavor! With rich dark chocolate and flaky sea salt, these cookies get even more magical with roasted pistachios. If you're looking amazing dessert or snack that will wow everyone, you've come to the right place. Plus, its all egg and dairy free!

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Hey Internet, are you ready for the best way to enjoy pistachios? While this green nut is great with just a little salt, it's even better in desserts! We've had it in chocolates, cakes, and even puddings. Those are all great, but we think we just made the best chocolate pistachio cookies with them!

A good cookie is a little more than just sugar, butter, and flour mixed together. The best cookies need deep flavors so these snacks can be more than a sugar high. Chocolate is always a good place to start, with its rich bitterness, but we wanted even more dimension to this.

And it wasn't enough to throw some nuts in and call it a day. No, we roasted our pistachios and then grind them into a paste in a food processor with a little oil. This results in a cookie dough that is filled with the flavor of nutty pistachios that goes great with the rest of the ingredients.

We took your classic chocolate chip cookies and made them extra special with pistachios. They are golden brown with crispy edges and soft, chewy centers.

These have to be one of our most favorite cookies that we've made since starting the blog. We've made a lot of cookies since then, from simple No Chill Chocolate Chip Cookies, to these Vegan Shortbread Cookies. But these pistachio chocolate cookies are our most loaded cookie ever! With flaky salt, chunks of chocolate, and even more pistachios, these are truly amazing. If you're a pistachio lover, you've got to try these chocolate chip cookies with pistachios.

On top of all of this, this recipe is plant-based! No egg yolk or dairy here. It's perfect for anyone who's dairy free or vegan! We've even shared these with some of Liz's nutrition school classmates and they all raved about these cookies! So even the non-vegans in your life will love this recipe.

So grab some bowls and let's get baking! There's just something we love about a freshly baked cookie and these pistachio chocolate chunk cookies deliver.

Why You'll Love This Pistachio Cookie Recipe

Sweet, Salty, and Chocolatey: These toppings make for the perfect balance of flavors!
Easy to Make: Make the pistachio paste (or use store-bought pistachio butter), then mix your wet and dry ingredients. Then scoop and bake! It's that easy.
Make it Your Own: Make this recipe sweeter with plant-based milk chocolate, semisweet chocolate chips, or make the chocolate even darker! There's a number of customizations you can do without altering the recipe too much. We'll discuss that below.

Ingredients

Pick up the following basic ingredients for these chewy cookies the next time you're at your local grocery store. See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full ingredients, instructions, and accurate nutrition information (to the best of our ability; please consult your physician, registered dietitian, or healthcare professional if you have specific dietary needs or need to meet certain daily values of any nutrient). we give substitutions for the ingredients in the section below this one, so most people can still make this recipe!

Pistachio Paste

½ Cup (60g) Roasted Unsalted Pistachios: You can find these available for purchase, but they are easy to make on your own from raw pistachios! Just add them to an air fryer, cook them at 300 F for about 5-7 minutes. They should be nice and toasty then!
1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Dry Ingredients

1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons (160g) All-Purpose Flour: We prefer to measure our flour with a kitchen scale for more accuracy and better cookies, but you can also use the spoon and level method where you scoop the flour into the measuring cup with a spoon and use the straight edge of a knife to level off the mound of flour.
½ Cup (110 G) Packed Light Brown Sugar: More brown sugar than cane sugar takes these cookies to the next level, texture-wise but feel free to even it out if you prefer.
¼ Cup (50g) Granulated Cane Sugar: These cookies are NOT overly sweet but if you want them sweeter you can add sweetness by using semisweet chocolate chips (as opposed to dark chocolate) and/or add another quarter cup of cane sugar.
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Matcha Powder, optional: Matcha does more than just make these cookies even greener. It adds another interesting, if light, flavor to the cookies!
1 Cup (150g) Dark Chocolate, Chopped: Dark Chocolate Chunks or Dark Chocolate Chips work just as well. We just use a 70% dark chocolate bar because we like them and also keep a lot of them on hand for other recipe creations.

Wet Ingredients

7 Tablespoons (100g) Vegan Unsalted Butter
1 Flax Egg (1 Tablespoon Ground Flaxseed + 2 Tablespoons Water): Flax eggs are super easy to make! Take some flax seeds and grind them in a spice grinder. Then add the grounds to a small bowl, add water and whisk it together. Then let it set in the fridge for 5 to 10 minutes. 1 Flax egg can do the job of one large egg, at least in baking terms.
1 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

Toppings

3 Tablespoons Unsalted Pistachios, Roasted or Unroasted, Roughly Chopped
A Sprinkling of Flaky Sea Salt

Substitutions and Additions

Brown Sugar: In a pinch, coconut sugar can work as a great replacement for brown sugar. You can also try adding a ½ tablespoon of molasses or, in a pinch, maple syrup to a ½ cup of cane sugar to make replacement.
Dark Chocolate: Vegan semi-sweet chocolate or even white chocolate are great replacements or additions to this recipe!
More Nuts: For the toppings, you can partly or fully replace the pistachios with other nuts. Macadamia, cashews, and pecans can be great in this recipe!

How to Make Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C). If you have not done so, make the flax egg by mixing the ground flaxseed with the water. It will thicken on the counter in 10 minutes or you can put it in the fridge for faster cooking... just don't forget to add it (we've done this before!). Prepare 2 9x13 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Blitz the Nuts: Add the toasted pistachios to a food processor or blender and blend until they are they are a fine powder. Then add the oil and blend again. The powder will become paste. Set aside for later.
Cream The Sugar: Grab a large bowl and add the vegan butter and both sugars. Using a hand mixer, combine the ingredients until they are lightly whipped.
Add the Wet Ingredients: Add the vanilla extract and the flax egg to bowl and mix everything together.
Add the Dry Ingredients: In a medium-sized separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and matcha powder and mix them together. Then add the flour mixture to the large bowl and fold everything together to make the cookie dough. Then add the chocolate.
Chill: Add the dough to your refrigerator for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Scoop and Shape: Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop the dough from the large bowl and add them to the baking trays. Separate each of them about 2-3 inches apart from each other. Flatten each dough ball and then add additional chocolate, nuts, and flakey salt.
Bake: Add the trays to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Then remove from the oven and then let cool before enjoying! Please wait at least 10-15 minutes to try a cookie as they finish cooking and setting as they cool. Straight from the oven they might be a bit soft still.

Storage Instructions

Once cooled, add the cookies to an airtight container. Store on the counter for about 5 days (if you can make them last that long.) Alternatively, you can freeze them for several months and reheat them in the oven or air fryer.

Additionally, you could scoop out your dough balls, put them on a lined baking tray and freeze them in a single layer. Once frozen, you can transfer them to a freezer safe bag. When you want to bake, you can let the dough thaw, or you can bake them directly by adding a few additional minutes to the bake.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use different sized cookie scoops?

Yes! Just give each cookie enough free space to expand while baking. You also may want smaller or bigger chunks of chocolate, depending if you are using a bigger or smaller cookie scoop.

Can I make this recipe into a crispy cookie recipe?

Yes! All you need to do is to bake them a little longer than we did. Try about 18 to 20 minutes instead.

I don't have an air fryer. How can I toast the pistachios?

You can either bake them in the oven while it preheats for a few minutes. You can also use a medium saucepan or skillet to toast them on the stovetop at medium heat.

Could I roll this dough out and use a cookie cutter?

Yes, but you'll either want small chocolate chips or add them after you're done cutting your cookie shapes. They might get in the way of the cutter, so wait to add them so you have a smooth dough.

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