The reviews calling this recipe a lot of work are really mystifying to me. The dough is a snap to make, takes no time and unlike many doughs is easy to work with. If you make it ahead it's even easier. I use purchased paste, which is readily available on the internet, and for the first time today did not have a sweetened one so just added some honey. Never have bothered with the butter though perhaps I will do it today but -- why clean extra equipment? It isn't necessary. These super cookies are a hit every time.
Michele H.
3/22/2023
They were a lot of work but worth it in the end. The trouble alluded to in the comments regarding the paste may come from the easily missed part of the instructions about adding butter to the paste which I only discovered after reading the instructions many times. I actually thought the cardamom flavor was not strong enough. The recipe says to make the dough into 18 cookies which come out much larger than the pictures would imply. They have a nice shortbread quality and I was almost tempted to sprinkle granulated sugar on top of the cookies as I didn't find them very sweet. There were rich and tasty but did the pistachio flavor really come through? My dull palate strikes again... Also, I refrigerated the dough overnight which seemed fine it just was a little harder to roll them into balls.
Murf-the-Serf
12/28/2020
Worth the work!! I made the pistachio paste from scratch and replaced the cardamom with orange zest because I realized too late I didn’t have any... but my-oh-my!! These will be a new Christmas staple!! They are the perfect amount of sweet to go with a day long champagne fest! The sable dough is versatile and I think would be great with a little ganache too! Will be making these again!!
Bets K
Chattanooga, Tennessee
12/25/2020
This recipe was a hit last year! I made them for my co-workers and they were people. I couldn't find any pistachio paste locally so I made my own and added a little bit of orange extract. Amazingly good.
Sol F.
12/5/2020
The pistachio paste ended up horrible nothing like the pictures. The cookie part was great but I had to look up another pistachio paste recipe to make it work.
Anonymous
Boca Raton, FL
12/27/2019
Can I freeze these cookies before I put the pistachio filling in, if so for how long?
CharlesRFemale
Canada
12/2/2019
When I was 12 I had an allergic reaction to pistachios that signaled a tree nut allergy that would prevent me from eating these crunchy, joyful morsels until my mid twenties when I realized I had grown out of my allergy (apparently that's a thing). Maybe that decade+ of tree nut abstinence is the cause of my love for these cookies. Or maybe they are just that delicious. These are my favorite cookies. Agree to an extent with frustrating aspects of the recipe, but also nothing I make looks exactly like the BA picture and these cookies are delicious even if the pistachio mixture doesn't look like that perfect little piped dollop. Also I made a double batch of these cookies and the pistachio paste turned out best this way. My bigger issues are that some of the chopped pistachios catch and become a little brown and also that the cookies split when you press into the middle. That being said none of those concerns would prevent me from making these cookies because they are a little slice of heaven.
Joey3
Boston, MA
1/5/2019
The large number of reports of problems with making these dissuaded me from even attempting them. Pistachios are too expensive to waste them on a cookie failure.
Anonymous
CT
See AlsoApple Cranberry Crumble Pie12/19/2018
These are like the fancy cookies you make to impress your friend w discerning taste. pistachios and vanilla beans called for- not cheap at all. I've made these probably 4 times and have used vanilla extract bc i'm ballin on a budget. But wow, these are SCRUMMY! My paste is never super silky and always a bit browner than the photos but it tastes divine. perfect complement to the sweet, spice-full cookie. I would not suggest forming the cookie dough into logs like the sable recipe suggests- it's really not necessary. I just chill it in a big hunk and rip off a bit to form into a rounded ball. Would definitely recommend getting the nuts from the bulk bins section- usually better prices and I have never had a problem finding raw, shelled pistachios there.
madmaddy
Greenville, SC
12/14/2018
Well, they do taste good, but.... As other have noted, making the pistachio paste yourself is the problem. I tried it twice (thankfully? I had overpurchased TWENTY DOLLARS worth of pistachios from Whole Foods). Both times, it came out poorly. More like a thick, dense nut butter than any kind of paste. I tried it with all ingredients in the food processor at the same time for over 5 minutes. Then I tried fully grinding the pistachios into powder by themselves in the food processor and then drizzling in the honey and vegetable oil while pulsing. Less separation, but adding butter and using the mixer resulted in the same - butter melting, everything separating, "paste" a thick, dense butter. I put it in a plastic bag and tried to pipe it, but it came out more like thick, dense goo. Maybe the problem is the roasted pistachios. I know the recipe calls for raw, but Whole Foods didn't have any. I wonder if that would have made a difference. The honey sable dough is really, really good (although also really, really rich), and the gross-LOOKING pistachio "paste" still tasted good. A good tasting, but gross looking cookie.
Anonymous
Dublin, OH
12/24/2017
Great recipe. One thing I wish I had done was blanch the pistachios to remove the skins. This makes the paste lighter and a more subtle taste. Otherwise perfect.
Anonymous
Philadelphia
12/23/2017
these cookies were great, however, making the pistachio paste was really tricky. I tried using a food processor, but in a fit of rage and impatience, I pulled out my old mortar and pestle. It worked much better there as I was able to grind the pistachios. It tasted far too sweet for my taste, so I added some salt into the paste to counteract the overpowering honey flavor. I also recommend putting in some unsalted butter for a creaminess.
Anonymous
Pasadena, CA
12/20/2017
Sable dough was delicious and came together easily, although it wasn't necessary to roll into perfect logs for this purpose as the recipe states (each log just needs to produce 18 equal-sized balls). 3/4 tsp ground cardamom sounded like too much, but it lended the perfect strength of flavor once the cookies were baked. I had the same problem as multiple other posters regarding the pistachio cream topping. The room temperature butter and pistachio paste separated in the stand mixer; the pistachio paste seemed too sticky due to the honey to combine properly with the butter. I moved the mixture back to the food processor and gave it a couple splashes of water to loosen into a smooth paste, then transferred back to the stand mixer and added an additional 2 tbsp room temp butter and one drop green food coloring. The result was a fluffy cream, perfectly suitable for piping. Will distribute this batch to coworkers and make another batch for Christmas Eve dinner!
Anonymous
Boston, MA
12/18/2017
I found the cardamom overwhelming - couldn't taste the vanilla, and the pistachios were sort of lost in it too (3/4 tsp. of cardamom is more than I've seen in any recipe, ever). It was also very salty. So made it a second time with less salt and cardamom, which was better. I had roasted shelled pistachios, which I made into paste but was dark brown (totally my doing; recipe clearly says use raw nuts). For the second set, I rolled the unbaked dough in pistachios with purple and silver sparkling sugar, then added a good dollop of taste-free red food coloring gel to the pistachio paste for a rose/mauve color, then put rose petal jam on top of the pistachio paste and also dusted the outside of the cookies with rose gold edible glitter dust. They looked nice and tasted good, but I wanted something that looked really nice/unusual and tasted great, so am still searching for the perfect cookie. A note for BA/Ms. Saffitz: it's nice to have comments on texture in the recipe, so you know what you're aiming for. I wasn't sure if these should be crisp, chewy, or some combination.
Anonymous
Bay Area, CA
12/18/2017
These are delicious! Made the pistachio paste, first ground up the pistachios, then added a 1/2 tbsp of oil and 2 tbsp honey - turned out beautifully. The dough is delicious on it's own too...or for the linzer cookies. Would definitely make again!
wheresgigi2
Tucson, AZ
12/17/2017
