If you love pistachio flavors, then these pistachio star cookies are for you!
These star cookies use a very basic cookie dough recipe so that the pistachio cream filling is the star of the show. They're perfect for a Christmas gathering or cookie exchange, but since they use a star shape, they're also great year-round!
Pistachio Cream - What Is It?
It's a sweet spread that is usually sold in glass jars. It's basically nutella, but instead of being made with hazelnuts, it's made with pistachios! It's delicious, sweet, and irresistible.
There's tons of brands of pistachio cream out there. Here's one that's similar to the one I used. Or, you can make your own homemade pistachio cream!
Star Cookie Cutters
I used plastic star cookie cutters to cut the dough. Here is the exact set I used.
How to Make Star Cookies - Step by Step
Preheat oven to 350F. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (photo 1)
Add egg and vanilla extract. Beat until combined (photo 2)
Add flour and baking powder and mix until dough starts to form (photo 3)
Roll out dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Roll out to ⅛ inch thickness
Using a star cookie cutter, cut out star shapes, rerolling and cutting scraps (photo 4)
Using a smaller star cookie cutter, cut a smaller star in the center of the larger stars. Do this for half the cookies.
Arrange whole and cutout cookies on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake on top and bottom racks for approximately 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies start to turn golden (photos 5 &6)
Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool. Dust cutout cookies with powdered sugar if desired (photo 7)
Spread pistachio cream over bottom of each whole cookie (photo 8)
Place cutout cookie on whole cookie, sugar side up (photo 9)
Top Tips to Make Pistachio Star Cookies
- If you don't want to use pistachio cream, you can substitute nutella, jam, lemon curd. Whatever filling you like! The dough is so neutral that any filling flavor will work with these cookies.
- Store these cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- For the larger star, I used a 3 ¼ inch star cookie cutter, and for the smaller, inner star I used a 1 ¾ inch star cookie cutter. This is the set here.
More Cookie Recipes You Might Like:
If you’ve tried making these Star Cookies, or any other recipe on the blog please let me know what you thought of it, I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, and PINTEREST to see more delicious food and what I’ve been up to.
Recipe
Star Cookies with Pistachio Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour plus extra for rolling
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup pistachio cream
- powdered sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla extract. Beat until combined.
- Add flour and baking powder and mix until dough starts to form.
- Roll out dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Roll out to ⅛ inch thickness.
- Using a star cookie cutter, cut out star shapes, rerolling and cutting scraps.
- Using a smaller star cookie cutter, cut a smaller star in the center of the larger stars. Do this for half the cookies.
- Arrange whole and cutout cookies on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets.
- Bake on top and bottom racks for approximately 8 minutes, until the edges of the cookies start to turn golden.
- Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool. Dust cutout cookies with powdered sugar if desired.
- Spread pistachio cream over bottom of each whole cookie. Place cutout cookie on whole cookie, sugar side up.
Recipe Notes
- If you don't want to use pistachio cream, you can substitute nutella, jam, lemon curd. Whatever filling you like! The dough is so neutral that any filling flavor will work with these cookies.
- Store these cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
- For the larger star, I used a 3 ¼ inch star cookie cutter, and for the smaller, inner star I used a 1 ¾ inch star cookie cutter. This is the set here.
Robyn says
I made these beautiful, tasty cookies this weekend. I baked them as directed the first time, but had an awful time keeping the hollow stars in shape as I transferred them to the cookie sheet. I ended up rolling out the second batch between two sheets of parchment paper and refrigerating it for about 15 minutes. My next stars were perfectly shaped and didn’t spread as much as they baked. Next time I’ll probably put a little more pistachio cream on them as I couldn’t really taste it. I took them to a party and every last one of them was gone! Thank you for a great recipe!
Sandra Bryson says
I want to make these in advance, can they be frozen.
Thanks
Pina says
Hi Sandra, yes they can be frozen! What would be even better is if you froze just the cookies, without the filling, then defrosted them, and filled them with the pistachio cream.
Hope that helps!
Pina
Phyllis says
I found the pistachio cream from Costco was quite runny. Do you find that and does it slide off the cookie?
Pina Bresciani says
Hi Phyllis! I haven't tried the pistachio cream from Costco, so I can't speak to how it slides off the cookie. Maybe it would help to try a different brand and see if that helps? Keep me updated!
-Pina