Pistachio cookies - soft and chewy cookies. This recipe is vegan, gluten-free, and made without xanthan gum or starch.
I made these pista cookies with rice flour. I never thought in my life that I will make cookies with rice flour. But life demanded so. My son was diagnosed with CMPA a few months back. As I'm breastfeeding, I have to be on a vegan and gluten-free diet. More about my vegan and gluten-free baking story here.
Generally, we use rice flour to make our favorite breakfast Sarvapindi. Now I tried these pista cookies with rice flour and they turned out yummy.
I have adapted this recipe from Audrey (Unconventional baker blog). We generally don't get maple syrup in India, even though they are available in big supermarkets, it will be very costly and I don't like to use it for everyday baking recipes. So I modified the original recipe and made it as healthy as possible.
Though these pista cookies are made with rice flour, you will not know it and all my family members approved it. Hence sharing this recipe with you all.
Pistachio cookies will be a little crisp outside and soft inside. I have used quarter teaspoon salt and hence these cookies will be salty and sweet which makes these a perfect accompaniment for tea. And I have mastered vegan recipe of Indian chai and so not missing it 🙂 You can reduce or skip salt to make sweet cookies.
Also, there are a lot of healthy cakes and cookies recipes on this blog that do not use any artificial flavors, refined sugars, refined flour, starches, etc.. Please do check them.
Pistachio cookies recipe with step by step photos:
- Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees C.
- While the oven is getting heated, take a mixing bowl and add rice flour, raw sugar, almond butter, oil, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix everything well till the flour has a crumbly texture.
- Now add water mix everything till the smooth dough is formed. The dough should be soft and pliable. Do not add more water, just mix everything well for a couple of minutes and dough will become soft.
- Divide the dough into equal parts and make round balls out of them.
- Take each ball and gently press it on the roughly chopped pistachios so that they stick to the dough.
- Repeat this for all the cookies and on both sides. Bake these cookies for 15 to 18 minutes in a preheated oven. Baking time depends on the thickness of the cookies.
- They should be in light brown color once done.
- Cool them on a wire rack once they are out of the oven. Store in an airtight jar to retain the crunchiness. They will be good for a week at normal room temperature.
Check out other healthy gluten-free cookie recipes on the blog...
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Pista cookies recipe:
Pista cookies
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoon rice flour
- 2 tablespoon almond butter
- 2 tablespoon pistachio (roughly chopped)
- 2 tablespoon raw sugar
- 1 tablespoon oil ( I used coconut oil)
- 1 tablespoon water
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees C.
- While the oven is preheated, take a mixing bowl and add rice flour, raw sugar, almond butter, oil, baking soda, and salt.
- Mix everything well till the flour has a crumbly texture.
- Now add water mix everything till the smooth dough is formed. Dough should be soft and pliable. Do not add more water, just mix everything well for a couple of minutes and dough will become soft.
- Divide the dough into equal parts and make round balls out of them.
- Take each ball and gently press it on the roughly chopped pistachios so that they stick to the dough. Repeat this for all the cookies and on both sides.
- Bake these cookies for 15 to 18 minutes in a preheated oven. Baking time depends on the thickness of the cookies. They should be in light brown color once done.
- Cool them on a wire rack once they are out of the oven. Store in an airtight jar to retain the crunchiness. They will be good for a week at normal room temperature.
Srivalli
That's really one interesting and heatlhy cookies to start the series. Looking forward to read more such healthy ones. The cookies look so inviting!
Sravanthi
Thank you so much Srivalli for all the inspiration you give 🙂
Amara
Hi Sravanthi, welcome to the BM family. Those cookies look delicious and they are guilt free. Love the list of ingredients used in making these cookies.
Sravanthi
Thank you so much Amara 🙂 Looking forward for more recipes..
Saraswathi Ganeshan
Scrumptious cookies! I used rice flour when I ran out of flour! Super delicious and no one find out until you disclose it!
Sravanthi
Thank you so much.. this is first time i used rice flour and no one found out 🙂
Rafeeda - The Big Sweet Tooth
That is surely a very interesting cookie! Especially with rice flour... I have baked cookies with rice flour before and am tempted to try these crunchy ones topped beautifully with pistachios... And agree, sometimes you skip the ingredients and replace them with whatever you have. I would use honey... 🙂
Sharmila
That's super awesome and healthy too. Using almond butter is great idea!
Sharmila Kingsly
This is really an interesting version of cookie...adding rice flour loved this idea...
KJ
I recently tried this recipe and added desi ghee as I didn’t have almond butter at home also added 3 tbsp of almond flour. It turned out super delicious!
Thanks for this amazing recipe
Sravanthi
Thank you for your feedback! I'm so glad that you like these cookies. And I will try these with almond flour as you did.