Ugly-But-Good Pistachio and Almond Cookies (Brutti ma Buoni)

I heard about these by someone asking me if I had a recipe for them, and I’m so glad they asked! These cookies are so delicious. They’re amazing with some coffee, or just by themselves. Not too sweet, and a great tradition to start making for the holidays.

These Brutti ma Buoni Italian cookies are usually served around Christmas time. They’re a little labor intensive, but they don’t take too long and they’re so worth it. Usually made with hazelnuts or almonds, depending on the region of Italy, I decided to shake things up a bit by making them with pistacios. Not sure if Italians would appreciate the twist, but guessing the only criteria is that these be ugly and taste good, and they’re both.

This is a Martha Stewart recipe that I subbed a few ingredients out of here and there. She uses hazelnuts, dark chocolate, and vanilla. I used pistachios, almonds and triple sec.

Recipe Resource: Martha Stewart

Adapted by: Tierney Larson

Ingredients:

6 oz pistachios, shelled

5 oz almonds

9 egg whites

1 1/2 cups (297g) granulated sugar

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp triple sec, or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ok so…Preheat your oven to 350F and place the pistachios and almonds on two separate sheet trays. Place them in the oven, giving them a shake now and then, for 8-10 minutes until they’re fragrant and slightly darker in color. The pistachios might be done before the almonds, hence the separate trays. Remove and let cool, then roughly chop them and set aside.

Lower the oven to 325F, and line a sheet tray with parchment. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add the egg whites and whisk on medium low until they become frothy around the sides of the bowl, about 4 minutes. Then bump the speed up to medium high and spoon the sugar gradually in, a spoonful at a time, until it’s all incorporated. Continue to whisk on medium-high to high for 3-5 minutes until you’ve reached the stiff peak stage and they look very glossy. Then whisk in the sugar and triple sec.

Scrape the meringue into a medium heavy bottomed pot and fold in the nuts. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a high heat silicone spatula so the bottom and sides don’t burn. This will take about 15 minutes, and it will start to look curdled and weird but that’s normal. It’s ready to portion out and bake when it starts to pull away from the pan, thicken and turns a light brown color.

When the mixture is ready, use a 2 tbl spoon cookie scoop (or a regular spoon to scoop and another to scrape) and portion out the cookies onto the prepared sheet pan, leaving an inch between each cookie. You should get about 12 cookies.

Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown. Place them on a wire rack to fully cool. (They’ll last for a week in an airtight container at room temp)