Why use the fridge when the freezer is so much faster?!!

It's been more than a week since my last post, no I haven't dropped the ball, I went on a weekend trip with the bf to the south coast and had an AMAZING time. So when I got home this evening, I HAD to bake. This week's recipe utilizes one of my favorite nuts, pistachios. I made Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies from Gourmet December 2006.

I started by shelling the pistachios and zesting the orange, which again highlighted the fact that I need a zester. It's way too difficult to zest citrus with an ordinary grater. I can't find them anywhere in Jamaica. I'll have to get one the next time I go abroad. After reading the reviews, I decided to chop the nuts in my mini chopper for a bit so that the cookies would be easier to slice. 

Now that the hard stuff was complete, I combined the flour, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl I whipped the butter, sugar and orange zest together. 

In thirds, I added the flour mixture to the butter mixture. When it was completely combined, I added the cranberries and pistachios. I tasted the batter and decided it could use some more zest so I finished off whatever was left on the orange I had.

I divided the batter into two square logs using plastic wrap. The instructions said to refrigerate for at least two hours, but I figured it wouldn't hurt if I just put 'em in the freezer until they were firm enough to slice instead. So I did, and for the most part, it worked!. There were a few cookies that fell apart a little, but I just squooshed 'em back  together, no prob! After slicing them, I baked them for 18 minuted on a parchment lined sheet, then placed them on a rack to cool. They cooled very quickly, which was good because we couldn't wait to taste them.

My boyfriend, myself and our friend who was visiting took a taste. These tasted good but they weren't as sweet as I had expected, or wanted them to be. I was also disappointed that I did not pick up the fresh flavour of the orange zest. But with a few adjustments this could be a winner. I especially liked when I got a bite of cranberry or pistachio, that was the highlight of this cookie.

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