Slice and bake cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies with only 6 ingredients are the perfect easy Christmas cookie for the holiday season! A white chocolate drizzle makes them extra special. Make these buttery, lightly sweet shortbread cookies for Christmas cookie exchanges or to give out as holiday treats. (vegetarian)

four stacked cranberry pistachio cookies with white chocolate surrounded by cranberries, pistachios, and more cookies.

Who is gearing up for holiday baking season? Baking during the holidays is one of my absolute favorite parts of the Christmas season. As a kid, I always looked forward to the way the house smelled and the dozens of treats we made during the holidays to give to family and neighbors. It's a tradition I hope to share with my little girls as they grow up.

This year, I'm sharing this easy recipe for cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies with you to bring to your holiday gatherings. They're so fun, studded with red cranberries and green pistachios so that they're extra festive and a must-have for any shortbread lover like me!

Why You'll Love These Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

These cookies are simply heavenly. They're the perfect shortbread taste and texture - buttery, not-too-sweet with a hint of pistachio, with a crumbly, crisp yet tender bite. Red and green flecks of dried cranberries and pistachios make them so pretty for the holidays!

The real reason these shortbread cookies are such a winner, though, is that they're so easy to make! The dough is made right in the food processor, then chilled into a slice-and-bake log that makes life much easier than rolling out sheets of dough!

Shortbread Dough Ingredients

overhead view of ingredients needed to make cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies.

Shortbread dough is super simple. I used a simple 1-2-4 ratio of powdered sugar to butter to flour. I find that this is easy to remember and works beautifully for shortbread.

Butter - Use salted or unsalted, just make sure to omit the salt from the dough if you use salted butter.
Powdered Sugar
Flour - I love baking with whole wheat flour as it gives a nice flavor and nutrition profile to baked goods (not that healthy is the goal here!). I use whole wheat pastry flour. All purpose flour works, too.
Pistachios - You can really use any that you have. I used raw pistachios, but roasted ones also work just fine here.
Cranberries - Use a fresh package of dried cranberries so that they're still red and plump.
Pistachio extract - If you can find it, it's worth buying just for these cookies. (I got it on Amazon.) It gives these shortbread cookies a delicate but distinct pistachio flavor. But in a pinch, you can use almond extract instead.

How to Make Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

These cookies couldn't be easier, but I'll break it down for you here:

Combine everything except for the cranberries and pistachios (butter, powdered sugar, flour, pistachio extract, and salt) in the food processor to form a dough.
Add the cranberries and pistachios and pulse until they are just incorporated and roughly chopped.
Turn out the dough and use your hands to roll it into a 1 ½ to 2 inch-thick log. You can do this on a floured surface or directly on plastic wrap. You'll wrap the log in plastic while it chills.
Chill the dough for an hour or more. It should be nice and firm for the easiest slicing.
Slice the dough into ¼ inch-thick slices and place them on a cookie sheet.
Bake, cool, and enjoy!
An optional step that I love and think makes the cookies extra festive - melt a little white chocolate and drizzle it over cooled cookies, or dip the cookies halfway into the melted chocolate.

overhead view of cranberry pistachio shortbread cookies on a piece of parchment surrounded by a spoon dipped in melted white chocolate, cranberries, pistachios, white chocolate chips and a glass of milk.

Pro Tips For Making The Best Slice and Bake Shortbread Cookies

When making the dough, omit the salt if you're using salted butter or salted pistachios.
You can roll the dough into a log directly on the plastic wrap if you'd like to save a little mess.
Make sure to chill the dough until it's very firm. This will make the cookies easy to slice and help them to hold their texture.
Handle the dough with your hands as little as possible after chilling. You want it to stay nice and firm, and warm hands will soften the butter in the dough.
Use a large, sharp knife for slicing so you can get through the pistachios in a clean cut.
Allow the cookies to cool before handling and dipping/drizzling with chocolate so that they don't crumble.

Ingredient Substitutions

Like I mentioned, I love whole wheat pastry flour for these cookies (and all baking), but you can sub all-purpose flour if you'd like.
I've made these shortbread with regular granulated sugar before and it works just as well as powdered sugar.
If you can't find pistachio extract (I get it on Amazon), you can use almond extract.

cranberry pistachio shortbread cookie drizzled with white chocolate with a bite taken out of it.

If you made this recipe, please leave a star rating in the comments!

Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies

Print Recipe

Author: Kaleigh
Prep Time: 10 min
Chill Time: 60 minutes
Cook Time: 15 min
Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Yield: 12 cookies 1x
Category: dessert
Method: baked
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose)
1 tsp pistachio extract
¼ tsp sea salt (omit if using salted butter)
¼ cup shelled pistachios
¼ cup dried cranberries
Optional: ¼ cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

In a food processor, combine butter, powdered sugar, pastry flour, pistachio extract and salt until a smooth dough forms.
Add pistachios and cranberries and pulse to roughly chop and incorporate them into the dough.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 1 ½ to 2-inch thick log. Roll in a sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
When you're ready to bake, heat oven to 350°F.
Use a sharp knife to cut chilled dough into ¼ inch thick slices. Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
Bake 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden.
Remove from oven and cool.
Optional: Melt additional white chocolate chips according to package directions (or in 30-second intervals in the microwave, stirring in between each until smooth) to drizzle over cooled cookies or to dip of the cooled cookies in.

Notes

When making the dough, omit the salt if you're using salted butter or salted pistachios.
You can roll the dough into a log directly on the plastic wrap if you'd like to save a little mess.
Make sure to chill the dough until it's very firm. This will make the cookies easy to slice and help them to hold their texture.
Handle the dough with your hands as little as possible after chilling. You want it to stay nice and firm, and warm hands will soften the butter in the dough.
Use a large, sharp knife for slicing so you can get through the pistachios in a clean cut.
Allow the cookies to cool before handling and dipping/drizzling with chocolate so that they don't crumble.
I've made these shortbread with regular granulated sugar before and it works just as well as powdered sugar.
If you can't find pistachio extract (I get it on Amazon), you can use almond extract.