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Fill the house with the comforting aroma of cookies baking! Chocolate chip cookies with pistachios and sea salt are a surprising partnership of sweet and salty. Chewy, gooey cookie, oozy, melted choc chunks and crunchy pistachio nuts are an irresistible any-time treat. Make 3 dozen in under 20 minutes!

For a nut-free cookie alternative that is light and lemony, try my lemon ricotta cookies, which are laced with just a hint of white chocolate.

Top down shot of chocolate chip cookies laid out on a baking sheet

Tasty chocolate chip cookies

I am excited to be sharing this particular cookie recipe with you as it showcases one of my favourite flavour trios: pistachio, dark chocolate and sea salt. Yes, salt!

Salt naturally enhances the cocoa in chocolate giving the cookie a sophisticated flavour dimension. I’ve opted for dark chocolate rather than milk, for its higher cocoa content and subtle bitterness against the sugary dough. Finally, pistachios, besides their savoury nutty flavour, are the most gorgeous green and purple colour!

There are definitely two cookie camps out there: soft and chewy versus crispy and snappable. To me, the most satisfying are the tender, slightly chewy-centred, crunchy at the edge kind.

But honestly, present me with a ramshackle and rustic plate of crunchy, crumbly cookies, and I’d be just as pleased!

Close up shot of a chocolate chip cookie with a bite taken out

Ingredients

Each ingredient in a cookie recipe performs a chemical reaction that contributes to the perfect cookie result. Here’s how playing with some of ingredients can change your cookie outcome:

Plain/ all-purpose flour is considered best for a chewy cookie. It also prevents out-of-control spread. Self-raising can be used if you are after a snappier-style biscuit.

Cornstarch (cornflour (UK)) is a thickening agent. Using cornstarch will result in a chewy, but not cakey, cookie. The optimum texture!

Baking soda and baking powder– they’re not the same thing! A combo of the two gives a soft-centred, crunchy-edged cookie. Leaving out the baking soda will give a thick, fluffy texture, more cake-like.

Butter should be softened. So, get it out the fridge early! It can be tempting to melt it if you have forgotten, but yes, this will make a difference too. This produces flatter cookies that look kind of wrinkled.

You can use salted or unsalted. Just don’t add any extra to the cookie mixture if you take the salt route.

Sugar, I use granulated or caster and packed brown sugar. Using only granulated will result in a very pale, plate-flat cookie with chocolate chips and pistachios bobbing on top. Using only brown will do the opposite, a tanned, fluffy and soft, pillow-cookie. A combination of the two helps them meet in the middle.

Eggs, although they can be substituted, I like to bake with them as they bind the dough and provide structure to the cookie. Leaving them out will result in a compact cookie that falls apart easily.

Top down view of six cookies next to each other on a baking sheet

Shaping and making the cookies

Homemade cookies that are uniform in size, colour and texture can be tricky to deliver! I find following these helpful tricks and tips can keep them in check.

First of all, once your cookie dough is mixed, use an ice cream scoop (with a trigger if possible) to portion out your dough balls. Each cookie will then be the same size and should bake evenly.

Then squeeze all the dough balls onto a lined This is an affiliate link.baking tray. Don’t worry about spacing. For now, they are going in the fridge for an overnight stay. This is key to preventing the dreaded spread- when fat that is not sufficiently bound to flour leaks out of the cooking dough making cookies wide and flat.

After the rest, ideally the following day, rearrange the dough balls on the baking trays with at least 3 inches between them in every direction. You don’t want them merging into one choc chip tray bake.

Then press down on each ball with the bottom of a glass to achieve a pleasingly round cookie shape. They should be at an even 1½cm/½ inch thickness.

Now they are oven ready!

Process shots of the cookie batter being made

Recipe Tips and Notes

As baking is a precise science, measure all the ingredients accurately. This is an affiliate link.Kitchen scales are the ultimate baking weapon, if you have them put them to good use now!
And your This is an affiliate link.stand mixer and paddle attachment. If your “lab” is lacking in the apparatus department, don’t panic! A hand mixer will work too for creaming together the sugar and softened butter.
Softened butter means soft but still in shape. I don’t advise melting it.
You can use either dark or light brown sugar. The outcome will still be a blissfully delicious cookie.
I like my pistachios whole and vivid green, so I don’t toast or chop them. They risk burning during baking if already toasted, which is not a good look or flavour.
This bit is important: I recommend resting the cookie dough in the refrigerator overnight. Here’s why: 1) the flavours will concentrate and taste more complex, 2) it controls the spread of the dough so you’re not left with a single sheet of thin, flat cookie, 3) the texture will be at peak chew. The waiting is a little pain for a whole lot of gain!
If you absolutely cannot wait the night out, give them at least 5 hours chilling.
Trying to scoop and portion cold, hard cookie dough from the fridge is not easy. Make your dough balls with an ice cream scoop before refrigerating while the dough is pliable.
An ice cream scoop with a trigger is an efficient tool for the job! It delivers even-sized balls super quick.
This recipe makes a lot of cookies! After scooping, put any surplus balls in an This is an affiliate link.airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
For uber-goo factor, bake for 12 minutes. They might look unbaked on the top, but the bottom will be golden and crisp. Let them cool for 10-15 minutes before diving in! Those choc chips will be molten!
Finally, I sprinkle a pinch of flaked sea salt over the batch of baked cookies. For me, this is the ultimate in finishing touches. It’s edgy, stylish, a taste-experiment success!

Process shots of the cookie dough being spread out on a baking sheet

Storage and leftovers

This mega recipe yields 3 dozen cookies, so you might want to freeze a dozen or two. Dough is perfect for freezing, it just needs to be thawed before following the original baking instructions.

To keep the desirable chew to your freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, once they’ve cooled completely, store them in an This is an affiliate link.airtight container at room temperature. Eat them within 3 days while they are at their freshest.