PINK PEPPERCORN & PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES WITH CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
say that three times fast
SWEET TEETH
I stand at my kitchen window. The sun pours in, blanketing me in warmth. I throw the glass open and bask in the fresh air. The smell of daffodils punctuates the breeze. My boyfriend fails to inform me that this is actually the smell of a candle he is burning in the other room. The first leaves unfurl from their buds on the tree hanging over our backyard. My head is pressed to the screen, and I take a deep breath, willing the first pollen particles to fill my lungs. Yesterday, I wore a puffer jacket. Today, I long to strip down and lay in the grass, allowing the sultry rays of sunshine to lightly toast my skin. I check the weather app on my phone. It seems tomorrow I will have to don the puffer jacket again. The day after looks nice, though.
I wanted to develop a recipe that tastes like all this feels—winter melting into spring. Something that eats like the eagerness of spending hours upon hours outside after months of hibernation.
The base of these cookies is a warm and toasty pistachio dough, flooded with pools of bitter chocolate. The flavor is comforting, like being wrapped in a blanket on the coldest day of the year. The floral fruitiness of the candied orange peel and the bright spice of pink peppercorns pop on the tongue, reminding you that the warmth of spring is just around the corner.
In my opinion, these might be my pièce de résistance.
In the opinion of a drunk guy at a party I brought them to, “they taste like the potpourri sitting on the back of my grandma’s toilet smells.” Though he reached for a second cookie as he said this, so perhaps it was a compliment.
THE RECIPE
PINK PEPPERCORN & PISTACHIO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES WITH CANDIED ORANGE PEEL
makes 24 cookies
Ingredients:
For the candied orange peel:
1 large (~250g) orange
1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups (363g) water
For the cookies:
1 cup (120g) raw shelled pistachios
2 1/4 cups (288g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (4g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt*
1 tsp (4g) baking soda
1 tsp (1g) pink peppercorns, finely crushed, plus more for sprinkling
16 tbsp (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
2 large (100g) eggs
1 tsp (4g) pure vanilla extract
8 oz (170g) chocolate, at least 60% cacao, chopped
Flakey salt, for sprinkling
Directions:
Slice your orange: Using a sharp knife, slice the peel and white pith away from the orange fruit. Thinly slice your peels to about 1/8 of an inch. Eat the fruit as a snack!
Boil your peels: Add the peels to a medium-sized saucepot and cover with 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, let the peels cook for 15 minutes. Drain the peels, and rinse the pot. Add the peels back into the pot and cover with 2 more cups of water, bring them to a boil again for another 15 minutes. Strain. Set aside. Rinse your pot.
Candy your orange peels: In the medium-sized sauce pot, combine your 1 1/2 cups of sugar with the 1 1/2 cups of water. Heat over medium, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Add your orange peels into the syrup and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, until the peels become translucent, 50-60 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove your peels from the syrup, and place them on a wire rack to dry out for 24 hours or at least overnight. Save the orange sugar syrup to use in cocktails or to drizzle over pancakes.
Divide your pistachios: Once your orange has dried and you’re ready to make the cookies, take half of your pistachios (1/2 cup) and blitz them in a food processor until you have finely ground nutmeal, 1 minute**. Roughly chop the remaining half and set aside.
Whisk together your dry ingredients: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together your flour, ground pistachio nutmeal, salt, crushed pink peppercorns, and baking soda. Set aside.
Make your cookie dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, combine your room temperature butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium-high for 3 minutes or until it is light and fluffy. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in your eggs, one at a time, and vanilla extract and beat on medium-high until combined, 1 minute. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in your dry ingredients. Once added, slowly pulse the mixer until just combined. Add in the chopped chocolate, roughly chopped pistachios, and candied orange peel and pulse the mixer to incorporate.
Scoop & chill: Using a 1.52 ounce (#20) cookie scoop** or weighing out 50g balls of dough, portion out the cookies and place them on a large baking sheet. Chill in the refrigerator until firm for at least 1 hour.
Preheat & prep: Preheat the oven to 350° and place your oven racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle slots. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Bake: Place 6 chilled balls of dough, two inches apart, onto each. Bake the sheets at the same time, swapping their places halfway through baking, for 14-16 minutes or until deeply golden around the edges and puffed and lightly golden in the center. Right when they come out of the oven, sprinkle the cookies with a generous portion of flaky salt and additional crushed pink peppercorns.
Rinse, repeat, eat: Allow your baking sheets to cool for at least 10 minutes if reusing them, and repeat step 9 to bake off the remaining cookie dough. Let cool and enjoy!
Leftovers?: Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days
Notes:
*If you’re using any other type or brand of salt (i.e. Morton, or sea salt), I suggest scaling back to 1 tsp.
**If you don’t want to dirty another dish, you can just roughly chop all of them, though the pistachio flavor won’t be as pronounced in each bite.
***In a pinch, you can also portion out 3 tablespoons worth of the dough into balls.
Do Ahead: You can make the cookie dough ahead and store it for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or a month in the freezer.
GORG, my god. needs to be my phone background ASAP
Looks like a painting!