Gluten Free Cookies with Pistachio Ganache Filling
Nutritiously indulgent is everything these gluten free cookies with pistachio ganache filling are. You only need simple ingredients to make them, which means you can bake these cookies year-round regardless of season. As soon as you take a bite, you’re met with a creamy, rich pistachio filling, which pairs beautifully with the cocoa nib exterior. Bring these cookies to any occasion/ celebration and you’ll impress everyone!
To make these cookies gluten free and nutritious, I chose to use oat flour. What’s best about oat flour is that the baked goods have smooth, non-grainy textures and they taste like they were made with regular flour.
For the ganache filling I used cream, white chocolate, and ground pistachios. Now if you’d like to make these cookies for people who have nut allergies, you can make a few substitutions. Firstly, you can replace the ground pistachio with 3 tbsp. freeze-dried raspberry powder, or matcha powder. Secondly, you could use sesame powder in place of pistachio. And lastly, you could use semi-sweet chocolate instead of white chocolate and make a classic ganache. Take a look at the ganache recipe I used for making these cookies.
Please note that you will need icing sugar to make the dough. It is important you use icing sugar and not granulated sugar in order to create a fine and airy dough. This yields cookies that are fluffy and crispy, but not dense. Additionally you also need a little vanillated sugar. I chose to use it instead of vanilla extract to minimize the volume of liquids going into the dough.
You can find vanillated sugar in grocery stores that carry European products. It is also available online on Amazon. Alternatively, you can use vanilla paste if you have it.
To scoop the dough I used an ice-cream scoop of 17 ml (½ fl. oz.) volume, which yielded 12 cookies. It is important you use an ice-cream scoop for this step in order to obtain dough spheres of the same size, and that the cookies bake uniformly.
See more cookie recipes here.
Here’s the recipe for the gluten free cookies with pistachio ganache filling:
Gluten Free Cookies with Pistachio Ganache Filling
Servings 12 cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 2 ¼ cups (225 g/ 8 oz.) oat flour
- 1 ¼ sticks (145 g/ 5 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (60 g/ 2 oz.) icing sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ¼ cup (30 g/ 1oz.) cocoa nibs, finely crushed
- 2 tbsp. vanillated sugar
- ¼ tsp. salt
For the pistachio ganache:
- ¼ cup (60 ml/ 2 fl. oz.) cream (35% fat content)
- 150 g (5 ¼ oz.) white chocolate, chopped
- 4 tbsp. unsalted pistachio nuts, ground
Instructions
For the pistachio ganache:
- Place the chocolate into a medium-sized bowl.
- Pour the cream into a small pot and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Once it begins to simmer, pour the cream over the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate is melted, and mixture is creamy. Add the ground pistachio and mix well. Let it cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate for one hour, until it is firm enough to form small spheres. Form small spheres the size of ½ rounded tsp. and refrigerate them until ready to use.
For the cookies:
- Place the oat flour and salt into a bowl and whisk them together.
- In a large bowl beat the butter, sugar and vanillated sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat together until well incorporated. Add the flour mixture in three to four steps, mixing well after each addition. Allow the dough to rest 10-15 minutes.
- Place the cocoa nibs into a small bowl. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough, using an ice-cream scoop. Flatten the dough with your hand. Place a ganache sphere in the center and fold the dough over the ganache. Roll dough in your palms to form a ball. Roll each cookie dough ball into the cocoa nibs bowl to coat.
- Place the cookies on the baking tray 5 cm (2 inches) apart. Place the baking tray in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
- After 30 minutes, remove tray from the fridge and place directly into the preheated oven. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool 2 minutes on the baking tray, then transfer them to a rack to fully cool.
