Day 4: Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies

The 12 Days of Christmas Cookies is now on Day 4. Day 4’s cookie is a Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookie. This is a traditional Christmas cookie recipe that dates years back. Do you know why? It’s called an Icebox Cookie. An Icebox is a refrigerator, and an old term for one. You set this dough up in the icebox before you prep and bake them. These Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies are the classic slice and bake cookies. But I did not use this recipe as a classic slice and bake cookie though. I put it into mini muffin cups so you have cookie bites. One thing you can do with this recipe is freeze it and take it out when you need it. It’s extremely versatile.

I have a theory with icebox cookies and other Christmas cookies. I have been doing a lot of research on them and many of them don’t contain eggs (like this one). I think it’s because Christmas is in the winter and there weren’t as many eggs in the winter time because chickens don’t lay as many. And the eggs you do have are going to go into breakfasts and other main staple foods, not just cookies. Makes sense, right? It’s just a theory. I will let you know that a couple of my cookie recipes contain no eggs either. (Just a LOT of butter!!)

This cookie is almost nut free… minus the pistachios. But the base of it doesn’t have a nut flour, it has sunflower seed flour. Now, sunflower seed flour isn’t something you can buy in a store. It is something you make with raw sunflower seeds. You will put them (a little a time) in a coffee grinder until it makes flour. You will grind the sunflower seeds before you measure it. Measure it ground up. If you are allergic to nuts, you could omit the pistachios or replace them with pumpkin seeds.

The cookies in the mini muffin cups ready to go into the oven

Ready to bake! See the little chunks of cranberries and pistachios

Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup) organic grass-fed butter

1 Tablespoon Stevita stevia

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups sunflower seed flour

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

1/2 teaspoon pink salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup dried cranberries (no added sugar), chopped

1/2 cup raw pistachios, chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and take out a cookie sheet and mini muffin cups
In a large bowl add the butter stevia and vanilla extract and with a hand mixer on high cream the butter for 30 seconds until fluffy
In a medium bowl add the dry ingredients: sunflower seed flour (see how to make above), ground flax seeds, pink salt and cinnamon and gently mix with a ford
Add the dry ingredients gradually to the wet ingredients and mix with the hand mixer
Put the pistachios and cranberries in the dough and mix with a spatula to combine
Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to set the dough. Then take the dough out of the fridge and roll it into 1 inch balls. Place them in the mini muffin cup and set the cups on the cookie sheet
Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown

Day 4: Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies

Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Meghan Birt

Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup) organic grass-fed butter
1 Tablespoon Stevita stevia
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups sunflower seed flour
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1/2 teaspoon pink salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup dried cranberries (no added sugar), chopped
1/2 cup raw pistachios, chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and take out a cookie sheet and mini muffin cups
In a large bowl add the butter stevia and vanilla extract and with a hand mixer on high cream the butter for 30 seconds until fluffy
In a medium bowl add the dry ingredients: sunflower seed flour (see how to make above), ground flax seeds, pink salt and cinnamon and gently mix with a ford
Add the dry ingredients gradually to the wet ingredients and mix with the hand mixer
Put the pistachios and cranberries in the dough and mix with a spatula to combine
Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to set the dough. Then take the dough out of the fridge and roll it into 1 inch balls. Place them in the mini muffin cup and set the cups on the cookie sheet
Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown