Pistachio and White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I have a stack of Dean Brettschneider recipe books at home at the moment and had been drooling over this particular recipe for a while. Usually I tend to favour recipes that use affordable and/or seasonal ingredients, but I'm a big fan of pistachios -so despite the expense of them- I just had to try it. The manthing particularly loved them as they are a chewy and soft cookie. That said, if you prefer a more crisp crunchy cookie then just increase the baking time by a few minutes, it wont dry the cookie out.

Ingredients:

135g butter, softened
100g sugar
100g soft dark brown sugar
1 small egg
10ml milk
few drops vanilla essence or extract
150g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
45g rolled oats, medium coarseness
55g pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
140g white chocolate drops, coarsely chopped

60g pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped, for topping

Method:

Preheat oven to 175 Celsius (please note that I found this temperate a little too hot so I turned it down a smidge for my 2nd batch, but my oven is super old and perhaps is a little unreliable)

Beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, milk and vanilla essence. Mix.

Sieve the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and add them to the creamed mixture along with the rolled oats. Mix well until evenly combined.

Add the pistachio nuts and white chocolate and mix until well combined.

Use a tablespoon to scoop spoonfuls (approx 35g) then roll them into round balls using floured hands. Place them 10cm apart on a lined baking tray. Don't flatten them or they will spread too much. Sprinkle a few of the extra nuts on top.

Bake for 8-10 min until golden brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

Makes 20 large, or 40 small cookies.