Soft, chewy and festive pistachio cookies are easy to make with instant pistachio pudding mix. A little green food coloring gives them the prettiest color making them perfect for Christmas or St. Patrick’s Day!
Homemade cookie recipes are simply the best! Other melt-in-your mouth favorites include these pistachio cookies, Mexican wedding cookies and grinch cookie recipe!
Table of Contents
Pistachio Pudding Cookies
Easy pistachio cookies made with pistachio pudding mix are one of my new favorite holiday dessert recipes. Just like my recipe for pistachio bread they are festive with their Christmas green color and the pudding adds flavor and makes the meltaway cookies soft and tender!
These paired with molasses cookies, chocolate crinkle cookies and chocolate chip pudding cookies would make the perfect addition to your Christmas dessert board.
Why This Recipe Works
- Perfect for the holidays: With a vibrant green color thanks to food coloring, they are perfect for both Christmas or serve at St. Patrick’s Day along with my pistachio dessert!
- Pudding mix in cookies: Adding pistachio pudding mix makes these cookies have the best pistachio flavor as well as the cornstarch in the pudding mix tenderizes the cookies.
Recipe Ingredients
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.
- Butter: Softened butter is best, not melted.
- Powdered sugar: Gives these that melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Instant pistachio pudding mix: Adds pistachio flavor and gives them a fluffy texture.
- All-purpose flour: For structure.
- Almond extract: Compliments the nutty flavor of the pudding and is clear in color. You could use clear vanilla extract.
- Maraschino cherries: Chopped finely and patted dry. Omit for plain cookies.
- Green food coloring (optional): For darker green pistachio cookies.
Substitutions and Variations
- Chocolate chips: Add white chocolate chips to the pistachio cookie dough instead of maraschino cherries. You could use dark chocolate chunks or semi-sweet chocolate chips!
- Dipped: Drizzle or dip half of the cookie in white chocolate once cooled like I do these cherry almond cookies.
- Festive. Mix in red sprinkles instead of cherries or add dried cranberries!
- Nuttier: Remove the cherries add an extra 1/2 cup chopped pistachios.
How to Make Pistachio Cookies
These pistachio pudding cookies are easy to make and loved by everyone who tries them.
- Mix ingredients: Cream butter until light and fluffy then add powdered sugar, almond extract, green food coloring, and pistachio pudding mix and continue to mix. Next, add in your flour and mix until just combined.
- Chill dough: Gently fold in chopped cherries then wrap cookie dough in plastic wrap and place in freezer for 15 minutes or until slightly firm.
- Roll into cookie dough balls: Use a medium cookie scoop to place dough on parchment lined baking sheets. Gently flatten balls with your palm or the bottom of a cup.
- Bake: Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes or just until the bottoms are light browned. Cool on pan for 3-5 minutes before moving to a wire rack. Once cooled completely, dust with powdered sugar.
5 star review
“Wow! Just finished dusting these beautiful cookies. Ate just one as I am hoping these will not disappear before Christmas day. They are as yummy as they look. Kind of unique actually. Yay for this recipe!“
– Dan
Baking Tips
- Soften butter. A quick way to soften the butter is by microwaving the butter in a bowl for 15-20 seconds at 50% power.
- Do not over mix the dough. Once it’s combined, stop mixing to prevent a dry, dense pistachio cookie recipe.
- Maraschino cherries. Chop your cherries finely so they are not chunky. Pat the cherries dry with a paper towel before and after you have chopped them. If you don’t remove the juice it could die the green dough.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough. Freeze the dough for at least 10 minutes so it isn’t as sticky to work with. Alternately, place in the fridge for an hour or overnight. It will also help the cookies to stay nice and fluffy while baking.
- Do not over bake. You want these pistachio cookies to be soft in the middle so they’ll melt in your mouth. Remove from the oven when the bottoms are just lightly browned.
FAQs
Either works, but if you use unsalted butter you will need to some salt to the dough.
While I love the flavor of maraschino cherries and think flavor goes so well with pistachio, you can definitely make these without them. White chocolate chips and chopped pistachios are popular additions.
Thickness of your pistachio cookies will depend on the temperature of your butter as well as chilled dough. Your butter should be room temperature and give slightly when pressed with your finger (leave a small indent). Chill your dough for at least 15 minutes. This solidifies the butter so your cookies spread less while baking.
Store pistachio cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 – 5 days. You can also freeze baked cookies in a freezer safe bag up to 3 months.
Yes! Shape the dough into cookie balls then flash freeze. Once frozen, transfer to an airtight bag and store frozen for 2 months. Bake from frozen adding a few minutes time or thaw then bake.
Other cookie recipes we love include this almond cookies recipe, Almond Joy cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and red velvet cake mix cookies!
More Cookie Recipes
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Pistachio Cookie Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter ,softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar , more for sprinkling on top
- 3.4 ounce package instant pistachio pudding mix
- 1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
- ½ cup maraschino cherries , chopped finely (see note)
Optional: green food coloring
Instructions
- Beat the butter in a large bowl with a mixer, until fluffy. Add the powdered sugar, almond extract and pudding mix and beat until combined. Add food coloring now if you prefer a darker green. Next add in the flour and mix until combined.
- Gently mix in the chopped cherries into the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 15 minutes or until slightly firm. Alternatively you could refrigerate the dough for an hour, or overnight
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Take a medium scoop or about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Gently flatten dough balls with your palm or the bottom of a cup. Place cookie on the cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes. Once completely cooled sprinkle cookies with dust with powdered sugar.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
This recipe was originally a guest post by The Girl Who Ate Everything.
Categorized as: American, Christmas, Cookies, Desserts, Holiday Cookies, Kid-Friendly
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
OMG. Just fell in love. Delicious.
These are simply the best dang cookie I ever ate and pretty easy to make. I’ve made 3 double batches in the past 10 days for neighbors, Bunco, and just to have some and freeze some for later.
I doubled all the ingredients and added the food color right before adding the flour like the recipe says. Then I added a whole jar of cherries that I carefully chopped and patted down several times before and after chopping. Then I added about 3/4 cup roasted and salted pistachios and almost a whole bag of white chocolate chips. I was able to get 55 cookies out of that but had to go a little longer in the oven to get that tan around the bottom edge. One last thing: I scooped the dough out with a spoon and put on pan and slightly flattened with my hand. I did not form on a ball. I think they look better. Then wait till totally cool to dust with the sugar. Omg! These cookies are decadent. Thank you for my new, favorite Christmas cookie. ❤️🎄☺️
That is so kind Bonnie! Thanks so much for your review! :D
Yum! My co-workers raved. The hint to freeze the chopped cherries before adding them worked like a charm.
Glad it worked well for you! Thanks for your review :)
Easy, delicious and a nice colorful addition to my holiday cookie trays. And a nice change from everything chocolate. I’ll definitely be making these again!
So glad to hear April!
I just made these cookies and they turned out pretty and perfect but I don’t see the point of using pistachio pudding mix as the flavor is completely masked by the almond flavoring. If I was and almond cookie I’ll just make spritz cookies. I wanted a cookie that tastes like pistachios!
I have a bowl of crumbles. What did I do wrong that the dough doesn’t stick together?
Hi Bonnie! Sorry it didn’t turn out. It’s hard to say without seeing how you made them, but my guess is the butter was not softened or maybe too much flour was added?
Hi. Make sure you fluff your flour before measuring it, hope that helps!
My just did the same too. Fingers crossed they still come out delicious
Can you use a box of cooked pudding instead of instant?
I haven’t tested it that way, although I think the consistency would change.
Just took them out of the oven they taste delicious but mine seem to sink not nice & full like the picture you posted. I read all of your tips etc but they still sunk. I made the dough & left it in the refrigerator for over an hour since I was making dinner and I left the butter out until it was nice & soft. What did I do wrong??
I’m sorry they fell flat, I’m glad they still taste delicious! It’s hard to say without being there, but my guess is they could have been over mixed. Or possibly you didn’t freeze the dough?
Can’t wait to make these- can I make the dough ahead and freeze to bake in small batches as I need them??
Yes you can freeze the dough :)
These cookies are really good. I’m not a big fan of almond nuts in general, but did add 1/2 tsp of real almond extract to recipe. That’s what you taste after doing this, not the pudding. Not sure what they would taste like wo it, as I like pistachio flavor. The dough was very tough before trying to fold in the cherries, impossible I don’t have one cookie that doesn’t show red. I may try another batch and hand add the cherries after flattening them out. Plus, 1/2 cup is a lot. But they are a good tasting cookie.
Thanks for sharing! I’m so glad you enjoyed them :)
Followed recipe and notes to a T and they came out amazing. So delicious. My forever go to!!
I’m so glad to hear! Thanks for your review Amanda!
I’m torn between these and the grinch cookies. This one uses pudding mix and the grinch cookies uses cake mix– what is the textural/flavour differences between the two? Do you think I could make these cookies instead of the grinch ones and add a heart sprinkle to these once they’re cooked?
These cookies are lighter in texture and a little sweeter (I prefer these ones, but totally preference there). The kids love the grinch ones :)
I love pistachio flavor so these would be perfect! I am thinking about making platters to give away! How long will these cookies store for? Thank you!!
About 3-4 days, however you can freeze them up to 3-4 months :)
These cookies are incredible, and SO festive! I made these last year and loved them. I made a double batch this year because I didn’t feel like I had enough to hand out! I literally am eating one as I type this, I love pistachio so much and these have that perfect pistachio taste and wonderful Christmas colours. Recipe turns out perfect as written.
An ‘every year’ recipe for me for sure!
Glad this has become a tradition, Allison. The green is perfect for the Christmas season as well. Thanks for sharing.
I made these last year and they are to die for. YUM! However, I can’t recall how many a batch will make. And I can’t find that info in any of the recipe information.
The serving size is 24. You can also adjust this in the top left corner of the recipe card. Hope this helps, Theresa. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you so much. I totally missed seeing that. Getting ready to make on a girls bake day and wondering if I needed to double.
Double is always better :)
Can these be frozen and for how long. ?
Yes! I’d recommend flash freezing the cookies on a baking sheet for about 30 minutes (or until hard), then transfer to a freezer bag or container and store for a few months.
would love to always get updated great website! .
So happy you love the website, Delaine! :)
I just made a batch . waiting on it to firm in the freezer as we speak ! my local market makes these around Christmas and they were amazing & since they only make them on Christmas I’ve been searching for a recipe for the longest time . The batch of dough came out beautiful , can’t wait to see & taste the final outcome !
I hope you love them, Jenny! Enjoy :)
Can’t wait to try this one! Do you think you could add 1/2 tsp or so of mint extract?
I haven’t tried, but if you wanted mint flavor you could add it in :)