These cookies were too good – reaching hands kept getting into the pictures! You’ve got to love a holiday cookie that’s both pretty and a snap to put together. Today’s cookie in the Gourmet cookie extravaganza is a more modern recipe, the Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookie. It sparkles with coarse sugar and colorful fruit and nuts, and also can be kept frozen to whip up a batch whenever you need one.

I used turbadino sugar to coat the outside – I think it gave it a nice crunch, but avoided the scary colored sugars. The baking process releases all the toasted flavors of the pistachios, so there’s no need to toast them beforehand.

Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies

from Gourmet, December 2006

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange zest
1/2 shelled pistachios (2 1/4 oz)
1/3 cup dried cranberries (1 1/4 oz)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 coarse sugar

1. Stir together flour, cinnamon, and salt in bowl.

2. In an eletric mixter, beat together butter, granulated sugar, and zest at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing until dough just comes together in clumps. Mix in the pistachios and cranberries. Gather and press dough together, then divide into 2 equal pieces.

3. Using a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper as an aid, form each piece of dough into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Square off long sides of each log to form a bar, then chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until very firm, at least 2 hours.

4.  Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Brush egg over all 4 long sides of bars (but not ends). Sprinkle decorative sugar on a separate sheet of parchment or wax paper and press bars into sugar, coating well

6. Cut each bar crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices, rotating bar after cutting each slice to help keep square shape. (If dough gets too soft to slice, freeze bars briefly until firm.) Arrange cookies about 1/2 inch apart on lined baking sheets. Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are pale golden, 15 to 18 minutes total. Transfer cookies from parchment to racks using a slotted spatula and cool completely.

(Dough bars can be chilled up to 3 days or frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil, 1 month (thaw frozen dough in refrigerator just until dough can be sliced)).

Take a look at yesterday’s Cashew Praline Cookies, and tune in tomorrow for the next cookie surprise.

Check out my fellow bakers – Jerry at Cooking by the Seat of my Pants,  Judy at No Fear Entertaining, Sandy at At the Baker’s Bench, Courtney at Coco Cooks, Kelly at Sass and Veracity, and Andrea at Andrea’s Recipes.