A few ingredients and a quick whizz in the food processor leads to quick, easy, and delicious cookies for your holiday cookie tray.

Take me to the cookies!

These cookies are GOOD, y'all. Sorry, I've been watching a marathon of Fixer Upper while writing, which is really the only logical reason for this Yankee to use the word "y'all." Anyway, I've called these cookies "meltaways," but they're the treat of 1000 names: Snowballs, Butterballs, Russian tea cakes, Mexican wedding cookies, meltaways, you name it. At their core, these are egg-free, simple cookies that are a little crumbly, very buttery, and subtly sweet. Adding in cardamom and pistachio just makes them a tiny bit more interesting.

I tested this recipe more than was technically necessary (not sorry). But it felt like there were many possible variations that would radically change the final product, so here are a few lessons:

1) Buy already roasted and shelled pistachios, if you can. Trader Joe's calls them "nutmeats" which is just awful. But your fingertips will thank you.
2) Use unsalted nuts even though you're adding salt to the batter.
3) The amount of cardamom in the recipe is for a new or newish bottle. If you can smell the cardamom when you open the bottle, use less. If you have to really stick your nose close to the spice to smell it, increase the amount. I used the dregs of a VERY old bottle of cardamom in my initial recipe and I had to more than double the amount used to get the taste I wanted. Then I tried with a brand new bottle and 1/2 tsp was more than enough. So, get friendly with your spices to judge for yourself.

Cardamom and pistachio meltaways

Time: about 30 minutes, mostly active
Yield: 14 cookies

Adapted from Bon Appetit

1 cup roasted, shelled pistachios
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp powdered sugar, plus 1/2 cup more for rolling   
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½-1 tsp cardamom
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ tsp lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 350. If they aren’t already roasted, place the pistachios on a sheet pan and roast them until the nuts become fragrant, about 4 minutes.

In the bowl of the food processor, whizz the butter and 2 Tbsp of sugar until the butter has broken down, formed a ball, and then spread itself out again, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla, flour, cardamom, salt, lemon zest, and pistachios. Whizz again until the nuts are broken down and the ingredients are combined.

Scoop a scant 1 Tbsp of dough at a time, roll into a ball, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with all of the batter. Bake for 7 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for 4-7 more minutes, until the cookies start browning on the bottom and form tiny cracks on top (but too much cracking means dry cookies, so be careful not to overbake).

Let cool completely. Place about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and roll the cooled cookies in the sugar, one at a time. Leave out for a few hours before storing: This helped keep the sugar from dissolving into the cookies, I found.