Dark Chocolate, Pistachio & Smoked Sea Salt Cookies

I was going to start this post by saying ‘Please please don’t hug my back fat.   There’s this area on my back that you have no business squeezing, sir.  That side hug and subsequent finger clench was awkward for both of us’… but that seemed like an pretty tense way to kick things off around here.

I was going to talk about how I’m listening to entirely too much hip hop lately because all I can think about is champagne,VIP, and all the ladies that love me. It feels like talking about hip hop is like talking about Fight Club.  Not ok.   Plus… just saying the words ‘hip hop’ make me feel like a grandma wearing her baseball cap backwards.

Ok… Next!  What should we discuss?

YOLO?  Is it too late to talk about that?  …if you have to ask.  yes. 

Should I write about how sometimes I think my blog would be more popular if I were engaged or pregnant?  Should I write about how that thought makes me want to run full throttle into a wall?  Probably not.  That’s a little hot-button for these parts.  Those are just my weirdo backbrain thoughts anyhow… I know you’re mostly stoked to be here regardless of my… status (is that the right word?).

Should I write about how Pinterest sometimes stresses me… Oh nevermind!

Let’s just cookie.

We really should make Chocolate Chip Cookies more often.  It’s exactly 87 times more awesome than annoying.  Let’s think of Chocolate Chip Cookies as edible air fresheners.

Creamed butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla.  A luscious and very familiar scene.

Flour, salt, and baking soda are next.  It’s simple, really.

Dark chocolate chunks are mandatory.

Salted pistachios are a luxury.

Some of the nuts are finely diced (almost into a powder), other pistachio chunks will be a bit more coarse.  The nuts are actually important.  They help support the structure of the cookie.

Toss all of the ingredients together and will yourself not to sit down on the couch with a spoon and raw cookie dough.

Unbaked cookies are generously sprinkled with Smoked Sea Salt.

I love pairing salt with sweets.  It really cuts through the sugar and makes amplifies the flavors of chocolate and brown sugar.  The smoked nature of the salt is just an added summer cookout bonus.

Also. Total side note.  I’m completely obsessed with this Burning Leaves Perfume from I Hate Perfume.  OBSESSED… but I haven’t made the splurge yet.  No one buy it before I do.  K.  Thanks.  I’m (mostly) kidding.  

These cookies bake low and slow, at 300 degrees F for almost 20 minutes.  It’s a slow road to golden.

 These cookies are everything they should be: studded with dark chocolate, flavored with pistachios, and salty like whaaat?  The smoked salt adds an extra layer of fancy.  It feels like campfire meets fine-dining meets ‘ooh my gosh I ate all the cookies’.

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen whom I love and respect… and whose Zucchini Rice Gratin I want to make immediately.