Cardamom Cranberry Pistachio Sablés

Set the oven to fan assisted 140C / 160C / 325F / gas 3.

Combine all of the ingredients, except the pistachio, together with a paddle in a free standing mixer until it just comes together. If you do not have a mixer and are making the dough by hand, it is easier to cream together the butter and icing sugar first, and then work in the rest of the dry ingredients, finishing with the cranberries.

Turn the dough out of the bowl and work it together with your hands, treating it as lightly as possible. Butter and line a 28cm X 18cm baking tray with greaseproof paper; the tray should be about 3.5cm in depth. Spread the dough out in the tray with your hands to form a rectangle. Finish by putting another piece of greaseproof paper on top to smooth the dough out with your hands or a rolling pin. Do not worry if you do not have a tray this size, just form the dough into a cuboid with a 3.5cm depth. Cling film and rest in the fridge for an hour, or until firm and easy to cut into neat strips.

When the dough is chilled and firm, cut it into strips using a large knife; shave off the edges if they are not straight, but try not to waste too much dough. I cut my strips about 4.5cm wide and from this recipe made in tray specified above, you should get 6 rectangular logs. Each strip makes about 17 biscuits so if you do not want more than this, freeze the rest of the logs wrapped in cling film for later use. Biscuit dough and pastry can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Using a pastry brush, cover the dough lightly with egg white and then cover it with ground pistachio. To make the ground pistachio, simply blitz whole pistachios in a food processor, leaving some larger pieces for a bit of texture. Press the ground pistachio lightly into the dough to make sure that it sticks and does not come off during baking. Cut the dough into 1cm pieces and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment 2cm apart.

Bake the biscuits for about 10-12 minutes, turning the tray half way through baking, until the biscuits are slightly golden on the bottom and the pistachios are just starting to colour, releasing their wonderful flavour. Eat warm straight from the oven with a mug of sweet chai tea, or cool and package up for the perfect edible Christmas gift.