In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla.
Add flour, salt, and food coloring {if using}.
Mix in chopped pistachios until dough holds together.
Stir in the chopped cranberries.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on ungreased or parchment paper lined baking sheets.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until set but not brown.
Remove from pan and roll in powdered sugar. Let cool completely.
Roll cookies in powdered sugar one more time to thoroughly coat.
Notes
The only shelled pistachios that I could find were roasted & salted…so I omitted the sea salt when I made them. Trust me, those are salty enough!
Pistachios are much harder to finely chop, so I recommend using a food processor!
Yes, you will burn your fingertips a bit when rolling the hot out of the oven cookies in powdered sugar…but it is worth it. The sugar melts onto the cookies and make the glue that hold the second coating on and gives them their awesome, snowy appearance.
I wanted mine to be green, but it is not mandatory if you are avoiding food coloring…it just makes them fun and different. ?
These cookie do not spread, so you can put them closer together on your baking sheets…but I still end up using 3 pans.
Placing the coated cookies on a wire rack keeps the bottoms from sticking and allows them to cool faster…so you can eat them faster!
**if using Roasted & Salted Pistachios, omit the salt.