This is Pistachio and Apricot jam cookie, or as we call in Iran, “Shirini Morabaii,” which translates to jam cookies! These are butter cookies that are lightly scented with rosewater and vanilla; filled with sweet tart apricot jam and sprinkled with chopped pistachios. This shirini is as delicate as it looks; you will want to devour it in one bite, or show self control and take two bites. It melts in the mouth with a mild sweetness that is delightfully complemented with the sweet tart apricot jam in the center.
Shirini refers to any kind of pastry or sweets in Farsi! It could be Shirini Napoleoni – puff pastry layered with homemade pastry cream. It could be Rollet – A thin and moist layer of cake, filled and rolled with rosewater and vanilla-scented whipped cream. Shirini Latifeh and Ghorabieh are Tabriz specialties; one a feather-light pastry filled with rosewater-scented whipped cream, and the other is a type of almond macaroon cookie that is crispy and chewy at the same time. And one must not forget the Iranian childhood favorite cookie, Shirini Keshmeshi which is a soft vanilla-scented raisin cookie, sparsely dotted with plump raisins. 
All of these pastries are popular during the festivities related to traditional ceremonies such as, Nowruz (also spelled Norooz), weddings, birthday parties, and so on. I dare say, Iranians have a sweet tooth, but they are also very selective about their pastries! You see, when I was growing up in Tabriz, Iran, we had some of the best bakeries in my hometown. None of them used margarine; there was no ‘artificial vanilla flavoring,’ and the bakers knew better than to cut cost by skimping on good ingredients! All of this was the right formula for creating some of the most amazing pastries and cookies, and this shirini meets those standards and then some!
The dough for this Shirini Morabaii is made with butter and is soft enough to be piped. In the past, I have used my cookie press to make the same cookie in different shapes. If you decide to use your cookie press, avoid using the disks that dispense dough smaller than 1 1/2-inches; there should be enough surface to hold the jam. The apricot preserves is added in the center of dough before baking. Any fruit preserves would work for this shirini, but it should be blended until smooth. I don’t recommend using jams or jellies that are already smooth and soft; they tend to get baked into the cookie and are not as attractive.
The following pictures are to illustrate some highlights; please read the printable recipe before baking these cookies:
Preheat your oven to 350 F, center rack (you will be baking one sheet at at time). Get all the ingredients ready before you start. Bring butter and egg yolks to room temperature by leaving them on the counter, for at least 30 minutes. Finely chop 1/4 cup unsalted pistachios by hand or a food processor (use pulse action a few times so you don’t end up with powder). Blend the apricot jam in a food processor until smooth, without any fruit pieces.
Gently push the dough inside the bag towards the tip, to release any air pocket (‘burp’ the bag) before you start to pipe. Now twist the top to compact the dough further. I recommend practice piping couple of rosettes on a plate or parchment paper; this will eliminate the air pockets and it will also let you see if you’re pleased with the shape of your piped dough. Put the piped dough back in the bowl and proceed with piping. To pipe a rosette: Gently squeeze the bag close to the twisted top, pipe out a basic star, then continue pressing and piping out a complete 1 ½ inch circle, that begins at the center of the star and ends at the same point. If you don’t like the look of your rosette, gently remove it and put it back in the dough and continue piping. This might take some practice if you’re new at this, but keep in mind that no matter how the cookies look, they’re going to taste amazing. Continue piping the rosettes with 1 to 1 1/2 inch space between them; this dough increases in size when it bakes. Just to give you an idea, the 1 1/2 inch piped dough will bake into a 2 1/4 inch cookie. Pipe enough rosettes to fill one baking sheet (about 25 or 30)
Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container with a parchment paper between each layer. These cookies keep well covered over the counter for 3-4 days. They also freeze very well for about 2 months. I hope you will enjoy these cookies for this upcoming Nowruz, and for all of your happy occasions. As much as I adore coffee, these cookies pair exceptionally well with a glass of fresh brewed Persian black tea. Happy Nowruz and a prosperous New Year to you and your loved ones. Nowruz Mobarak!!
Temperature: 350 F, center rack
Yields: 4 dozens+ cookies
You will need: 2 large baking sheets (12 x 17 inches). A 10 or 12-inch piping bag, fitted with a ½-inch star tip (Wilton 1M).
- Dough:
- 1 cup (8 ounces, or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
- ⅓ tsp vanilla powder, or 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp rose water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- Filling and topping:
- ¼ cup unsalted pistachios
- ½ cup apricot preserves
- Preheat oven to 350 F, center rack.
- Prepare and set aside: Leave the butter and egg yolks on the counter for at least 30 minutes (covered)* Sift the flour with salt* Finely chop the pistachios* Blend the apricot preserves until smooth and without any fruit pieces.
- Lightly grease two large baking sheets by rubbing a cold piece of butter on the entire surface. you will be baking one baking sheet at a time.
- Add one cup softened butter to the bowl of your stand mixer (or use your hand mixer). Using a paddle attachment beat the softened butter on medium speed (#6 on KitchenAid) until smooth. If the butter is soft enough this should take less than 1 minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add ½ cup sugar and beat on low speed until blended, then beat on medium high for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the egg yolks, rosewater, vanilla powder (or vanilla extract) and beat until blended.
- Add the sifted flour/salt mixture; beat on low speed until incorporated, then beat on medium until you have a smooth dough. Do not overbeat!
- Fill the prepared pastry bag halfway with the dough; gently press the dough and move it towards the tip to release any air pockets (‘burp’ the bag). Twist the opening of the pastry bag and pipe couple of practice rosettes on a plate; this eliminates the air pockets and gives you an idea about the shape and size of your piped rosette. Return the practice rosettes to the bowl of batter.
- To pipe rosettes: With gentle pressure at the top of the pastry bag pipe out a simple star, then continue squeezing and piping out a complete 1½-inch circle that ends at the center of the star. Leave 1 to 1 ½-inch space between each rosette and pipe as many as you can fit on one baking sheet (about 25-30).
- Prepare the rosettes for baking: Touch the dough with one finger, dip it in the chopped pistachio and press it in the center of the rosette, continue dipping your finger in the pistachio every time you make an indentation in the rest of the rosettes. Next, sprinkle extra pistachios on top. Then add ¼ teaspoonful of apricot jam in the center of each rosette. I find it’s more efficient to do each of these steps on all of the rosettes, before moving on to the next step.
- When you're done with adding the jam in the center of the dough, place the cookie sheet on the center rack and bake for 10-14 minutes. Start piping the rosettes for the second cookie sheet. The bake time is going to depend on your oven and the size of your cookies. Look for the edges to turn a light golden brown. Remove the baking sheet from the oven.
- Use a flexible thin spatula to transfer one of the cookies to a cooling rack. If the bottom is also a light golden brown, transfer all of the cookies to the baking rack. If the bottom is still pale, return the baking sheet back to the oven and bake for another 2-3 minutes. Watch them closely; they burn quickly at this point.
- Enjoy these delicate buttery Shirini Morabaii on your special occasions with a glass of fresh brewed Persian black tea.
This recipe has been adapted from here.
These cookies look sooo delicious! I can’t wait to try them!
Thanks so much Denise; they really are as good as they look 😉 Please let me know what you think!
It look like a wonderful recipe. It takes a lot of patience to bake pastry but the end result is satisfying.I love fresh breads& sweets. Good job on this recipe & happy Norooz
Thank you! I’m very happy with this recipe, and I hope you will try it soon. I have a feeling you will agree that it’s totally worth the effort. Happy Norooz to you too 🙂
Absolutely Gorgeous & Delicious!
Thanks so much Fae! I have a feeling you will like these; the only problem is that I want to keep eating them 😉
Hi
Do you know the gram measurements for all the ingredients?
Hi Masuma;
In general, for your convenience, you could type this question in google search: How many grams in (? the measurment) cup/spoon (s) or ounces of (any ingredient such as butter, sugar, flour, etc.)
Here are the conversions for this recipe:
226 Grams of butter
100 grams of sugar
240 grams of flour
25 grams of pistachios
165 grams of apricot preserves
Thank you for sharing this recipe and for the gorgeous photos! They inspired me to bake these cookies tonight. I cut the ingredients in half though since it was my first try. They taste amazing. However it was incredibly tough to pipe them out of the bag, as my dough was not that soft. I’m wondering if that’s how it should be or I did something wrong? Can it happen because the butter was not warm enough? I’d definitely make them again if I can figure out how not to break my fingers when squeezing the pastry bag!
Hello Irina; I’m glad you’ve enjoyed this recipe. Sorry to hear about the hard dough. This dough is usually very soft and very easy to pipe. I think if the butter was not soft enough, it would not have incorporated into the batter, and you would have noticed the pieces. One possible reason could be that you’ve measured too much flour. A cup of flour weights 4 ounces on a scale. For correct measurements in baking always use a spoon to fill the measuring cup with flour and then level the top off with a knife. Avoid dipping the cup in the flour, as this method adds around 1 extra ounce per cup to your measurements. Please let me know how this works for you. Happy baking 🙂
Dear Homa,
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe! I baked them for my amazing Veterinarian Dr. Sam. He goes above and beyond for my family, so I wanted to make something for him that would remind him of home. Although I did not have a star nozzle, and made them like thumbprint cookies, he was so pleased. Thank you again. Vivianne
Dear Vivianne; how nice to hear from you! I’m sure that the wonderful Dr. Sam appreciates your kind effort to bake him these cookies. I know how important it is to find a vet that cares for your pet as much as you do! Thumb print is a great idea for this recipe, and I bet your cookies were simply gorgeous. Thanks so much for writing to me, have a great week and please keep in touch 🙂
I wish this have had farsi recipe
Hi dear, Thank you for sharing the information on how to make these cookies. Can you be kind enough to provide calorie counts per cookie? Also for other Persian sweets that you have posted? Thank you./Kamelia
Dear Kamelia, I’m afraid I do not have the calorie count for any of my savory or sweet recipes. I do my best to provide very easy to follow recipes with clear, no-fail instructions. I hope that the followers of my blog would take the time and calculate the calories. The nutritional information for all the ingredients is available online.
Hi Homa,
Thanks for your reply on the soup murgh zaferani ? I thought I’d also comment on these delicious cookies! These are my favorite cookies and so delicious that I have to seriously control myself from eating them all. I made them for my husbands cousin’s baby shower along with your rollet and they were both such a hit!! My friend Sahar told me they brought her back to her grandmothers kitchen and that was so special to hear! I have to admit that I love subbing strawberry jam because it’s my favorite. I initially I had trouble with a thick dough but after reading your comments about how to measure the flour and making sure the butter was soft enough – the cookies turned out so perfect and came out easily piped! Thank you again for so many amazing recipes all in one place! I’m so grateful!
Good to hear from you Amanda! I know what you mean about not being able to eat just one of these 😉 It is wonderful that everyone has enjoyed your baking; I know how much they must have appreciated your hard work. The beauty of these cookies is that you have the option to choose your favorite preserves. I have baked these with strawberry and raspberry preserves and love both! Thanks again for writing to me, take care and happy baking and cooking 🙂
Your website has been like a treasure chest for me. I am married to an Iranian man and this is the place I come to to check on recipes. I made these cookies this morning and they were amazing!!! There is a Persian market we go to and they sell these cookies but your recipe far surpassed those and I now have a very happy husband. Thank you!
Hi Margie, how nice of you to write to me 🙂 I appreciate your thoughtful comment and I’m thrilled that you and your husband have been enjoying my recipes! I look forward to reading more of your comments when you try my other recipes. Please stay well and keep in touch 🙂
Hi! Just made your lovely shirini morabaii cookies one week ahead and they taste absolutely delicious! There’s just one thing – maybe I didn’t get it right – but they are very very short, as in crumbling as you pick them up. I’ve made 2 different batches: one at 11′ and the other at 13′, and both turned out the same :(. Do you have any tips or tricks to avoid this?
Thanks again for this recipe and a happy Nowruz!
Gr, Virginia
Hi Virginia, I make these cookies all the time and have not had that issue. I have even shipped them to other states without crumbling.
I’m not sure what you mean by “one at 11′ and the other at 13′”
I am guessing that you have followed the recipe without any changes. The dough should be smooth and easy to pipe but firm enough not to pour out of the piping bag without pressing. It should hold its shape, like my pictures when it is piped. The other possible issue is if the pan was greased too heavily.
The most important point is that these are very delicate butter cookies that melt in the mouth but they do not crumble when you lift them, with a spatula, and they get firmer as they cool. If they have been piped too thin, meaning not enough dough in each cookie, they would crumble more easily. This recipe yields about 48 cookies, give or take 2 or 3. If you have ended up with too many cookies, the piping has been the problem.
I hope this helps and your next batch will not crumble. Let me know if you think any of these issues might have been the cause of the problem.
Happy Nowruz to you and your family
Delicious cookies. I made this shirini a few months back with a homemade apricot preserve I had made. I loved them so much.
Dear Maryam, thanks for your comment. Noosh e joon 🙂
Hi Homa,
I love your recipes, they’re a huge hit with my Iranian friends!
I was wondering, you describe the apricot jam as “sweet tart apricot jam”; I’m in the United States, and the only apricot jam I’ve ever had is just sweet. I know that sour foodstuffs are ubiquitous in Iran and are prominent in the Iranian palate, so I was wondering if there is a particular brand you’d recommend for apricot jam that is close to the “sweet tart” taste you describe. Either that, or maybe a recipe for apricot jam that is truer to the tartness of an Iranian-style apricot jam?
I’d appreciate any recommendations you can think of.
Best,
Sara
Hi Sara, glad to hear from you. I use the Smucker’s apricot preserves and blend it in a food processor to make it smooth then spoon it in the middle of the piped cookies. Hope to read your feedback. Have a great weekend! Take care and happy baking