Grind Nuts Dry to Avoid a Greasy Dough

When a short dough is flavoured with ground nuts, grind them dry with a spoonful of the recipe's flour rather than on their own. Nuts like pistachios and almonds are high in oil, and running them alone in a processor quickly releases that oil and turns them to a damp paste, which makes the dough greasy, slack and hard to roll cleanly. The flour absorbs the freed oil and keeps the grind loose and powdery. Pulse in short bursts and stop the moment the nuts look fine and sandy, well before they clump, for a crisp, tender shortbread that holds sharp cut edges.