My Dad loved pistachios. I love them too and I can’t eat them without thinking of him. I don’t think though, that I have ever eaten them in anyway other than just straight from the shell. I have been thinking recently about what else I can do with them. They are a tiny, odd looking nut but they are delicious so there should be more ways that I can have them in my life. Since a good portion of my life is focused on thinking about cupcakes and all the new recipes I want to create, I skipped the list of about 25 cupcakes I want to make and jumped straight to Pistachio Cupcakes.
I was worried that the pistachio flavour might not be strong enough but the pistachios have been incorporated in three ways so flavour is not an issue. There are pistachios in the cake, pistachio paste in the icing and chopped salted pistachios sprinkled on top. The pistachio paste in the icing is a really clever idea but unfortunately not mine. I found it online but then lost the page so I don’t know who to credit. The idea of the paste is to get some really concentrated flavour into the icing as well as that great green pistachio colour.
Boiling the pistachios for the paste really brings out the green colour for the icing. Apparently, if you don’t boil them you will end up with paste that is more baby-poo brown than pistachio green. If that particular shade of brown is your thing, then skip the boiling. The peeling of the pistachios does take a little while so get comfy. I pulled up a stool and streamed a bit of Grey’s Anatomy on my iPad in the kitchen and peeled. Streaming shows makes life’s less interesting tasks more fun!
- CAKE
- 300g self-raising flour (9.7oz)
- 265g sugar (5.8oz)
- ½ tsp bi-carb soda
- 2 flax eggs (2 tbsp flax meal mixed with ⅓ cup water)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1½ cup of almond milk
- 130g melted vegan margarine (3.9oz)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup raw shelled pistachios (blitz in food processor until fine)
- Extra pistachios (salted) to sprinkle on top
- ICING
- 200g vegan margarine (7oz)
- 500g icing sugar (17.5oz)
- 100g pistachio paste & ¼ cup water (recipe below)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- METHOD
- Pre heat oven to 175°C (347°F)
- CAKE
- Sift flour, bi-carb soda and add to a large bowl.
- Add sugar and salt and stir through to combine.
- Pour melted margarine and milk into mix, add vanilla and beat well.
- Add blitzed pistachios and mix well.
- To make the flax egg, mix flax and water into a small bowl and mix well. Do this just before you add it to the cake batter otherwise it becomes too thick.
- Beat until all combined.
- Using an ice-cream scoop, add one scoop to each cupcake wrapper.
- Bake for 18 minutes but check after 15 minutes as ovens can vary.
- Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack until room temperature.
- PISTACHIO PASTE
- Boil some water in a saucepan. Turn off heat once boiled and add pistachios to water. Leave for 2 minutes then drain.
- Spread onto paper towel.
- Once cooled, remove the skins – this will take a few minutes.
- Place the nuts in a food processor and blitz with some water.
- The nuts will change from a fine crumb to a paste. Add more or less water as you blitz.
- ICING
- Add the margarine to a large bowl and whip with your beaters.
- Add cooled pistachio paste and mix.
- Add half the icing sugar and beat until soft.
- Add the other half of the sugar and the vanilla and beat until soft and fluffy.
- You can add a couple of drops of green food colouring if you aren’t happy with the colour.
- Taste to make sure you don’t need to add more of any of the ingredients.
So, if my Dad was still with us, I would be making him pistachio cupcakes. He wasn’t that much into sweet stuff but I’m pretty sure that he would eat it anyway just to make me happy. xoxo
Leave a Reply