After seeing a Madeleine recipe that used pistachio paste, I liked I thought I’d like to give that ago. I’d never seen pistachio paste in any shop, so I took to the internet pricing up pistachio paste, OMG!! How much!! I then started to trolled the internet so I could make it myself.
One of the things I learned is that it would actually be better to make your own, you’d think the paste would be green but they put green food colouring and preservatives in the ones that you buy.
I looked on various websites and blogs to look at the techniques and find a recipe to give a try. From everything that I read they all used roughly the same ingredients, pistachios (obviously as it wouldn’t be pistachio paste 😛 ), sugar, water, some ground almonds and extract. Yet they all looked different, the coloured varied from green, khaki and brown and the same with the texture some were smooth and runny then others looked more grainy and thick.
I wasn’t sure how my paste was going to turn out, but either way I’m sure it would taste delicious as it pistachios
Here are some of the places The Kitchen Addict & Cuisine Daubery, they both follow Pierre Herme’s recipe for pistachio paste, however they vary slightly when preparing the pistachios, one roasts them in the oven and the other boils them in water to get all the skin off, so the choice is yours.
On the flip side FX Cuisine & The Toasted Sprinkle again both follow Pierre Herme’s recipe but their final outcome is a thicker and more coarse pistachio paste.
I suppose there is no right or wrong when it comes to having thick or smooth pistachio paste, it personal choice, and it depends on what your cake or tart recipe calls for.
Pistachio Paste
Adapted from Cuisine Daubery & The Kitchen Addict
125g Raw Pistachios 30g Ground Almonds or Blanched Almonds 60ml Granulated Sugar 2 tbsp Water 1/2 tsp Almond Extract (optional) 1 – 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, then add the pistachios to boiling water and cook them for 2 minutes.
Strain your pistachios in a colander, then tip them on to a kitchen towel and rub them, until their skins come off.
Transfer the pistachios to a mixing bowl.
For the sugar syrup boil the water and sugar together in a saucepan, until the temperature reaches 245ºF / 121ºC.
Once it reaches this temperature pour the hot syrup over the pistachios, and stir to coat them. (The syrup will be hot, just keep on stirring).
After mixing for a while, the syrup will crystallise. Pour onto a lined baking tray and let it cool for a moment.
In a food processor put the pistachios, ground almonds and almond extract and start grinding them up.
At the beginning it will look just coarse and grainy, just keep grinding and you will see your pistachios turn into a thick paste.
I carried on grinding in my mini food processor, and even after adding a little oil, it did not go any thinner like some of the pistachio paste I had seen. Mine turned out quite thick it wasn’t too coarse but it wasn’t smooth, but either I was happy, I’d just made some pistachio paste, so I was closer to trying this recipe.
If you love pistachios, get making some paste to put into your bakes.
Pistachio Paste After seeing a Madeleine recipe that used pistachio paste, I liked I thought I'd like to give that ago.
