Pistachio Pastry Cream
This rich, nutty and indulgent pistachio pastry cream is going to become your next favorite homemade sweet creation this holiday season.
You'll need just 5 simple ingredients and minutes of your time to make this, and once it's ready, you can use it for a ton of different recipes- everything from cake fillings and ice cream toppings to the viral Dubai pistachio chocolate bar- just like with my date caramel sauce.
I've recently been trying out quite a lot of sweet condiments and recipes, all in the spirit of holiday cooking.
My strawberry sugar is truly one of my top favorites, and my pecan praline sauce comes next. But this time, I really wanted to try something different using nuts, and that's when I thought of this recipe.
Quick Look
- 🔪 Prep time: 5 minutes.
- ⏲️ Cook time: 10 minutes.
- 👪 Servings: 6.
- 📋 Main ingredients: Fresh shelled pistachios, white chocolate, granulated sugar, salted butter, whole milk.
- ♨️ Cooking method: Blanch pistachios 🡢 remove skins 🡢 blend with sugar and milk to paste 🡢 cook paste with butter and white chocolate on low heat 🡢 cool and store.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy- blanching and skin removal is the only step requiring effort.
- 🥣 Serving ideas: Use as a toast spread, fill doughnuts or crepes, or drizzle over a scoop of my whipped honey for a layered sweet snack.
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What's So Great About the Recipe?
- The pistachio butter cream has a rich, spreadable consistency, which makes it an absolute hit with anything and everything you're trying to use it for.
- Just like my apple cider caramel sauce, it is surprisingly easy to make.
- You can make and store it for later- just like my date puree and date syrup, this stays well in the refrigerator for weeks.
Recipe Ingredients
- Pistachios: Fresh pistachios are the hero ingredient here. Use the best quality ones you can get your hands on.
- White chocolate: Use white compound chocolate or chocolate chips- whatever you prefer.
- Sugar: I used granulated sugar here. White sugar works best, but you can also use brown sugar if you want a deeper flavor- like I did when I made my spiced pear butter.
- Milk: Just a bit, to thin out the cream. Whole milk is the best choice.
- Butter: For that richness and just that hint of salty deliciousness. Use salted butter for best results.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Pistachio Pastry Cream
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the shelled pistachios. Let them cook for a few minutes, then take them off heat and drain away the water.
Place them on a kitchen towel and dab away all the excess moisture. Rub the pistachios well to remove the skin.
Separate the skin and set the cleaned pistachios aside.
Add the pistachios to a blender along with a splash of milk and some powdered sugar and blend until you get a smooth mixture.
In a pot over low heat, combine the pistachio paste with the remaining milk, butter and white chocolate and cook until the chocolate has melted.
Keep stirring and add more milk if needed, to adjust the consistency. Take it off heat, allow it to cool down and then use it to your liking.
Tips & Tricks to Nail the Recipe
- Make sure you use a high speed blender to blend the pistachios. This will ensure it gets to that perfect silky smooth consistency you're looking for.
- If you prefer the pastry cream to have that bit of chunkiness, with those crunchy bits of the nut, you can use a food processor to crush the peanuts until they're coarse, and then use them for the recipe.
- Use a good quality chocolate with a high amount of cocoa butter. It might be a tad bit expensive, but it has a HUGE impact on the flavor of the pistachio cream.
How to Use the Pistachio Pastry Cream
You can use this sweet pistachio spread in so many ways- as a filling for your homemade donuts or as a spread over your morning breakfast toast- like my fig paste! It's basically a great homemade swap for Nutella, if you ask me.
You can also use it as a dessert sauce- drizzle it over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I like to set up an ice cream bar with toppings like my classic blueberry sauce, olive oil caramel sauce and some crunchy Feuilletine flakes.
Recipe FAQs
You can try this recipe using the bottled pistachio paste too. Just don't add the milk and butter in the very beginning. If it feels too thick or dry, you can thin it down with the milk and butter.
Removing the skins off the pistachios is absolutely essential if you want the cream to have that bright green color. Make sure you remove all the skin off the surface and blend the mixture nicely to get that smooth consistency.
You can store the leftover cream in a clean glass jar or an airtight container and refrigerate it for up to 2 weeks, maybe longer. Make sure you use a clean spoon every time you spoon it out of the jar.
If you feel the cream has turned too thick after being refrigerated, you can microwave it for about 30 seconds to get it to that smooth consistency again.
More Sweet Condiments
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
If you tried this pistachio pastry cream or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Pistachio Pastry Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup pistachios
- 1 cup white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- Milk as needed.
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil and add in the shelled pistachios. Let them cook for a few minutes, then take them off heat and drain away the water.
- Place them on a kitchen towel and dab away all the excess moisture. Rub the pistachios well to remove the skin.
- Separate the skin and set the cleaned pistachios aside.
- Add the pistachios to a blender along with a splash of milk and some powdered sugar and blend until you get a smooth mixture.
- In a pot over low heat, combine the pistachio paste with the remaining milk, butter and white chocolate and cook until the chocolate has melted.
- Keep stirring and add more milk if needed, to adjust the consistency. Take it off heat, allow it to cool down and then use it to your liking.
Notes
- Make sure you use a high speed blender to blend the pistachios. This will ensure it gets to that perfect silky smooth consistency you're looking for.
- If you prefer the pastry cream to have that bit of chunkiness, with those crunchy bits of the nut, you can use a food processor to crush the peanuts until they're coarse, and then use them for the recipe.
