I feel like pistachio as a flavour is really having a moment right now. Bakeries are doing more and more pistachio flavoured treats, you can quite easily always find pistachio ice cream at an ice cream shop and my social media feed seems to be full of pistachio cookies and brownies. And with good reason!
Enter: the pistachio croissant. This recipe includes the pistachio cream but you can also just buy it too. This one is very delicious and good value too but you can also buy it in some big supermarkets and Italian delis will often stock it too.
With these croissants, the shop-bought croissants are brushed with sugar syrup, then spread with Nutella and also pistachio cream and baked all together until crispy outside but melted in the middle. It is so decadently delicious.
Common in Italy, pistachio cream is a sweetened pistachio paste that you can use in a multitude of ways. It’s also surprisingly easy to make - I recommend a strong food processor and blender. The reason you use both is that the food processor chops the pistachios finely whereas a blender will get the paste super smooth once you add the melted white chocolate. This means you can achieve the perfect final texture. If you only have one and not both, it will work but you might need to be more patient with the final texture.
You could also try pistachio filled French toast if you are a pistachio cream fiend and want to use it in a different way.
Pistachio Croissant with Homemade Pistachio Cream
Crispy croissants, filled with nutella, pistachio cream and chopped pistachios, baked until warm and melted. One of the best things EVER!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients
For the pistachio cream:
- 150g shelled unsalted raw pistachios (you can shell them yourself but it takes a while so buy shelled if you can!)
- 180ml whole milk
- 28g salted butter
- 100g white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar (powdered sugar)
For the croissants:
- 6 croissants (shop-bought is perfect and a little stale ideally)
- A handful of shelled pistachios, chopped
- A jar of nutella
- Icing sugar (for decoration)
- Milk chocolate, melted (to drizzle on top)
For the syrup:
- 100g sugar
- 100ml water
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Instructions
For the cream:
- I always start by boiling the shelled pistachios for 3 minutes to soften them. Then drain them and set them on a clean tea towel to dry.
- Then use the tea towel to rub the pistachios to loosen the skins. You want to separate the pistachios from the skins and discard them. This step does take a little time but I promise it’s worth it.
- Tip the pistachios into a food processor with 100ml of the milk and 1 tablespoon of icing sugar. Blitz for around 5 minutes until the pistachios turn into a smooth paste, scraping down the sides every minute or so. Be patient – to begin with, it will resemble breadcrumbs but eventually, it will turn into a paste – this is important.
- Heat the rest of the milk along with the butter and white chocolate in a saucepan and heat gently until melted.
- Scoop the pistachio paste into a blender and then pour in the melted white chocolate mixture. Blitz until extra smooth and creamy.
For the syrup:
- Add the sugar, water and vanilla to a pan. Heat over medium and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Simmer for one minute then remove from the heat.
To assemble:
- Heat the oven to 180c.
- Slice the croissants in half and brush each side with sugar syrup. Place on a baking tray. Spread the bottom with Nutella then pipe on some pistachio cream. Sandwich together and pipe the top with more pistachio cream. Scatter with chopped pistachios and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until toasty and golden.
- Dust with icing sugar and drizzle with melted chocolate or more Nutella and enjoy!
Notes
The pistachio cream will keep well in the fridge for 2 weeks but I highly doubt you will have any problems using it.
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