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Pistachio Paste

03/01/05, by Kate Hopkins Email 13312 views • Categories: Pistachios

This is the pistachio version of almond paste. If you want your paste to not be green, soak the pistachios overnight, and then remove the skins with a tea towel. If you leave the skins on, you end up with a product whose color can best be termed "unfortunate". On the other hand, if you are using pistachio paste in a recipe and want the end product to be green, you might want to leave the skins on.

  • 1/3 cup pistachios
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-4 Tablespoons water

Grind the pistachios in a food processor for 1-2 minutes, until it's a near fine powder. Add the sugar and incorporate into the nuts.

This step is critical. Add water to mixture in the processor, one tablespoon at a time, until the paste has the consistency of marzipan. You want to err on the side of too little water rather than too much. The paste should not look liquidy, and should be easily held and shaped when in your hand.


Permalink • 11 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: noelle [Visitor]
do you toast the pistachios first?
PermalinkPermalink 03/01/05 @ 10:15
Comment from: Tara C [Member] Email · http://www.dementedkitty.com
How did it turn out? It sounds simple enough. I'm very curious about this.
PermalinkPermalink 03/01/05 @ 10:22
Comment from: Kate Hopkins [Member] Email · http://www.accidentalhedonist.com
I did not toast the pistachios first, although one could. All the basic rules surrounding nuts apply here...toasted vs. not toasted. skinned vs. not skinned. Each will give a little different flavor. However, I would note the the paste is often used in items such as cookies, cakes, and puddings. So you may want to choose accordingly to the recipe.

But definately no shells.
PermalinkPermalink 03/01/05 @ 10:25
Comment from: Tara C [Member] Email · http://www.dementedkitty.com
So how did it taste? What was the texture like? Was it really the pistachio version of marzipan?
PermalinkPermalink 03/01/05 @ 13:56
Comment from: Kate Hopkins [Member] Email · http://www.accidentalhedonist.com
I actually added a little to much water...which is why I said that one should err on teh side of dry. My food processor doesn't make the really fine granules, but the bits of pistachios were small enough. It really did have the consistency of play-dough or marzipan. It tasted like sweetened pistachios. It worked quite well in the pudding.

The idea came to me looking at the ingedient list of almond paste. It read almonds, sugar, sucrose water. Simple enough it seems, eh?
PermalinkPermalink 03/01/05 @ 14:16
Comment from: Daniel Bilodeau [Visitor]
Just a quick addition. Why not use egg white instead of water? The consistency is beautiful when egg white is used. Also, to get the nuts fine-ground, do not toast them beforehand, but grind them, then grind them for five minutes (according to my book's recipe) with the powdered sugar, after which you add the very little maybe 1 tsp or 1/3 egg white or so for this recipe. You should only need a little bit and its very hard to mess this one up, as you will discover :) .
PermalinkPermalink 06/21/06 @ 22:59
Comment from: Elizabeth [Visitor]
If you want your paste to be green, leave on the papery red-black skins? Remove the skins by soaking them overnight so the paste won't be green? Is that really what you're saying?

Other instructions I found advise you to peel the nuts and this makes sense because they are green and the skins are not.

I have a jar of pistachio cream (basically more the consistency of peanut butter than the even more costly product sold to pastry chefs) that is made from organic Sicilian nuts and sugar, nothing else. It does not keep well; I picked it up in the spring and should have used it immediately instead of waiting till the month stamped on lid as end of peak quality. Consequently it's darkened a bit and it was hard to stir the hardened ground nuts back into the bright green oil. If a bit too sweet on its own, it is still quite delicious.
PermalinkPermalink 12/15/06 @ 09:54
Comment from: chloe [Visitor] · http://www.bedrijfs-kleding.nl/bouw-industries-werkschoenen-c-27_100.html
werkschoenen
PermalinkPermalink 01/11/07 @ 14:38
Comment from: Venisa Piotrowski [Visitor]
Add in glycerine is a tip I hope to try. I've a file on Marzipan that says, 'Rose Levy Beranbaum in her cookbook "Rose's Christmas Cookies" gives a recipe for pistachio marzipan and several ways to use it. She recommends using a tiny amount of glycerine as a way of keeping the marzipan soft and chewy.'

I gave source credit to 'or a Traditional Treat
by Rosemary Henry Copyright © 2001, electronic Gourmet Guide, Inc.'
PermalinkPermalink 03/16/07 @ 18:46
Comment from: FXcuisine [Visitor] Email · http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=85
I did my pistachio paste using Pierre Hermé's recipe. He adds a little bitter almond extract and cooks the sugar to 121°C. Have a look at the recipe in pictures on my blog http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=85
Thanks and happy pistachio eating!
PermalinkPermalink 05/21/07 @ 07:15
Comment from: ERIC [Visitor] Email
Hello....

How long does the Pistachio paste could be keep for?

1 month?

1 year?
PermalinkPermalink 07/09/10 @ 03:36

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