Pistachio Pastry Cream – Crème Pâtissière À La Pistache
Homemade pistachio pastry cream is indulgent and delicious. It has a rich crème pâtissière base, mixed with homemade pistachio paste and a hint of almond extract. It’s perfect to fill choux pastry, doughnuts, trifles, tarts and more.
This recipe uses a quick pistachio paste, made from blanched pistachios brought together with a little water. It also has the addition of a little sugar and almond extract to enhance the pistachio flavor.
If you don’t want to make your own, you can buy pistachio paste too. That will make this custard smoother. Homemade pistachio paste will always have more texture to it than store-bought, but I personally love the texture of the flecks of pistachio in there.
This is different from pistachio butter or pistachio cream. Pistachio butter is usually blended with a bit of oil to make it spreadable, while pistachio cream is often mixed with white chocolate.
Ingredients
First you make classic crème pâtissière, then a homemade pistachio paste. Here’s what you need. Find the ingredient amounts in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Whole milk: The base of the custard.
- Sugar: Granulated white sugar.
- Cornstarch: The thickener.
- Large egg yolks: Brings a rich texture. Leftover egg whites can be saved and used for meringue!
- Vanilla: You can use a scraped vanilla pod, vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
- Salt: Flavor enhancer
- Unsalted butter: The butter adds a little shine and richness and enhances the creamy texture.
- Raw pistachios – Not salted or roasted
- Almond extract – Optional, but it does a great job at bringing out the pistachio taste.
Note – You can also use a store-bought pistachio paste to save time. That will make a smoother custard.
Method
Pistachio Paste
Fill a medium pot with water and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add shelled pistachios to the water and Let them boil for about 60 seconds. The goal here is not to cook the nuts, but to soften the skins so they can be easily removed.
While the pistachios are blanching, prepare a bowl of ice water. After the pistachios have boiled for a minute, drain them then immediately add them to the ice bath. This will stop the cooking process and cool them down quickly so they’re easier to handle.
Once the pistachios have cooled in the ice water for a couple of minutes, drain them and tip them onto a clean kitchen towel. You can use a kitchen towel to rub the skins off, or your hands to indiviually peel them.
My favorite way to do it is to take a second, dry kitchen towel and rub each pistachio indiviudally in that. The coarseness of the towel helps remove the skin.
After all the pistachios have been peeled, add them to a food processor and grind until they turn into a clumpy meal. This will take around 5-10 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Once the pistachios have been ground down, add the powdered sugar to the food processor and continue to process.
With the food processor running, add water one tablespoon at a time until you reach a smooth, spreadable paste.
Don’t make it too thin, because you don’t want to add too much extra water to the custard later. Add the almond extract, if using, and blend until fully incorporated. Scrape the paste into a bowl or jar and set aside.
Crème pâtissière
Heat milk and vanilla on medium heat in a medium saucepan until it is just at a simmer.
While the milk is warming, in a large bowl, add the egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch. Whisk them together until glossy and smooth.
Add the hot milk mixture in a steady stream to the egg mixture while continuously whisking. Add in the pistachio paste and whisk well to combine it.
Return the mixture to the saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly until it starts to bubble.
Once you see that first bubble pop, it will begin to thicken. Keep it at a bubble don’t stop whisking for a full minute until super thick.
Take it off the heat and whisk in cold butter until completely combined. If you want a more pronounced green color, you could also add a little food coloring.
Pour the hot pastry cream into a clean bowl.
Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard to avoid a skin forming and let it come to room temperature. Chill it in the refrigerator until completely cold.
Pistachio crème pâtissière can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
Top Tips
It is crucial to cook the crème pâtissière long enough to deactivate amylase, an enzyme in egg yolks that can break down starch and cause the custard to become soupy as it cools.
Once the custard thickens and bubbles appear, you must cook and whisk continuously for a full minute. This will neutralize the amylase.
FAQS
You can freeze it but upon thawing, it may separate and appear curdled. To fix this, you can reheat the thawed pastry on the stove until hot, and whisk until smooth. Or, heat a small portion in the microwave until hot and then whisk it into the rest of the custard until you get a smooth consistency
If your pastry cream is too thin after cooling, it may not have been cooked long enough. To fix it, you can return it to the heat and cook it, stirring constantly, until it thickens. However, pistachio pastry cream will always be thinner than regular crème pâtissière due to the addition of the pistachio paste. If you find it’s just too thin for your liking, you can make a cornstarch slurry (1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water). Whisk this into the pastry cream and return it to the heat and cook it a bit longer. Pour it into a bowl once cooked, cover with plastic wrap, cool it and then chill it.
Yes, pistachio pastry cream can be made up to several days in advance. Cover it well with plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerated until needed.
Uses for pistachio crème pâtissière
- Tart or cupcake filling – Use it as a lush pistachio filling for pre-baked tart shells, and top with fresh fruit, or as a filling for cupcakes.
- Éclairs and cream puffs – Pistachio pastry cream is perfect for piping into choux pastry like éclairs and cream puffs for a gourmet twist on these classics.
- Doughnut filling – Pipe it into bombolini-style donuts.
- Trifle Layer Alternate layers of pistachio pastry cream with sponge cake, fruit, and whipped cream in a trifle dish.
- Danish pastries – Dollop on the center of Danish pastry dough before baking.
- Ice Cream Base – Fold it into a basic ice cream base and churn in an ice cream maker to create a rich, custard-style pistachio ice cream.
- Mousse – Lighten it with whipped cream to make a pistachio mousse, perfect for dessert cups.
Pistachio Pastry Cream – Crème Pâtissière À La Pistache
Ingredients
Pistachio paste
- 100 g raw shelled pistachios
- 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar
- 3-4 Tablespoons water
- 1/4 teapoon almond extract
Crème pâtissière
- 480 g whole milk
- 1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla paste or extract
- 65 g granulated sugar
- 30 g cornstarch
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 45 g unsalted butter cold
Instructions
Pistachio Paste
- Fill a medium pot with water and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, add shelled pistachios to the water. Let them boil for about 60 seconds.
- While the pistachios are blanching, prepare a bowl of ice water. After the pistachios have boiled for a minute, drain them then immediately add them to the ice bath.
- Once the pistachios have cooled in the ice water, drain them and tip them onto a clean kitchen towel. Use a second dry kitchen towel to rub the skins off, or your hands to indiviually peel them.
- After all the pistachios have been peeled, add them to a food processor and grind until they turn into a clumpy, fine meal. This will take 5-10 minutes depending on your food processor. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Once the pistachios have been ground down, add the powdered sugar and continue to process. With the food processor running, add water one tablespoon at a time until you reach a smooth, spreadable paste. Don't make it too thin, because you don't want to add too much extra water to the custard later.
- Add the almond extract, if using, and blend until fully incorporated. Scrape the paste into a bowl or jar and set aside.
Crème pâtissière
- Heat milk and vanilla on medium heat in a medium saucepan until it is just at a simmer.
- While the milk is warming, in a large bowl, add the egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch. Whisk them together until glossy and smooth.
- Place the bowl on a dampened kitchen towel to stop it from slipping around for this next step.
- Add the hot milk mixture in a steady stream to the egg mixture while continuously whisking. This step is to prevent the egg yolks from curdling.
- Add in the pistachio paste and whisk well to combine it.
- Return the mixture to the saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly until it starts to bubble.
- Once you see that first bubble pop, it will begin to thicken. Keep it at a bubble don't stop whisking for a full minute until super thick.
- Take it off the heat and whisk in cold butter until completely combined. If you want a more pronounced green color, you could also add a little food coloring.
- Pour the hot pastry cream into a clean bowl.
- Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard to avoid a skin forming and let it come to room temperature. Chill it in the refrigerator until completely cold.
- Pistachio crème pâtissière can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
