Pistachio Raspberry Pithiviers Food

RASPBERRY AND PISTACHIO FRIANDS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. Melt the butter in a small pan, then remove from the heat and leave to cool a little. Grease eight holes of the friand (or muffin) tin with a little bit of butter.
• Blitz 85g (2/3 cup) of the pistachio nuts in a food processor with the confectioners' sugar until very finely chopped. Tip into a bowl with the ground almonds and flour and mix together. Roughly chop the remaining pistachio nuts and set aside.
• Froth the egg whites lightly with a fork, then pour into the nuts and flour mixture with the melted butter and mix well.
• Pour the mixture into the friand tin holes, add a few raspberries to each one, then scatter with the chopped pistachios. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the friands are risen and springy to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
• Serve warm or at room temperature. Dust with a little confectioners' sugar if you like. They should be light and chewy!
• Twist:
• Pecan Pie Friands: Make the friand recipe above, swapping pistachios for 100g (1 cup) pecans and the raspberries for 75g (2.6 oz) chewy toffee, chopped into small pieces. Sprinkle the toffee over the friand batter before baking.

RASPBERRY, PISTACHIO & LEMON CURD TRIFLES

Steps:

• Cut the madeira cake into 1cm thick slices, and sandwich pieces together using 4 tbsp of the lemon curd. Cut into small squares, and pile into four dessert glasses or one medium trifle dish.
• Mash half the raspberries in a bowl with a fork, and stir in the vanilla and limoncello. Spoon over the sponge. Top with more halved or whole raspberries - saving some to finish - and a scattering of the pistachios.
• Stir most of the remaining pistachios into the custard, then spoon over the fruit and sponge.
• Whip the cream and sugar in a large bowl until thick and billowy, and holding soft peaks. Spoon over the trifles. Top with the reserved pistachios, a swirl of lemon curd and the remaining raspberries.

RASPBERRY & PISTACHIO TEA CAKE

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 15 x 25cm cake tin. Put the pistachios in a food processor with half the sugar and blitz until the nuts are finely chopped. Tip into a bowl, add the remaining sugar and the butter and beat with an electric whisk until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, then beat in the flour and yogurt until smooth, adding some milk if it's too thick.
• Spoon the batter into the tin, level and bake for 50-55 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 mins, then turn the cake out onto a board. Remove and discard the baking parchment, then leave to cool completely. Cut into neat squares.
• To make the icing, put the raspberries in a pan with 2 tbsp water and cook briefly until soft and juicy. Push the mixture through a sieve and discard any pips. Whisk in the sugar until you have a smooth pink icing.
• Pour the icing over the cooled cake, then decorate with the sugar flowers, pearl sugar or sprinkles, if you like. Leave to set before serving.

PISTACHIO AND RASPBERRY TART

Steps:

• Make the pastry: Place flour, sugar, salt, lemon zest and butter in a food processor and blitz for about 15 seconds, until it reaches the consistency of fine bread crumbs. With the machine running, add vinegar and then add water slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture comes together (you may not need all the water). Form dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
• On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to form a circle about 13 inches/33 centimeters wide and 1/8 inch/2 millimeters thick. Carefully transfer the dough (wrap it around a rolling pin, if that helps you) to a 9-inch/26-centimeter round fluted tart pan with 1-inch/3-centimeter-high sides. Press the dough securely into the corners of the pan and trim the crust 1/4 inch/1/2 centimeter above the rim of the pan, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius.
• Line the dough with a large piece of baking parchment and fill the tart with dried beans or pie weights. Bake for 25 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown around the edges. Remove beans and paper and continue to bake the pastry for 8 minutes until the base is golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside.
• Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/170 degrees Celsius.
• Make the filling: Spread pistachios out on a baking sheet and roast for 8 minutes, until they are hot but haven't taken on any color. Remove from oven and carefully transfer 3/4 cup/100 grams nuts to a cutting board and set aside. Immediately blitz remaining nuts in a food processor while they are still hot. Keep the machine going for 6 to 8 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times when the nuts stop moving, until you get a thick smooth paste and the nuts begin to ball up in the bowl. Add melted butter, lemon zest, juice, vanilla extract, almond extract and salt and pulse a few times until combined. Roughly chop the reserved pistachios.
• Place eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to medium and slowly add the sugar until incorporated. Add flour, pistachio paste and chopped pistachios and mix on low until combined. (You may need to scrape the pistachio paste off the bottom of the bowl.) Pour the mixture into the tart shell, spreading it out evenly. Sprinkle raspberries over the filling and bake for about 35 minutes, until golden-brown around the edges, pale golden in the center and set.
• Remove from oven and let cool completely in the pan. Once cool, the tart can be lifted out of the pan and transferred to a platter to slice and serve. The filling should be soft, but still hold its shape when sliced.

RASPBERRY PISTACHIO THUMBPRINTS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. Cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. In another bowl, whisk flour and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Add pistachios; mix well., Shape dough into 1-in. balls. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Press a deep indentation in center of each with your thumb; fill each with 1/2 teaspoon jam., Bake until bottoms are light brown, 13-16 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. If desired, dust with additional confectioners' sugar.

RASPBERRY & PISTACHIO PARFAIT

Steps:

• Grease a 900g loaf tin with oil, then line with baking parchment. To make the purée, blitz the raspberries to a pulp in a blender, then pass through a fine sieve into a saucepan. Gently reduce the purée on a low heat for 30 mins, stirring occasionally, until the colour has intensified and the purée has reduced to about 200ml. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
• While the purée cools, put the egg yolks and sugar in a glass bowl and whisk over a pan of simmering water for 10 mins until the eggs are pale, thick and doubled in volume. Set aside.
• Next, put the sugar for the meringue in a saucepan with 2 tbsp water and heat until the syrup reaches 120C on a thermometer. While the sugar is coming up to temperature, use a mixer or electric whisk, to whisk the egg whites on the lowest setting. Once the sugar has reached 120C, carefully pour onto the egg whites and turn the mixer or electric whisk up, continuing to whisk until the whites are cool.
• Next, in a clean bowl, whisk the cream until it has soft peaks. Add the purée and chopped pistachios, then fold in the yolks. Once combined, fold in half the whites. Add the raspberries with the remaining whites, gently fold together, then pour into the lined loaf tin. Put in the freezer overnight.
• The next day, remove the parfait from the tin. Cover it completely in the blitzed pistachios, then place on a tray, cover in cling film and return it to the freezer. When you're ready to serve, slice the parfait and serve with a few fresh raspberries.