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Pistachio Buttercream


Dee

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I have a request for pistachio buttercream but have never made this before. I have seen pistachio cream in a jar, sort of a green paste... I wondered whether I could just mix this into my basic meringue buttercream recipe (and how much)? Or does anyone have any other ideas how to achieve this flavour in a buttercream?

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I've made pistachio buttercream before, I like it alot. I do use pistachio paste to flavor the buttercream and you can add it "to taste" with-out hurting your frostings texture. I've also used finely chopped pistachios in my butter cream........but it's taste isn't as pronounced as the paste makes it.

The one thing I can think of that you want to pay close attention to is the type/brand of p. 'paste' you use. Some are clearly imiation and have a funky/fake green color to them (usually with a blue/green hue), check the label before buying to make sure it's made from nuts. Good pistachio paste is naturally green (a warm green shade like the real nuts) in tone and doesn't look like they've intentionally added food dyes. I really love pistachio paste it's great in lots of other pastries too. If you need help using up what you bought come back and we can talk further about that.

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I've never made it before either.

My question is, do you have to add so much of it "to taste" that it makes the buttercream

quite greenish? Probably not recommended as an outside coating, but just as a filling?

I think I remember that Mel posted once about Pistachio paste. She was looking for the

MEC3 brand, and I think she said it wasn't green. :unsure:

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I've tried the Hero brand - in the jar it is this neon green color, but the buttercream becomes barely colored, a very delicate celadon green. If you want more of a pistachio hit, I'd use the pistachio marzipan recipe from RLB's Cake bible - layering it on a cake layer as she describes. That marzipan is fun to work with!

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oh, that pistachio buttercream is divine, it's so melty and delicate :wub:

Spam in my pantry at home.

Think of expiration, better read the label now.

Spam breakfast, dinner or lunch.

Think about how it's been pre-cooked, wonder if I'll just eat it cold.

wierd al ~ spam

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Ok kids!

Time to fill in the blanks!

1. I like to fill/frost _____cakes with pistachio buttercream.

2. Pistachio buttercream goes great with _______.

True or False:

1. I charge more for desserts with pistachio buttercream.

2. I toast my pistachios first before I grind them to use in pistachio buttercream.

3. Every time I say "pistachio", somebody says "gesundheit".

Multiple choice:

1. Pistachio buttercream is:

A. As good as chocolate buttercream

B. not very attractive

C. expensive

D. worth making

E. the best ever

You will not be graded on this test. I'm using it only for personal research purposes....

:raz:

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Ok, here goes...

I am filling cakes, not icing them with this pistachio buttercream and the cakes will be lemon. I've made lemon pistachio biscotti before, so that's why I figured those flavours would be good as a cake.

False... however, I definitely should have charged more for the pistachio buttercream option-- since the paste is really expensive! At least the stuff I got is... imported from Italy, it's a pistachio "cream" made from organic pistachios and organic cane sugar.

By the looks of my first experiment, I'm going to have to use an awful lot of this stuff to get any actual pistachio flavour so I may try the "toasting and grinding my own" method next and see how that goes.

I think pistachio buttercream is:

C. Expensive

But, I like the idea of it and the look of it as a filling (not an outer icing) but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble... I have to do further experimentation but so far, it has such a mild flavour I'm not sure I can even notice it's pistachio flavoured or not, other than the obvious green colour.

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Wendy, what brand of paste do you use, if you know. Is it the Hero brand that's been mentioned above? And is what you use sweetened? Because generally, the flavours of buttercream I use are made by having a basic swiss meringue buttercream as my base and adding purees, lemon curd, chocolate, etc to that. And I make my own purees and curds less sweet to compensate for the already sweet buttercream.

So, the problem with the pistachio cream I mentioned is that it is already so sweet on its own that if I add enough for the pistachio flavour to come through, it's going to be way too sweet.

Thanks for your help!

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I can't recall which brand I currently have. It's not sweet. If you look in my blog (currently happening) I've got photos of my products (I think thats on the first page) and you might be able to see the brand. It's in a huge white metal tin............on top of my stainless steel rack above my sink.

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DON'T use Hero pistachio paste! I use Albert Uster's pistachio paste. It's perfect! They grind Sicilian pistachios which are a bright green (natural) and the flavor is true. Ambassador Fine Foods, Inc. also introduced a pure pistachio paste for a fraction of AUI's price...

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I wasn't thrilled with the Hero paste and don't use it anymore.... mostly because the chemical smell when I opened the jar was pretty vile. In four years, I've had just one request for pistachio buttercream, so I haven't needed to replace it. But just in case, I got a small can of paste from American Almond, but haven't used it yet (I don't like American Almond's hazelnut paste - too gritty. For hazelnut paste, I only use the Albert Uster stuff, it's fantastic!). Good to know there's other options out there, the AUI prices are pretty steep.

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Well, what I ended up doing was toasting and grinding up pistachio nuts in my food processor, but it didn't get to the "paste" stage as I'd hoped. So, I just tried adding the crushed nuts to the buttercream and to me it tastes pretty good and I quite like the crunchiness. However, I'm not an expert on pistachio anything, so I'm not sure what a great pistachio buttercream should taste like and is it okay to be crunchy compared to smooth. It still seems so mild to me... compared to a hazelnut or almond buttercream which would be fairly pronounced in flavour. I hope it will be okay! I'll be on the look out for the recommended pastes mentioned above. But knowing my luck, after that I'll never get a request for it again! :rolleyes:

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Dee,

The reason I purchased from L'Epecerie, is you can order a small amount from them. 8oz. I wanted to try that particular product. They actually package it for you. And then if you like the product, you can then order the full amount, or from another company that sells it cheaper or nearer to you. So, even if you don't rarely use it, the small 8 oz. is reasonably priced for experiments and for that special order. Beats grinding up nuts to form a paste. Done that.

BTW, haven't gotten around to experimenting yet.

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Dee,

The reason I purchased from L'Epecerie, is you can order a small amount from them. 8oz. I wanted to try that particular product.  They actually package it for you.  And then if you like the product, you can then order the full amount, or from another company that sells it cheaper or nearer to you. So, even if you don't rarely use it, the small 8 oz. is reasonably priced for experiments and for that special order. Beats grinding up nuts to form a paste. Done that.

BTW, haven't gotten around to experimenting yet.

Where did you order it? Online? That's definitely good to know you can order smaller amounts to try. One time I bought (to try) hazelnut paste which was also really expensive, and it came in a huge bucket which I'm still trying to get through. It's really yummy though!

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  • 6 months later...
I've made pistachio buttercream before, I like it alot. I do use pistachio paste to flavor the buttercream and you can add it "to taste" with-out hurting your frostings texture. I've also used finely chopped pistachios in my butter cream........but it's taste isn't as pronounced as the paste makes it.

The one thing I can think of that you want to pay close attention to is the type/brand of p. 'paste' you use. Some are clearly imiation and have a funky/fake green color to them (usually with a blue/green hue), check the label before buying to make sure it's made from nuts. Good pistachio paste is naturally green (a warm green shade like the real nuts) in tone and doesn't look like they've intentionally added food dyes. I really love pistachio paste it's great in lots of other pastries too. If you need help using up what you bought come back and we can talk further about that.

I just bought some pistachio paste and I'm wondering what else to use it for besides buttercream?

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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I really love pistachio paste it's great in lots of other pastries too. If you need help using up what you bought come back and we can talk further about that.

I just bought some pistachio paste and I'm wondering what else to use it for besides buttercream?

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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I just bought some pistachio paste and I'm wondering what else to use it for besides buttercream?

What about adding some to a white chocolate ganache for truffles? Or make a holiday dessert with layers of raspberry mousse alternating with pistachio mousse (you'd probably have to add a drop or two of food coloring to get a green shade).

I've tried the Agrimontana pistachio paste and it's so much better than Hero or American Almond, but it's harder to find - I got lucky during a conversation with my choc vendor who happened to have some, as well as some of their apricot jam, which is hands-down the best apricot jam I've ever had. I've been using it for an apricot linzer torte, and it's fantastic.

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