There is an Australian-renowned restaurant named Vue de monde in Melbourne, and the restaurant's chef, Shannon Bennett, is very well-respected for his innovative culinary techniques. Recently Vue has opened up a more modestly-priced cafe next door, and the supposed hit of the cafe is these little, pistachio cupcakes.
I read this recipe in Delicious magazine, an Australian culinary magazine (one of the best I have ever seen).
130 g shelled unsalted pistachios, remove skins
100 g unsalted butter, softened
85g caster sugar (super fine sugar)
75g good-quality marzipan (The magazine says that the cafe uses 55g marzipan and 20g sweet pistachio paste.)
2 eggs
1 tbsp kirsch (Kirschwasser, from German "Kirsche" for "cherry", is a clear brandy made from double distillation of the juice of a small, black cherry)
I read this recipe in Delicious magazine, an Australian culinary magazine (one of the best I have ever seen).
130 g shelled unsalted pistachios, remove skins
100 g unsalted butter, softened
85g caster sugar (super fine sugar)
75g good-quality marzipan (The magazine says that the cafe uses 55g marzipan and 20g sweet pistachio paste.)
2 eggs
1 tbsp kirsch (Kirschwasser, from German "Kirsche" for "cherry", is a clear brandy made from double distillation of the juice of a small, black cherry)
2 drops vanilla extract
30g semolina
250g ready-made icing
2-3 drops of green food colouring
Preheat oven to 338 F or 170 C.
Place 100g of the pistachios in a blender and blend until ground. Reserve 1 tbsp ground pistachios and set aside. Transfer the remainder of the ground mixture to a bowl with the butter, sugar, chopped marzipan and a pinch of salt. Beat until lumps are removed and the paste is smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating continuously. Roughly chop the remaining 30g of pistachios and beat into the mixture. Beat in the kirsch, vanilla, and semolina until combined. Divide cake among muffin cases. Bake for 25 minutes.
Warm icing if solid and mix in the food colouring. Spread a little on each cake, along with a little of the reserved ground pistachio and one whole pistachio.
The lowdown:
1. The recipe says to only roughly chop the pistachios that you add to the mix in the final stages. They need to be chopped a bit more than rough, but not to a fine pulp. Mine had a little too much of a chunky texture.
2. I just mixed a few drops of green food coloring with a half of a tub of Betty Crocker Vanilla icing. That stuff is SO sweet and really too sweet. I would suggest making your own butter cream frosting and adding the green food coloring to that.
3. The texture of the cupcakes is similar to that of a carrot cake or italian cream cake. If you don't like that nutty texture, you won't like these.
4. All in all I did like the way they turned out. Much more of a savory base than I had expected.
The lowdown:
1. The recipe says to only roughly chop the pistachios that you add to the mix in the final stages. They need to be chopped a bit more than rough, but not to a fine pulp. Mine had a little too much of a chunky texture.
2. I just mixed a few drops of green food coloring with a half of a tub of Betty Crocker Vanilla icing. That stuff is SO sweet and really too sweet. I would suggest making your own butter cream frosting and adding the green food coloring to that.
3. The texture of the cupcakes is similar to that of a carrot cake or italian cream cake. If you don't like that nutty texture, you won't like these.
4. All in all I did like the way they turned out. Much more of a savory base than I had expected.
5. I used one 12-hole mini muffin pan and a six-hole large muffin pan. My cupcakes only took 21 minutes to bake.
6. Don't forget the salt! I did. Also make sure the quality of the marzipan is good. Mine was not.
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