Pistachio Spread
When I traveled to Sicily this summer, I came back home with four jars of pistachio spread made by the residents of Bronte. The city takes pride in its green pistachios and every shop, bakery or café is proud of its own homemade pistachio spread. It wasn’t easy to choose which spread I should take back to the family. There were so many to choose from; smooth and creamy spreads that reminded me of Nutella, more textured spreads that contained tiny chunks of pistachios, milk based spreads,olive oil based spreads and so on…
Pistachio Tiramisu
Last summer (can’t believe it’s winter already) I traveled to Sicily and came back home with one goal in mind: to recreate all the greenish desserts I enjoyed during my trip. I did not schlep back 4 kilos of the finest pistachios in the world for nothing. Toward the end of the trip, after a day of wandering through the alleyways of the city of Syracuse, I decided to give up dinner and just dive right into a cup of pistachio and ricotta tiramisu. I found paradise in a small cup.
Pistachio Ginger Tart
This post was created for one reason only. I really wanted to try my hand at decorating the edge of a tart crust as seen in this YouTube video (although mute, it says a lot). In the video the chef explains how to do a perfect fonçage, which is important too, but then he continues to show how to make a nice decoration around the tart. I got excited.
Mozartkugel Cake
Not long ago, a couple of my dear sweet friends challenged me to recreate a candy almost as sweet as them, the Mozartkugel. The candy contains pistachio marzipan at its core, covered in a layer of nougat and then coated with a layer of dark chocolate. The MozartKugel was first created in the city of Salzburg in Austria. It brought a lot of good to the world, but also some major legal disputes over its name.
Pistachio Lemon Cake with Mascarpone Frosting
Lately I’ve baked a lot of different variations of pistachio cakes. The kitchen was filled with a wonderful aroma of roasted pistachio (and also an endless amount of dishes). I baked and I baked, and then I baked a little bit more… until finally, I came upon the perfect recipe. I gave my mom a piece to taste and she gave me her most sincere opinion, that it was almost perfect. Thanks mom, but “almost” perfect isn’t good enough for a wedding cake.
Ilana & Romy’s Wedding Cake
When my friends Ilana and Romy asked me to make the cake for their wedding on the Italian island of Sicily, I hesitated. Traveling overseas to make a cake in an unknown kitchen is not easy. When Ilana told me her vision, a naked cake with classic Sicilian flavors like pistachio, lemons and figs – wait, pistachio? Of course I’m going to make this wedding cake. And so I traveled to Sicily last week and made a pistachio and lemon mascarpone cream wedding cake.
Lemon-Lime Pistachio Tartlets
Lime season is almost here and I’m going to take full advantage of it. After all, it only lasts for about two weeks here (at best). You can actually extend this period significantly using a cool trick I learned from Sharon, a dear of mine. Buy a lot of limes, go bankrupt, squeeze them all, pour into ice molds and freeze. This way, you can enjoy lime even during winter, without the heat and sweat that usually accompany it.
Pistachio and Cherry Macaron Cake
It’s almost cherry season! What I love so much about cherries is that they go great with macarons. So I did a bit of research and finally came by an interesting recipe for a macaron cake in “Le Grand Manuel du Pâtissier”.
