Richard phoned home one night last week to ask me where to find pistachios in the grocery store. I wasn’t there, so he asked Sammy who had no clue and failed to ask the correct question, “why do you need pistachios?” Inquiring minds would want to know!
All was revealed the next day when Richard called to discuss the dismal outcome of attempting to make Pistachio Macaroons. Now this was a curious thing to make. He’s armed with a cookbook full of delicious desserts. When I was 20 and cooking for the first time I was still trying to figure out what to do with an eggplant, not toying around with French pastry. Further questioning revealed that it was all indeed my fault. Richard had been shopping in the Village with friends and saw these fabulous pale green cookies in the window at Provence. He went in and bought several of what turned out to be Pistachio Macaroons. They were just divine, so, he did what his mother does – tried to re-create them at home. I’ve always seen eating out as something of a challenge. If a dish is really amazing, I want to make it myself for friends and family. This is occasionally successful! Not so for Richard this time, although I’m proud of him for trying.
So I made him Pistachio Macaroons yesterday and will declare this recipe not designed for the novice cook. It involved things like flour sifters, which is all well and good if you’ve inherited one from your dearly missed, yet long gone, grandmother. Richard’s grandmother is quite alive and well and certainly not willing to pass along her sifter.
He declared mine better than the one’s he bought (smart boy) and will happily allow me to make them for him until he’s armed with a sifter and a bit more kitchen savvy. I played around with several recipes and here is the end result. See for yourself if you are brave and don’t mind a huge mess in your kitchen!
Ingredients
1 c confectioner’s sugar
1 c pistachios
3 egg whites
pinch of salt
1/4 c sugar
Filling Ingredients
1/4 c pistachios
1 c confectioner's sugar
6 Tbsp softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Put the pistachios and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor and process them in 1-minute intervals 3 times.
In a mixing bowl, combine the egg whites with the pinch of salt.
Beat on medium speed until soft peaks start to form. Increase the
speed, gradually beat in the sugar and continue to whip until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes.
Sieve the pistachio flour and fold it into the egg whites in two batches, mixing with a spatula just until no streaks remain.
This will seem to be a lot of pistachio flour for the amount of egg whites you have, but I promise it will work out.
Scrape the batter into a pastry bag with a round tip or do what I did and use a large baggie with a small hole cut in the corner.
Pipe 1" circles of macaroon batter about 1" apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
Let rest for an hour so the macaroons develop a skin.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Allow to cool completely.
For the filling, process the pistachios and the confectioner's sugar like you did for the macaroons.
Add in butter and vanilla and process until smooth.
Put filling in a pastry bag or small baggie and pipe onto 1/2 of the macaroons, top with another macaroon and enjoy.
