Most people have one or two foods they can never resist. I can easily list at least ten, one of them being croissants. Every time I visit Costco, I have to pull myself away from the cases of croissants staring at me. Fresh croissants are obviously the best, but when you toast one of those Costco bad boys, they can be quite delicious. Well today, I decided to give in only because I wanted to elevate these store-bought pastries. I've tried almond and hazelnut croissants before but how about pistachio croissants? Pistachio cream filling piped into croissants, baked to perfection, and topped with powdered sugar - sounds like a recipe for success, no?
Pistachio Croissants
Ingredients
Pastry cream
- 2 cups milk (500 ml)
- ¼ cup white granulated sugar (50 grams)
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup cornstarch (30 grams)
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar (67 grams)
- 2 tablespoon butter (28 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pistachio filling
- 1 ½ cup pistachios, shelled, toasted, divided (170 grams)
- 1 cup powdered sugar (120 grams)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoon butter, softened (28 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 12 croissants
- powdered sugar for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Prepare pastry cream. Combine milk and ¼ cup sugar in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk together egg yolks, egg, cornstarch, and ⅓ cup sugar. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly.
- Continue to cook the cream until thick, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla extract. Transfer to a heatproof container and cover with plastic wrap directly touching the surface. Cool.
- Prepare the pistachio filling. Process 1 cup pistachios with powdered sugar and cornstarch in a food processor until mixture resembles fine sand. Mix pistachio mixture with 2 tablespoon softened butter, egg, and pastry cream. Transfer filling to a pastry bag or large Ziploc bag with one corner cut to make an opening.
- Cut croissants in half and pipe filling inside. Spread the remaining filling on top, using a spatula to evenly spread the filling. Sprinkle chopped pistachios on top. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and serve warm or at room temperature.
**Helpful tips and common mistakes
Custard is one of my all-time favorite fillings for almost all desserts. For this recipe, I decided to combine classic pastry cream with pistachios to create one delicious filling.
Start by preparing the pastry cream. You can also prepare the pastry cream the day before to give it enough time to cool. Mastering how to make pastry cream can be one of the handiest tools when it comes to baking. I can still remember my pastry chef yelling, "Whisk! Whisk! No lumps!" as we stood over our egg and milk mixture. Once the cream is ready, cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent skin from forming.
Next, it's time to prepare the pistachios. Use a food processor and chop the nuts with powdered sugar and cornstarch. The texture will look like crumbly sand when it is ready. If you have a powerful blender, this device will also work.
Mix the pistachio mix with butter, egg, and pastry cream. Go ahead, dip your finger right into that filling. Tasty, am I right? It was at this moment when I knew that this dessert was going to be a winner.
Transfer the pistachio cream into a pastry bag and pipe it into the croissants. Spread extra filling on top and finish with a sprinkle of toasted chopped pistachios on top. I can bite into these pastries right now! Sure they would be good but let's make them great and bake them in the oven at 375 for 15 minutes.
Finish with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and get ready to devour these pistachio croissants. After they have baked, the filling inside melts and spreads into all the flaky layers. These pastries were the perfect amount of sweet with just the right amount of pistachio flavor. Now to try this recipe with almonds, hazelnuts, or even cashews!
For more pastry inspiration check out these strawberry rhubarb cheese danishes!
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