Homemade Pistachio Cream

Bring a pot of water to a boil over medium heat. Add pistachios and boil for just 2 minutes. Drain pistachios, rinse thoroughly with cold water, then drain again.

Cook’s Note

Only boil pistachios for 2 minutes. If they are too soft, they are more difficult to peel. Pistachios can vary in how difficult it is to remove skins, and peeling can take time, an hour or more, potentially. It is important to remove as much of the skins as possible, however, as the skins will give the pistachio cream a musty flavor and a gritty texture. 

Pour pistachios onto a clean kitchen towel. Fold towel in half over pistachios and rub vigorously to remove skins. You may want to repeat this rubbing process with another clean towel; this will help dry pistachios a little more, and make them slightly less slippery to hold onto.

Carefully pick through pistachios and separate them from their skins; peel off any skins still stuck to pistachio meats. Discard skins, and place peeled pistachio meats into the cup of a high-powered blender.

In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine 1/4 cup milk, white chocolate chips, and butter. Microwave in 30 second intervals at 50% power (stirring after each 30 second interval), until butter and white chocolate chips are melted and mixture becomes smooth and combined.

Add remaining 1/2 cup milk, powdered sugar, salt, almond extract, and vanilla to the blender cup. Pour in white chocolate mixture.

Starting on low speed and gradually increasing to high, blend pistachio mixture until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes, stopping often to scrape down the sides of the blender jar. If mixture is too thick, add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Pause blending if mixture is becoming hot; heat may cause it to separate.

Pour pistachio cream into a glass jar or container, and allow to cool slightly. Pistachio cream is ready to use immediately, or cover and refrigerate. It will keep for 1 to 2 weeks.

Cook’s Notes

If you cannot find raw shelled pistachios, you can use unsalted, roasted shelled pistachios. The resulting pistachio cream will be more brown; you can offset this by adding a drop or two of blue food coloring to reach the desired shade of green.

The pistachio cream can be customized to taste—just increase or decrease confectioner’s sugar, salt, almond extract, and/or vanilla amounts. You can also add some pistachio extract, if you have it. 

You can use a food processor to make this, but the cream may not be as smooth. Blending time will depend upon the power of your machine. You may need to process longer, and/or take breaks to keep your blender or food processor from overheating. 

To make cleaning your blender cup easier, fill it with warm soapy water after removing the pistachio cream, and run it on High speed for a minute or so.