Pistachio Custard Bars
No bake pistachio custard bars with an easy crushed biscuit base and topped with a thin chocolate layer making pistachios the star feature of these bars.
Servings 15
Calories 246kcal
Ingredients
Base
- 150 grams / 1/12 cups graham crackers crushed
- 50 grams / ¼ cup superfine/caster sugar
- 37 grams / ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 75 grams / 2.65 ounces butter melted
Pistachio filling
- 135 grams / 4.76 ounces pistachio paste
- 70 grams / 2.5 ounces butter softened
- 170 grams / 1 ½ cups confectioner’s/icing sugar
- 25 grams / 3 tablespoons custard powder
- 72 grams / 5 tablespoons heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea or kosher salt
Topping
- 150 grams / 5.3 ounces dark chocolate melted
- 15 grams / 1 tablespoon butter melted
Instructions
Base
- Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper, folding the edges down (or holding down with clips) and smoothly and set aside.
- To make the base, place the cocoa powder, sugar and crushed graham crackers into the bowl and stir together to combine.
- Make a well in the center and pour in the melted butter and combine until no dry patches remain in the edges of the bowl and the mixture holds together.
- Spoon into the prepared tin and press down firmly into the tin nice and evenly. Set aside.
Pistachio filling
- For the filling, place the butter and pistachio paste into a bowl and beat on low until smooth and combined.
- Add in the custard powder, sugar, heavy cream, extract and salt and combine until smooth.
- Spoon on top of the base and smooth out nice and evenly with an offset spatula. Set aside.
Topping
- Meanwhile, stir the melted chocolate and butter together until smooth and pour over the custard filling and tap the base of the baking tin to spread out the melty chocolate nice and evenly.
- Place in the refrigerator and allow to set for several hours or overnight.
- Remove and slice into even slices with a hot knife.
- Serve.
Notes
- Pistachios: The absolute star of this dish is the pistachio paste you can make (or buy). Their flavor is unparalled when compared to other nuts so don't completely recommend substituting, however, you could try hazelnuts in place, if you prefer.
- Graham crackers: These the perfect base for these bars with their light and whole wheat flavor. If you are unable to obtain graham crackers, a great substitute in equal measure would be digestive biscuits or even oreos!
- Dark chocolate: High quality dark chocolate was used here, the type you would snack on instead of baking chocolate due to it having less additives and leaving a more complimentary flavor to the bars.
- Custard powder: This gives our bars a depth of flavor and smooths out the intensity of the pistachios. You could opt to leave this out, if you prefer.
- Making the pistachio paste: You need raw pistachios to begin with and for this recipe 140 grams, approximately 1 cup and will need to blanche them to peel fully.
This is done by boiling water and placing your pistachios into a rolling boil for 1 minute. Drain and wrap your pistachios in a clean dry tea towel, rubbing to dry and peel most of the skins off. You might have to peel some portions by hand.
Place into a blender and pulse, scrapping down the sides until you have a paste and the oils from your pistachios are visible. The pistachios might look like a paste and fine at the stage before the oils become visible, so keep pulsing and scrapping until you see the oils forming on the edges of your blender or food processor.
Set your pistachio paste aside where it will keep in a covered and dark space for up to 2 weeks. If you are adding this paste to a dish that doesn’t specify sugar, you can sweeten before finishing up by adding 50 grams / ½ cup confectioner’s or icing sugar to your blender once the paste is formed.
For further reading re the blanching this information was very helpful and this link was helpful in making the paste. - Food processor or Blender / immersion blender: To make the pistachio paste you need a blender or immersion blender and will need to pulse the pistachios frequently to get the paste going, but this is so worth it!
- Square tin: A 18×18 cm or 7×7 inch square baking tin works well here, though a rectangle tin would also work well.
Nutrition
Calories: 246kcal