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This easy homemade pistachio cream is the most delicious spread made with just 5 ingredients. A delicious a blend of pistachios, white chocolate and milk. Italian Pistachio cream, or Crema al Pistacchio is not only delicious but it’s incredibly simple to make at home. I think it tastes even better than the stuff you can buy in the shops! It’s simple and delicious.
Use this simple to make pistachio cream to fill decadent French Toast, add to buttercream icing, use it in cheesecakes or simply spread on hot toast.
Pistachio cream is so good in so many ways. I love these pistachio cream French toast and pistachio croissants. Almost so decadent they could be pudding rather than brunch and they are both delicious recipes. You can kind of use this creamy Italian pistachio spread in the same way you would Nutella. It would also be incredible swirled into some softly whipped cream and sandwiched between two chocolate cake rounds. I like to use it in a pistachio pavlova too. I add finely chopped pistachio to the meringue and then fold the pistachio cream through whipped double cream to layer it on. The list is endless!
If you haven’t tried Pistachio cream before, or Crema al Pistacchio as it’s known in Italy, you are in for a treat! It’s creamy and sweet with a hint of nuttiness. It’s honestly so so good. And if you haven’t tried making it before let me show you how simple it is to make at home.
Table of Contents
Why you will love this recipe
- It’s like Nutella’s sophisticated older sister, and a perfect addition to so many breakfasts and puddings
- Since it’s real pistachio, it has a great nutty flavour that isn’t overpowered by the other ingredients.
- It means you can make my pistachio cream French toast and pistachio croissants, both show-stopping brunch options.
Ingredients
Pistachios: buy shelled if you can as it will save you shelling yourself. They don’t need to be salted or roasted.
Whole milk: semi-skimmed would work but I am of the belief in a recipe like this that if you’re going to be making something very indulgent like this, you might as well go the full way and use whole milk.
Salted butter: if you only have unsalted, use that but add a pinch of salt alongside.
White chocolate: try to buy good-quality white chocolate with a good amount of cocoa butter rather than just sugar. As this is quite sweet anyway and you don’t want it overwhelmingly sweet.
Icing sugar: to the American readers, powdered sugar. You only need 1 tablespoon.
See recipe card for the exact recipe with a full list of ingredients and measurements
Substitutions and Variations:
Icing sugar: since you only need one tablespoon, I can understand not wanting to buy a whole bag for this purpose. If needed, just add an extra 20g or so of white chocolate. This will add to the sweetness.
Here’s how to make Pistachio Cream
Here’s a step by step guide for what you need to do, but you can find the full recipe below for detailed instructions.
ONE: Boil the pistachios for a few minutes to soften them. Then drain and tip onto a clean tea towel to dry.
TWO: Then use the tea towel to rub the pistachios to loosen the skins. You want to separate the pistachios from the skins. Once you’re done, pop the pistachios into a food processor and discard the skins.
THREE: Add icing sugar and just a splash of milk, then blitz well until smooth. Transfer to a blender when it’s a thick paste.
FOUR: Melt the white chocolate, butter and milk together in a saucepan over low heat.
FIVE: Once smooth and melted, remove the melted chocolate from heat and add to a blender.
SIX: Blend in the blender until totally glossy and smooth. Done!
Cooking Tips
Making it smooth: You just need a strong food processor and blender. The reason you use both is that the food processor chops the pistachios finely whereas a blender will get the paste super smooth once you add the melted white chocolate. This means you can achieve the perfect final texture. If you only have one and not both, it will work but you might need to be more patient with the final texture.
Using a food processor/blender: Since your blender/food processor will be working hard here to make the final process smooth, make sure to give the processor breaks in between blending, using a spoon to stir the contents around and scrape down the sides. This is especially important if the blender starts warming up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common in Italy, pistachio cream is a sweetened pistachio paste that you can use in a multitude of ways. I usually can find it in some supermarkets these days in the UK and it’s easy to order online but it’s also surprisingly easy to make too.
Pistachio cream is sweetened, here with sugar and blended with white chocolate. Pistachio butter is more like peanut butter, it is blended nuts with perhaps some oil and some salt. You can find this both sweetened and unsweetened, depending on the brand.
The pistachio cream will keep well in the fridge for 2 weeks in an airtight jar or container.
I haven’t tried freezing it so I can’t be completely sure but it should work. The milk could turn a little grainy once you defrost. If this happens, I think you could fix it by running it through the blender again. If in doubt, add a bit more melted white chocolate mix and that should fix it!
Yes, you can do. It will just lean into the salty, sweet combination. Use unsalted butter in the cream to balance it out. Taste it once done and you can always add a pinch of salt if it needs any more.
Other recipes you might like to try
If you love pistachio cream, I have also a recipe for pistachio cream French toast and pistachio croissants. They are both so good for an impressive brunch. If you love pistachio, this pistachio tiramisu will be your dream dessert. Let me know what you think once you try it!
For other brunch ideas, my Mango Pancakes are a winner. They are fresh and light, so definitely different to this recipe, but so good. Or this Hong Kong Style French Toast is made with chocolate and hazelnuts. It’s delicious and really a treat.
Lunch Recipes
Torta Pasqualina
Easy Dessert Recipes
Hot Cross Bun Bread and Butter Pudding
Easy Baking Recipes
Mini Egg Cookies
Easy Dinner Recipes
Asparagus Risotto (Risotto Agli Asparagi)
Made this recipe and loved it?
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Pistachio Cream
Ingredients
- 140 g shelled pistachios, you can shell them yourself but it takes a while so buy shelled if you can!
- 180 ml whole milk
- 25 g salted butter
- 100 g white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar, (powdered sugar)
Instructions
- I always start by boiling the shelled pistachios for 3 minutes to soften them. Then drain them and set them on a clean tea towel to dry.
- Then use the tea towel to rub the pistachios to loosen the skins. You want to separate the pistachios from the skins. This step does take a little time but I promise it’s worth it. If you don’t remove the skins your pistachio cream won’t be lovely and vibrant green and will taste slightly more bitter, not in a bad way, it’s still good! But this way is really really good. Once you’re done, pop the pistachios into a food processor and discard the skins.
- Add the icing sugar and just a splash of milk. Blend for around 5 minutes until the pistachios turn into a smooth pistachio paste, scraping down the sides every minute or so. Be patient – to begin with, it will resemble breadcrumbs but eventually, it will turn into a paste – this is important.
- Meanwhile, pop the butter, white chocolate and the rest of the milk into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Allow to melt slowly, stirring every now and then. Once melted, remove from the heat.
- Scoop the pistachio paste into a blender and then pour in the melted white chocolate mixture. Blend until extra creamy and silky smooth.
Wondering how this will taste if in lieu of milk maybe using pistachio coffee creamer or melted pistachio ice cream ( we are a sweets couple )
Hi Stephanie, I haven’t tried it but I do think that would be VERY sweet, perhaps too sweet! I would try it with the milk as written as the recipe is full of white chocolate and it’s already sweet and well-balanced.
amazing creamy and delicious however i recommend not using all the milk if you need a more creamy and thicker consistency.
Great recipe
I just made this and it’s delicious. I doubled the recipe and used half & half instead of whole milk as I didn’t have any. Came out perfect. My question is after it’s been refrigerated, how do you recommend getting it back to a pourable consistency?
Glad you liked the recipe! It should turn back to a pourable consistency once it warms up a little. Try to remove it from the fridge 30 minutes before using or if you’re really in a rush, scoop out some pistachio cream from the jar and add to a small microwaveable. Heat on low in 20 second bursts in the microwave until soft. Don’t heat too much as you don’t want it to separate. Let us know how you get on!
Just wanted to let you know we went through that entire batch in 2 weeks and I’m currently making another right now at 10pm, lol! I used it over my chocolate brownie recipe and topped that with a chocolate ganache, absolutely to die for. And it also went on my English muffin every morning until I ran out. The consistency straight out of the refrigerator was lovely and I ended up never needing to warm it, it stayed very spreadable. Thanks again for the recipe!
Delicious!!!
I haven’t tried the recipe yet but it looks so easy to do.
My query is, can you use this pistachio cream in Dubai Bars? I use Peanut Butter at the moment as I can’t find anywhere in Glasgow that sells it.
Yes, you definitely could! Mix it with the shredded toasted pastry – it’ll be delicious.
Could I use this Pistachio cream in Dubai chocolate?
Yes! You could use it to mix with the toasted kataifi for the filling x
Taste good mine came out less thicker than i wanted it too but i can just easily add more melted white chocolate to make it thicker
hi! So pleased you liked it. Remember it will thicken in the fridge as it settles x