Cooking with Love

with Gianna Conte    (Jan)

You need real pistachio nuts to make muffins

You need real pistachio nuts to make muffins

Delicious little morsels. Top with butter, even better.

Delicious little morsels. Top with butter, even better.

Real Pistachio muffins

My favorite flavor of ice cream is pistachio.  Pistachio muffins are so good, but hard to find. So after looking at some recipes, it was hard finding that taste I was looking for. Now, I know what was missing......the nuts! Fresh salted nuts in their shells.

Preheat oven to 425⁰.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 small box of Jello Pistachio pudding and pie mix.... has to be Jello brand (makes a difference.)

1 TSP good vanilla

2 cups white AP flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup shelled pistachios, chopped

White sugar for sprinkling tops

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line  muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, with a hand mixer beat together melted butter with sugar, for about 1 minute.

Add in eggs and vanilla extract and beat until just combined. Add in Jello pistachio pudding mix, baking powder, salt, and milk. Mix to combine.

Add in flour and mix until flour has been incorporated. Add the chopped pistachio nuts and combine.

Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full. Sprinkle tops with white sugar.

Bake in the preheated 425 degree oven for 7 minutes. After 7 minutes, REDUCE THE HEAT IN THE OVEN TO 350 degrees.

Continue baking for an additional 10 minutes, until muffins are cooked all the way through. Remove from muffin tin and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I got 18 muffins.

*The dough is very sticky, so make sure you use liners.



Let's get baking!


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees


 1 whole thin skinned orange, remove the stem and cut in quarters. Keep the skin on the oranges.

In a clean large food processor, add the orange quarters, 1 1/4 cups of sugar, three large eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 tsp of orange extract, 1 tbsp of Triple Sec liqueur, optional, 2/3 cup vegetable oil. 


Pulse all ingredients in the processor and then puree until mixture becomes a batter with specs of orange peel.


Add to the processor:


2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt


Process all dry ingredients until they are entirely incorporated into the batter.


Bake in a greased and floured spring pan, using a parchment paper circle on top of the greased bottom.*


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place in the center rack of the oven.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven.


Remove from your oven and let it cool down completely. Dust with powdered sugar or make a drizzle of 1/4 cup powdered sugar and fresh squeezed orange until thick and smooth.  Pour onto the cooled fresh orange cake.


*if you don't have a large processor, you can use a blender.


Enjoy with some espresso and close your eyes and it will feel like you're in Sicily.