I LOVE anything pistachio flavoured. Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of videos of pistachio croissants, I knew that I immediately needed to try one.
Almond croissants are usually my favourite kind of croissants because they taste great and they’re also so easy to make.
For these, all I did was replace the ground almonds, in an almond croissant recipe, with pistachios….I LIKE THESE SO MUCH BETTER. These are now my new favourite kind of croissant.
Video Tutorial
Breakdown of the process
So making these pistachio croissants is pretty easy, and they also don’t take long at all.
There are 3 different parts to it though, you got the croissants, a simple syrup and then the pistachio filling.
You want to make the simple syrup first because it needs some time to cool down a little. To make it, you just need to boil some sugar and water together.
Then all you need to do is make the pistachio filling and add this, as well as the syrup, to some store bought croissants and bake them.
Now you’ve got some basic regular degular store bought croissants that taste 10x better and they will make your kitchen smell 10x better too.
Ingredients for the pistachio filling
The main focus of this recipe is the pistachio filling….it’s the best part.
Here’s the ingredients you’re going to need to make this filling:
- Pistachios – roasted pistachios are nicer to use, they will have more flavour. But regular un-roasted ones work well too.
- Unsalted butter – I like to use unsalted butter so I can control the amount of salt. But salted butter works too, just don’t add any extra salt.
- Icing sugar – I prefer using icing/powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. You get a much smoother filling with this.
- Vanilla extract – for flavour.
- An egg
- Corn flour – also known as corn starch. We’re just using a little bit so that the filling doesn’t become too thin as it bake.
- Salt – to enhance the flavours. Don’t add this if you’re using salted butter.
- Milk – just to help loosen up the filling and make it more spreadable.
Roasting the pistachios
Roasting the pistachios is optional but the filling does taste better if you do roast them. It’s totally up to you if you want too or not.
If you are roasting them, here’s how to do it:
- Pre-heat your oven to 180c/350f.
- Get a large baking tray and line it with baking paper.
- Add the pistachios onto the tray and spread them out. Make sure none of the pistachios are on top of each other.
- Roast them in your pre-heated oven for about 4-6 minutes. They’re done when they’re fragrant and start turning a light brown. colour. The timing can vary so keep an eye on them, you don’t want them to burn.
- Let them cool completely before grinding them.
Grinding the pistachios
The main ingredient in almond croissants is ground almonds/almond meal.
You can find this pretty much very where BUT ground pistachios are impossible to find. I actually didn’t find it anywhere, I don’t know why this isn’t a thing that is sold more commonly.
So instead we’re grinding them ourselves.
All you need to do is add the pistachios into a food processor, a mini chopper or even a coffee grinder. You just want to process them until you get very fine crumbs.
Just a tip though, once you get fine crumbs, stop grinding. If you grind them for too long you might end up with pistachio butter, which will taste good but it’s not the goal.
Assembling the croissants
To assemble the croissants, here what you need to to do:
- Cut a croissant in half
- Brush some of the simple syrup onto the croissant – you want to brush it onto the cut sides of the croissant. Try not to add too much syrup, I’ve found that the croissants end up too sweet if you add too much.
- Pipe the filling onto the bottom half of the croissant – you could also just spread it on with a spoon.
- Add the other half of the croissant on top
- Stick some pistachios on top – to do this I just piped a line of the filling on top and pressed this down into some chopped pistachios.
And then that’s it, just repeat this with the rest and bake them.
Use stale croissants
It is best to use croissants that are a day or two old.
These stale ones will do a great job at soaking up the syrup and the filling, so you’ll end up with pistachio croissants that have a gooey centre but crispy on the outside.
If you use fresh croissants, they will just end up too soft and they might even fall apart.
If you do feel like you immediately need pistachio croissants and you only have super fresh croissants on hand. I recommend skipping the simple syrup, don’t add it. Just add the pistachio filling!
Not feeling pistachio croissants, here are some other recipes I posted recently:
Pistachio Croissants
Ingredients
Makes: 6 croissants
6 croissants, stale ones are best to use
- For the simple syrup:
80g granulated sugar
80ml water
- For the pistachio filling:
300g pistachios
150g unsalted butter, softened
150g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tablespoon corn flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
20ml milk
Plus some extra chopped pistachios and icing sugar for the top
Directions
- Start by pre-heating your oven to 180c/350f. Also line a large tray with baking paper.
- Making the simple syrup:
- In a pot, add the sugar and water. Give this a stir, then place the pot on medium heat. Let the mixture come to a boil.
- Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 2 minutes. Now leave this aside to cool down.
- Making the pistachio filling:
- In a food processor, process your pistachios until they have turned into fine crumbs. Leave this aside.
- In a large bowl, add the softened butter, icing sugar and vanilla. Beat these together for 5 minutes.
- Add the egg into this and mix. Now mix in the ground pistachios, corn flour, salt and milk. You want to have a thick, but spreadable mixture. If it seems too thick to spread, add a little more milk.
- Assembling the croissants:
- Get your croissants and cut them in half horizontally.
- Brush a little bit of the syrup onto the cut sides of the croissants. Then pipe or spread the filling onto the bottom half of the croissants, and add the top half on top of the filling.
- Spread a little bit of the filling on top, then press the chopped pistachios onto this.
- Bake these for around 20 minutes or until golden brown and crispy on top. Once baked let them cool for a bit so the filling can set up, then dust some icing sugar on top and enjoy!
