Description
Delightful Vanilla Bean Pistachio Cake delves into Middle Eastern dessert traditions with nuanced flavors. Creamy layers and delicate nut notes invite palates to savor each carefully crafted bite you’ll treasure.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 ½ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (360 ml) pistachios, shelled, unsalted, finely ground
- 2 ½ tsps baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, unsalted, softened
- 1 ¾ cups (350 g) sugar, granulated
- 4 eggs, large
- 1 vanilla bean (or 2 tsps vanilla extract)
- 1 cup (240 ml) milk, whole
- ½ cup (120 ml) sour cream
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, unsalted, softened
- 4 cups (480 g) sugar, powdered
- 2 tsps vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
- ¼ cup (60 ml) cream, heavy (adjust for consistency)
- ½ cup (60 g) pistachios, finely chopped (for topping)
Instructions
- Preheat Preparation: Configure the oven to 350F (175C) and meticulously line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper or apply a light grease and flour coating.
- Pistachio Processing: Pulse pistachios in a food processor, transforming them into a fine, powdery consistency without creating a dense paste.
- Dry Ingredient Fusion: Integrate ground flour, pulverized pistachios, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl, whisking until uniformly blended.
- Butter Cream Foundation: Cream butter and sugar together, whipping until the mixture achieves a voluminous, cloud-like texture with significant lightness.
- Egg and Flavor Incorporation: Gradually introduce eggs, fully integrating after each addition. Delicately scrape and fold vanilla bean seeds into the developing batter, ensuring even distribution.
- Moisture Enhancement: Blend sour cream into the mixture, stirring until achieving a silky, homogeneous consistency.
- Batter Completion: Alternately fold dry ingredients and milk into the wet mixture, gently combining until just incorporated. Avoid overmixing to maintain the batter’s delicate structure.
- Baking and Transformation: Evenly distribute batter across prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes. Validate doneness by inserting a toothpick, which should emerge clean from the cake’s center.
- Cooling Protocol: Rest cakes in their pans for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack. Allow complete cooling to room temperature before any further preparation.
Notes
- Grind Pistachios Carefully: Process nuts into fine powder without creating a paste, maintaining texture and preventing oil release that could alter cake consistency.
- Avoid Overmixing Batter: Blend ingredients just until combined to prevent developing tough, dense cake texture, which can happen when gluten develops excessively.
- Temperature Control Matters: Use room temperature eggs and butter for smoother, more even batter integration and consistent cake rise during baking.
- Check Cake Doneness Precisely: Use toothpick test at multiple cake center points to ensure complete baking, preventing raw or undercooked central sections.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 13
- Calories: 570
- Sugar: 45 g
- Sodium: 150 mg
- Fat: 30 g
- Saturated Fat: 18 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 10 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 62 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 6 g
- Cholesterol: 100 mg