Pistachio hot milk cake

Gorgeous Green, as I call Pistachio hot milk cake, is super rich with loads of pistachios and without any artificial colours added. Achieving bright vibrant colours naturally comforts me so much.

This is so possible with my hero of the cake which is pistachio paste. There is a small process which you will have to follow to attain that beautiful colour.

Pistachio Hot Milk Cake

Vibrant Pistachio Paste

Let's dig a bit into this pistachio paste here. Most important thing is to peel off the pistachios skin before you make a paste of it. If skin is used, it will yield a brownish green paste which you don't want. To remove skin, bring 2 cups of water to boil in a saucepan and take it off flame. Now blanch the pistachios in hot water for 2min. Fish them out on to a clean kitchen towel and rub them gently to peel pistachios skin. Grind the peeled pistachios into a fine paste with little amount of water. ( If there are small pieces of it here and there. It's fine!). So, your vibrant pistachio paste is ready.

Saffron Induced Hot Milk

Initially, I had planned to bake in Mawa cake style but I got a little fancier and gave it a touch of hot milk cake.

Making saffron induced hot milk is just a piece of cake! Add milk, cubed butter (cold or room temperature) and few strands of saffron to a saucepan. Heat the mixture and when it just reaches rolling boil state, switch off the flame and it's ready. Ta da!!

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Recipe:

Serves 8 people

Prep time: 20 min

Bake time: 45 min

Total time: 1hr 5min

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 3/4 cup or 90g

Wheat flour - 3/4 cup or 90g

Granulated Sugar - 3/4 cup + 2tbsp or 190g

Baking powder - 1.5 tsp

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Ground Cardamom - 1/2 tsp

Saffron strands - 3-4

Butter - 1/2 cup or 100g

Pistachio paste - 1/2 cup or 75g

Thick/hung yogurt - 1/2 cup or 125g

Milk - 1/4 cup or 60ml

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Coarse pistachio powder - 2 tsp

Icing/powdered sugar - 1 tsp

Pistachio paste

Pistachios - 3/4 cup or 65g

Water - 2 cups + 3-4 tbsp

Steps

Pistachio paste

• Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a saucepan and take it off the flame. Add in pistachios and let it sit in hot water for 2 min.

• Fish them out and spread them on a clean kitchen towel. Rub them gently to peel the skins of pistachios.

• Grind peeled pistachios with little amount of water (~4 tbsp) into fine paste. Keep it aside in a bowl.

Pistachio cake

• Butter and dust the Bundt cake pan or 8" inch cake tin. (See notes)

• Pre-heat the oven for 10-15min at 180 degrees.

• Sieve all dry ingredients ( flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cardamom ) into a bowl. (See notes)

• In a large mixing bowl, whisk thick yogurt and granulated sugar until sugar is completely dissolved.

• In a saucepan, heat milk, butter and saffron strands until it reaches rolling boil state. Take it off flame. (See notes)

• Starting with flour and ending with flour, add in the flour mixture and milk mixture to mixing bowl (yogurt & sugar bowl) in batches and alternatively. Using electric hand mixer, beat at lowest speed after every addition. Do not overmix. (See notes)

• Now add in the pistachio paste and give it a quick mix until well incorporated.

• Pour in the batter to bundt cake pan. Knock out air bubbles if any by tapping on the counter couple of times.

• Pop it in the oven and bake it for about 40-45 min or until the skewer comes out clean.

• Once done, place the pan on wire rack for 10 min and de-mould the cake. Let the cake sit on wire rack until it completely cools down. Chill the cake in refrigerator for 10 min.

• Using fine sieve, dust powdered or icing sugar on top of the cake. Garnish it with some whole and crushed pistachios.

Notes

• Capacity of bundt cake pan should at least be 600 ml when filled 3/4th of the pan. Coat every nook and corner of bundt cake pan, or else cake will stick to pan. Alternatively, you can use regular 8" inch cake tin instead but with a good height.

• I have used mixture of both all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. You could use completely all purpose flour. If so, use 180g of all purpose flour. It's solely your choice.

• Using hot milk and melted butter yields a coarse crumb, dense cake with a shiny top. So be aware of how the end product will be. Also, add 1-2 tbsp milk extra if the batter looks too thick.

• At this stage, if you wish you could add some Vanilla or Almond extract. Some say adding almond extract enhances the pistachio flavour. I haven't added any. If you add, then please let me know how it turned out.