Pistachio Paste Stuffed with Cream
- 1½ cups shelled pistachios
- ½ cup superfine sugar
- 2 tablespoons rose water
- about ¼ cup thick clotted cream or crème fraîche
- Confectioners’ sugar to sprinkle on
Instructions:
In Lebanon they are filled with the thick cream that rises to the top when rich buffaloes’ milk is boiled.
- Grind the pistachios in the food processor, then add the sugar and rose water (don't be tempted to put in any more rose water) and blend until it forms a soft, malleable, slightly oily paste. The mix will appear like wet sand at first, but the oil released by the pistachios will bind it into a workable paste.
- Rub your hands with oil so that the paste does not stick. Take little lumps the size of a small egg, roll each into a ball, then make a hole in it with your finger and enlarge it by pinching the sides and pulling them up to make a little dome-shaped pot.
- Fill the hole with about 1 tablespoon clotted cream. Put the pot down on a plate rubbed with oil and make a lid for it: take a lump of paste the size of a large olive, flatten it between the palms of your hands, and lay it over the cream. Stick the edges well together and place the pastry flat-side down in a pastry case.
- Alternatively, you can line tiny cake molds with plastic wrap and press the paste around the sides, fill the hollow with the cream, and cover with a lid.
- Keep the pastries in the refrigerator—the cream needs to be refrigerated and the paste will firm—until you are ready to serve them, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar.