Homemade pistachio ice cream with delicate, elegant almond cookies is a perfect idea for a sweet treat.
Ingredients
- White chocolate – 100 g
- Blueberries – 50 g
- Raspberry – 70 g
- Fresh mint – 2 g
Pistachio ice cream
- Sugar – 100 g
- Milk – 150 ml
- Olive oil – 1 teaspoon
- Pistachios – 200 g
- Vanilla – 3 g
- Cream (30% fat content) – 200 ml
Italian meringue
- Sugar – 200 g
- Icing sugar – 10 g
- Eggs – 3
- Water – 100 ml
Almond cookie base
- Icing sugar – 200 g
- Eggs – 3
- Almond flour – 200 g
- Food coloring – 1 piece
Preparation
Peel the pistachios and combine with olive oil in a coffee grinder. Grind into a smooth, uniform paste. Combine milk, sugar, and egg yolks in a bowl, then place it over a pot of boiling water. Reduce heat. Whisk vigorously with a kitchen whisk until the egg mixture reaches a temperature of about 80°C. Remove the bowl from over the pot. Add vanilla seeds and ground pistachios. Mix well.
Add whipped cream to the egg mixture. Mix thoroughly until combined. Pour the pistachio-cream mixture into a plastic container, cover, and place in the freezer for at least 3 hours. Combine ground almonds in a bowl with egg whites and icing sugar. Add food coloring. Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are combined.
Beat room temperature egg whites in a stand mixer. Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil until the temperature reaches about 116-118°C. Test the syrup’s temperature using the feather test – a metal wire with a loop. The syrup should form bubbles at the correct temperature.
While continuing to beat the egg whites, gradually add the hot sugar syrup and beat until a pearl-like foam forms. Add the meringue in batches to the almond cookie base and mix thoroughly until combined.
Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip. Close the bag. Pipe the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, forming flat cookies. Try to leave spaces between the cookies, as they will expand slightly during baking. Gently tap the baking sheet on the kitchen counter, then let the cookies rest for about 20-30 minutes. Bake the cookies for about 13-15 minutes in an oven preheated to 140°C (with convection) or 150°C (without convection). Let cool.
Mix the frozen ice cream to soften it. Transfer it to a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip. Create slight indentations in the baked and cooled cookies. Pipe a generous amount of ice cream onto half of the cookies. Cover the ice cream with the remaining cookies and gently press to create ice cream sandwiches. Place the assembled cookies in the freezer to temper the chocolate.
Temper and cool the chocolate by stirring. Dip the cookies in the chocolate, stand them upright on a plate lined with parchment or wax paper (it’s recommended to chill the plate in the fridge beforehand), and return them to the freezer until the chocolate sets. Arrange the stabilized cookies with a layer of solidified white chocolate on a serving platter. Decorate with fresh fruit (such as raspberries and blueberries) and mint leaves. Serve immediately after assembly.
