Pistachio Muffins
These homemade pistachio muffins are spongy, with a slight crunch. Made with ground pistachios that give them their distinct flavor. Topped with crushed pistachios, cardamom, and an orange glaze. You’ll love serving these bakery style muffins for breakfast or a light snack.
Recipe Ingredients
This muffin recipe is made with basic ingredients. The only exception is rose water. It’s optional, but if you’d like to bake with it, I use this one.
- Shelled unsalted pistachios
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Sea salt
- Oil
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Yogurt
- Vanilla extract
How to Make Homemade Pistachio Muffins
This recipe is made with real unshelled pistachios. To improve the texture of the topping, I added an extra step to this recipe. Removing the skin improves texture and flavor. Plus, you don’t have to bite into pieces of skin from the shell, which tend to have a sharp, astringent flavor. I learned how to peel the skin off pistachios from a post on Pies and Tacos.
Step 1) Add a handful of pistachios to a medium-sized bowl. Pour boiling water over them for a couple of minutes, then drain and rinse in cold water. Place them onto a clean kitchen towel and rub them to take off the skin. You may have to peel some with your fingers. Once this is done and the nuts are at room temperature, crush the pistachios with a food processor. Mix the peeled ground pistachios, sugar, and cardamom in a small bowl. Set aside.
Next, use the portion of pistachios reserved for the batter and add them to a food processor or nut grinder. Process until they are ground into small uniform pieces. Whisk with the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Step 2) Whisk the wet ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and mix until just blended.
Step 3) Preheat the oven to 425°F. If you have two 12-cup muffin pans, place a liner inside every other muffin cup. Then evenly distribute the batter in each liner. Sprinkle the topping over the batter before reducing oven temperature to 375°F and baking for 25-30 minutes.
Muffin Storage and Variations
After the pistachio muffins cool, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. However, heat can make the glaze sticky. Store in the fridge if it’s a hot day.
Fillings – You can fill the muffins with sweet orange curd or tart cranberry curd. This gives each muffin a bright flavor, and all of these flavors work together perfectly.
Want to make something new? Check out my latest posts for recipe inspiration.
Pistachio Muffins
Ingredients
For the pistachio topping
- 1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
- 1 ⅔ cups (8 ounces) All-purpose flour 200 grams
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup (4 ounces) granulated sugar 125 grams
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup (4 ounces) neutral oil 125 ml
- 1 cup (8 ounces) milk 250 ml
- ¼ teaspoon rose water (optional)
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
For the pistachio topping
- ⅙ teaspoon cardamom
- 1 handful salted pistachios, ground
- 2 tablespoons sugar
For the orange icing
- ½ cup (2 ounces) confectioners sugar 50 grams
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- ½ tablespoon milk
Instructions
For the muffins
- Add a handful of pistachios to a medium-sized bowl. Pour boiling water over them for a couple of minutes, then drain and rinse in cold water. Place them onto a clean kitchen towel and rub them to take off the skin. You may have to peel some with your fingers. Once this is done and the nuts are at room temperature, crush the pistachios with a food processor. Mix the peeled ground pistachios, sugar, and cardamom in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Next, use the portion of pistachios reserved for the batter and add them to a food processor or nut grinder. Process until they are ground into small uniform pieces. Add flour, sugar, baking powder, and sea salt to a medium sized bowl. Whisk ground pistachios into the dry ingredients.
- In a large bowl, add the milk, eggs, and olive oil and whisk until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Then add the rose water and vanilla extract. Whisk until just combined.
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line the pan with cupcake liners. If you have two muffin pans, put 6 liners in each tray. Use a large spoon or ice cream scoop to add a scoop of batter to each liner until you’ve used up the rest of the muffin batter. Sprinkle each each muffin with sugar, cardamom, and crushed pistachios. Reduce the temperature to 350ºF, Bake for 25-30 minutes minutes or until a cake tester or tooth pick is inserted into the center and comes out clean. Let the muffins rest on a cooling rack before serving.
For the Orange Icing
- In a small bowl, mix confectioners sugar, orange juice, and milk until smooth.
Notes
- Use a large spoon or ice cream scoop to add a scoop of batter to each liner until you’ve used up the rest of the batter.
- Remove the skin from the pistachios. That paper thin layer revealed after removing the pistachio’s shell taste sharp and astringent which may be overwhelming if you leave them on.
