Pistachio blondies
Chewy, easy, and full of delicious pistachio flavor these—greenies? Non-blondies?—are a simple but decadent treat
Guest chef Brian Levy created these beautiful bars that have both toasted and raw pistachios that have a perfect sweet, chewy bite
Hello!
If you like pistachios, this recipe is for you.
Bringing you a bonus recipe from guest-chef Brian Levy, who can be found here on Substack:
and on Instagram, and he’s published recipes at The New York Times such as this yellow cake (GF), and is the author of Good & Sweet A New Way to Bake with Naturally Sweet Ingredients.I am generally not a fan of blondies—I find them too sweet by half and lacking in personality. These green non-blondies are an exception: full of flavor and personality, with a nice chewy bite. Pistachio heaven. When I make them next time I might add a little orange or lemon zest and a touch more salt, and I could see an argument for topping them with sliced almonds or putting freeze-dried strawberries in the batter, but they are perfect as is.
Liz’s baking notes: I made a half batch which perfectly fit into an 8-inch by 8-inch baking pan, and I had pistachio flour on hand so I used that in lieu of toasting and grinding a portion of the whole nuts. I baked the smaller batch for the same amount of time Brian suggests for the larger size and they were perfect.
Enjoy!
Guest-chef questionnaire:
What food holds the happiest memories for you?
I was an exchange student in Paris for a year in college. After a night out, my friend Vanessa (a local) and I would often go back to her apartment and eat cheese at her little kitchen table. Those were pretty happy moments, and the cheese was no small part of them.
What three cookbooks would you save from a fire?
This is tough, but here’s my current response: I’d save Amy Chaplin’s At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen, because every recipe in it produces something delicious, and it’s how I want to eat; Allysa Torey’s More from Magnolia (as in Magnolia Bakery), which my friend Molly gave to me in the early 2000s and I value for sentimental reasons; and Battersby by Joseph Ogrodnek and Walker Stern, because it’s out of print and its subject, when it existed, was my favorite restaurant in Brooklyn.
What is a meal/dessert you never tire of?
Color me basic: pizza, preferably topped with tons of baby arugula, and vanilla ice cream (two separate courses!).
Is there an ingredient or flavor that you find particularly challenging?
I find it challenging to convince home bakers that (good) white chocolate is a useful and worthy ingredient – and that can be so even if you have no desire to eat a bar of the stuff (although I, personally, have no problem eating a bar of the stuff)
What’s on your playlist for a dinner party with friends?
Sade, Sharon Van Etten, Perfume Genius, Jessie Ware, Paul Simon, P.M. Dawn, Etienne Daho, Desireless, Peter Gabriel, Silvetti.
What's the most memorable meal of your life?
Probably a dinner I had in the summer of 2016 at Zass, the restaurant at the beautiful hotel Il San Pietro in Positano. We were a group of eight who’d gone to Italy for my partner Ben’s thirtieth birthday. It was the most beautiful setting, high above the Tyrrhenian Sea. I don’t remember all the details, but the meal started with a perfect slice of margherita pizza and my main was a fillet of John Dory. I remember thinking it was the most delicious fish I’d ever tasted. And after dinner, a fireworks show coincidentally appeared above the sea.
What kitchen tool do you reach for the most?
GIR silicone spatulas.
Is there anything you would change about your culinary education and how? A place or chef you wish you could’ve worked with?
I didn’t have a culinary education outside of stages, work experience, and books and TV. For the most part, I’m happy to have learned that way. But I do sometimes wish I’d had more formal instruction in knife skills and in the preparation of meat, including fish.
What was your favorite dessert/sweet thing when you were a kid?
I loved white chocolate, dark chocolate, and chewy caramels. I loved pralines ‘n’ cream ice cream from Baskin-Robbins. And I loved to get a black-and-white milkshake at the diner with my grandparents. All these memories of things I haven’t had in a long time are coming to me now. I loved vanilla egg creams and root beer floats and pistachio Jell-o pudding.
Favorite kind of birthday cake - either to make or receive?
My birthday is just before Christmas, so when I was a kid, I loved the Christmas tree ice cream cake that Baskin-Robbins made. These days, I like a yellow butter cake with minimal chocolate ganache. And I welcome the inclusion of almond paste or marzipan in any way possible. I also love a pistachio cake and have made a couple of pistachio birthday cakes that have gone over very well.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Laughing uncontrollably while enjoying a well prepared al fresco meal with a big group of the people closest to me.
RECIPE
Non-Blondies, a.k.a. Pistachio-ies or Greenies (Gluten-Free)
“These pistachio-hued bars are a completely irresistible, decadent treat for anyone who’s a fan of the luxurious green nuts that flavor them. Their name (for those who don’t get the reference) alludes to a band that charted in the early 1990s — and to the more traditional blondies that inspired them. If you’d prefer to make a smaller batch, just halve the ingredients, use an 8-by-8-inch pan, and decrease the baking time to about 28 minutes. If you don’t have a food processor, you can find pistachio flour online (but I highly recommend getting a food processor!).” — Brian Levy
Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes (includes cooling)
Active Time: 1 hour (includes baking)
Yield: 24 bars
Ingredients:
156 grams (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing the pan
215 grams (1 3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon) raw, unsalted pistachio meats, divided
315 grams (slightly rounded 1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
150 grams (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) white rice flour
20 grams (3 tablespoons) cornstarch (see Tip)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 large eggs
35 grams (2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) water
20 grams (4 teaspoons) vanilla extract
Preparation:
Heat the oven to 325°F/165°C without convection/fan (300°F/150°C with convection/fan). Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Lightly grease a 9-by-13-inch pan (preferably light-colored metal) with butter and line the bottom and long sides with a sling of parchment paper.
Place 85 grams (3/4 cups) of the pistachios on a baking sheet and bake until lightly toasted and fragrant, 4 to 6 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Put the remaining 130 grams (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) of pistachios, sugar, white rice flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until the mixture has been ground to a fine powder, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the toasted, cooled nuts and pulse 10 to 20 times to coarsely chop them.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, water, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients from the food processor and fold with a flexible spatula until well combined. You’ll have a green batter speckled with roughly chopped pistachios.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake until the outer few inches are crinkled with golden-crested waves and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 32 to 35 minutes.
Let cool for at least 45 minutes before lifting the greenies from the pan with the help of the parchment sling, transferring to a cutting board, and cutting into 24 bars.
Tip:
In lieu of cornstarch, you can use half potato starch and half tapioca starch. If you’d prefer not to use refined starch at all, you can instead use an additional 20 grams of white rice flour. The results will still be delicious, but you won’t have the crinkly top and crusty edges.
