HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Cherry Almond Cupcake

Sunday, March 7, 2021

St Paddy's Day Pistachio Candy


Ingredients:               
  • 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 3.5oz pkg pistachio pudding mix                            
  • 6 oz bag flaked coconut                                                         
  • 2T butter or margarine, melted (1 ounce)
  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened  
  • 2 cups finely chopped pistachios
  • 5 ½ -6 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
  • 1 drop leaf green coloring gel (opt)                                                   
  • Semisweet and/or White Chocolate chips, melted
  • Paramount Crystals
  • 1/2 cup Dark Green Confectioners Melts

Preparation:

Pour sweetened condensed milk into a bowl. Heat milk in microwave for 1 minute until warm. Pour pudding mix into milk and stir well.  Return to microwave and heat for 60- 90 seconds, checking after 60 seconds so as not to overcook. Stir again for 2 minutes until the pudding mix is well dissolved. Set aside.

Place coconut in blender and pulse a bit until the coconut is finely chopped. Mix with finely chopped pistachios.

Stir butter and cream cheese into pudding mixture, incorporating well. Add nuts and coconut and mix well.
I added a drop or two of leaf green coloring gel just because it's St Paddy's Day candy, but it's not necessary.



Add confectioners’ sugar, 1 cup at a time until too difficult to stir.  Sprinkle a board generously with confectioners’ sugar and turn the mix onto the board. 



Knead in sugar
until the dough is soft and not sticky.


Using a melon baller, scoop out a heaping teaspoon of dough. Shape into 1 inch balls, then chill in refrigerator until very firm.

When ready to dip in chocolate, melt dark and/or white chocolate .

I used Ghiradelli brand chocolate chips.  I also added some paramount crystals to
thin the chocolate.
 Too thick a layer of dark chocolate will overwhelm the flavor.

When melting white chocolate, melt carefully over hot water in a double boiler.

Do not allow the water the boil as the white chocolate burns easily.


Because this was for St Patrick's Day, I added 5-6 dark green Confectioner's melts at the last
making a pretty soft green.




 Dip chilled balls into melted dark or white chocolate using a fork.

Then carefully slide off the fork onto wax paper or a silicone mat using a small spatula, as shown.
Set aside to cool completely.
To decorate, melt about a 1/3 cup of green confectioner's melts.
Pour into a piping bag and clip just the tip off the bag.
Have fun decorating your candy.
I used stripes on the dark chocolate and swirls on the white chocolate.

Mmmmmmm -Chocolate on the outside,
gentle flavors of pistachio and coconut on the inside!


With this candy, there's plenty of Green on hand for St Paddy's Day!


May you have:
A world of wishes at your command.
God and his angels close to hand.
Friends and family their love impart,
and Irish blessings in your heart!


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Recipe, Tutorial and Photography by Jacque Benson 2011
All Rights Reserved.
Please note
This material may not be reproduced without permission from the author.



2 comments:

  1. looks so delicious!! I want to try! Do you have to temper your chocolate? Since i noticed you used normal chocolate and not candy melts.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, Faith, I temper it-- but for chocolate chips, I just use the easy method by melting the chocolate, then dropping in a handful of chips at the end to cool down the chocolate. Then just stir them in until melted.

    ReplyDelete

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