It’s time for another edition of Holiday Recipe Club! Today’s theme is St. Patrick’s Day. The required ingredients for this hop included potatoes, pistachios and beer! Want to join the fun? Contact me here!
As I said, this hop’s theme is St. Patrick’s Day.
A few people jumped the gun and helped me pick the ingredients. It was so nice to have the suggestions! Keep them coming!
We ended up with potatoes and beer – to keep it Irish – and pistachios for something green.
There were a lot of inspiring Pinterest boards…it was hard to decide on anything.
I was tempted to go crazy with something like green beer, but I couldn’t resist a cupcake recipe.
These cupcakes are dense and reminiscent of muffins. The strawberry swiss meringue buttercream is not at all necessary, but a good way to sweeten the cake.
It’s also a great recipe to welcome spring!
What are your plans for St. Patrick’s Day?
Pistachio Cupcakes with Strawberries
Slightly Adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup + 1/4 cup whole pistachios – you want the unsalted kind!
- 1 1/2 cups sugar (split)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 2 cups chopped strawberries
To Make the Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a cupcake pan with liners. Coarsely chop the 1/4 cup pistachios and set aside.
- Grind 1 cup of the whole pistachios, 3/4 cup sugar, and salt until finely ground. Whisk the pistachio mixture with the flour, set aside.
- In your stand mixer cream 3/4 cup sugar and and the butter until smooth. About 5 minutes. Mix in the eggs, 1 at a time until just incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.
- Using a spatula fold in the flour and pistachio mixture until just incorporated. Do not over mix!
- Evenly divide the batter into 12-15 cupcake liners. Evenly top each cupcake with chopped strawberries and chopped pistachios. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until they pass the toothpick test.
If you plan on frosting the cupcakes allow them to cool completely before frosting.
Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Recipe from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures
Ingredients:
- 8 ounces strawberries, chopped and pureed until smooth
- 4 large egg whites (6 ounces)
- 1 1/4 cup sugar (10 ounces)
- 3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature, cubed
- Pinch of salt
To Make the Strawberry Frosting:
- If you haven’t already wash and cut the strawberries, discarding the tops. Puree with a pinch of salt until smooth. Set aside. Cube the butter and set it aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer combine the sugar and egg whites. Whisk together over a double boiler of simmering water. Make sure the bowl is not touching the water! Keep whisking until the egg whites are hot to the touch, and the sugar is completely dissolved (you will be able to tell if you touch the egg whites – just be careful not to burn yourself!)
- Once the egg whites are hot and the sugar is dissolved, attach the bowl to the mixer and with the whisk attachment whip the mixture to stiff peaks.
- Once you have stiff peaks switch to the paddle attachment. Start mixing on medium speed while slowly adding in the cubed butter pieces. Continue mixing until all of the butter is incorporated and the mixture no longer looks curdled. Switch to low speed and pour in the strawberry puree. Mix until the frosting comes back together and is fluffy.
Scoop into a piping bag or place in the fridge until the cupcakes are completely cool and ready to frost.
Don’t forget to check out all of the other Holiday Recipe Club participants!
About bigfatbaker
I’m loving the combination of flavors here. Well done!
Delish! I must try these. Love pistachios but never bake with them. Thanks!
Sounds delicious!
Strawberries and pistachio in a cupcake, delish and the frosting, yum
Hi Erin – I didn’t get to write a St. Patrick’s Day themed post like I had wanted to, but post my Pistachio Fudge recipe. I LOVE your muffins – strawberries and pistachios together are wonderful! Love the colors too.
ButterYum
Thanks! No worries! If you want to add the blog hop to your post feel free
Ooh yum–this post just might be able to convince me I could like pistachios! But only if there’s Swiss meringue buttercream involved.
Lol frosting usually helps things like that
Oh, boy, do these look like a breath of springtime…and so delicious! Thanks for leading us through another wonderful holiday blog hop!
I want these so bad right now. I bet the crunch of the pistachios is great in these. Wish I had unsalted pistachios at home to make these.
Yum! I love these cupcakes! I am going to make these this weekend! I love pistachios and strawberries! together!
Ooh let me know what you think!! They are even good with out the frosting so if you’re feeling healthy and what not it’s nice to know!
What a great cupcake! Love pistachios with the strawberries. And the frosting is just too cute!
Thank you fellow Erin
These look sooo good and not over-the-top St. Paddy’s Day so this recipe would be great anytime! Thanks for hosting HRC! Glad I was able to post this holiday!
These look great!! I love the combo of pistachio and strawberries!!
I bookmarked your recipe for later. Each August we have this thing for Breast Cancer. Usually I make some type of pink food. This would fit the bill. Thanks for sharing with us.
I love that your cupcakes have a touch of green without green dye. I’m so over food dye right now! Beautifully done
Thank you, Jackie!
The cupcakes sound great but, that frosting looks heavenly?
I so wish I were not allergic to strawberries…these look wonderful!
Give it a try with other berries! The original recipe uses raspberries – I think that would be just as tasty
What wonderful combination of flavors!!!!!
They are looking so so pretty, pistachio and strawberry together…Yumm
Berries and pistachios! YUMMM! These cupcakes look gorgeous.
I love that buttercream. I think you could put it on a mud pie and I’d eat it all.