With all the bright and colorful berries in full force and offerings from our markets right now, besides eating them fresh it’s also a great time to incorporate these lovelies in some baked fare. These Pistachio Raspberry Tea Cakes are just gorgeous with fresh, red, and plump raspberries peeping through the crowns, adorned with creamy green colors from the pistachios…
These tea cakes are quick to whip up for these summer months. Your food processor will do most of the work starting with grinding down a cup of pistachios into flour/meal. Add the rest of the ingredients, divide among baking cups and then place the fresh raspberries in each little pan. Sprinkle with bits of pistachios and maybe a toss of raw sugar for texture and you’re less than a half-hour away from tea treats!
The pistachio meal used in the cakelets makes all the difference. With the slightly sweet-n-tart raspberries and the contrast of the pistachio flavors, this is a tasty, nicely textured quick bread.
Easily substitute other seasonal fruit and combinations using the base of this tea cake batter. Hmmmm…what combinations to try next as a new tea cake sensation? Possibilities abound!
Muffins and tea cakes are just one of my favorite, comfort food baking things to make. They’re quick, easy and have a wholesomeness about them with the ingredient surprises you add to them (like fresh or dried fruits, nuts, chocolates, oats, etc.). I’m always on the lookout for pans that can be used as an alternative to the regularly shaped standard and mini-muffin tins. Even just finding muffin tins that are straight-sided is a challenge. So a couple of years ago when Mowie Kay of the infamous blog mowielicious did an inspiring and gorgeous post on friands…I secured a “version” of a friand pan. They’re hard to find in the U.S. but there is a silicone friand/oval cake mold adaption
Why the mention about friands? Several of the tea cakes in the images are oval shaped (just in case you noticed). Using a friand pan was about the same baking time as baking regular/standard sized muffins.
Be sure to check out last year’s feature: Mini Cherry-Pistachio Tea Cakes.
- Do not over process or mix the ingredients.
- Should be easy to adapt this recipe using other fruit, nut combinations. Will need to test with various nut meals.
- Added raw sugar for texture and some aesthetics.
Makes 12-15
1 cup pistachios, shelled
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into cubes
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
6-12 ounces fresh raspberries
1/4 – 1/2 cup slivered or chopped pistachios, for sprinkling
raw sugar, for sprinkling (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line standard or mini muffin tin with paper liners and lightly spray liners with non-stick cooking spray.
In a food processeor, finely grind shelled pistachios with sugar and salt. Add butter, vanilla, and eggs and process until smooth (do not over process). Add flour – pulsing until just combined; do not overmix.
Divide batter evenly among the cups/wells to about 3/4 full. Gently push about 4-5 raspberries into each cup and sprinkle with slivered pistachios and raw sugar (optional).
Bake for about 28 minutes (Rotate the baking pan about halfway through baking time.), until golden brown and toothpick test comes out clean. Cool the small cakes on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight container.
- Do not over process or mix the ingredients.
- Should be easy to adapt this recipe using other fruit, nut combinations. Will need to test with various nut meals.
- Added raw sugar for texture and some aesthetics.
Janice Lawandi (@KtchnHealsSoul) says
pistachios+raspberries are so great together. I blogged about a lovely pistachio poppy seed financiers recipe from Tartine Gourmande’s book last year, and I’m now completely converted to using ground up pistachios in place of almonds. Such a treat 🙂
The oval shaped cakes are cute! I need to get one of those pans…
Cristina says
I’m going to have to check out that recipe for the poppy seed financier from Tartine’s cookbook. That sounds wonderful and I do luv and enjoy using nut meal flours! 🙂
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
These are so pretty, I love the pistachio and raspberry pairing!
Cristina says
Hi Laura: Aren’t pistachios gems? The flavor they add in baked goods is something I don’t know why more recipes don’t call for it. Gonna have to change that! 😀
Melissa says
These look so tasty. I’m overrun with raspberries this year and mixing them with pistachios isn’t a flavour combo I’d thought of. Now my mind is spinning! 🙂
Cristina says
Send some of those raspberries out this way, Melissa! Just picked some more yesterday and gotta hurry up and use them. They don’t keep very long. 😉
Ash- foodfashionparty says
The oval ones caught my eye, whether oval or round muffins, these look so attractive and tasty looking. I love love adding nuts to my muffins and pistachios are perfect here.
Thanks so much for the mention, that way I got to get introduced to you my dear..Nice to meet you.
Cristina says
So nice to meet you too, Ash, and thank you for the follow! 😀
GourmetGetaways says
Oh you always have the most gorgeous images on your site!! They are so beautiful, definately good enough to devour!
Cristina says
Thank you and xo GG!! 🙂
Nami | Just One Cookbook says
Come to think of it, I rarely eat baked goods with pistachio in it. Love the combination of pistachio and raspberries! Cute sizes are perfect for my kids, and I get to eat more than one. 🙂
Cristina says
Hey Nami: Yeah, not enough recipes with pistachio meal/flour. That’s what I like about tea cakes! 😀
Samantha says
These are beautiful and I did notice the oval cakes! Will look into a friand – not heard of it before. Good use of fresh berries – pinning and on my tomake list!!! 🙂
Cristina says
Hey Samantha: Friand recipes are few and far between…but doesn’t mean we can’t use the oval shaped pans for our cakelets/muffins! 😀