My trials with Dorie Greenspan’s sweet tart dough recipe continues. The original recipe is located here.

This time, I added pistachios to the dough (1/4 cups) and it turned out amazing (even tough I overbaked it). It would have been better to use more as I hoped to see some flakes here and there in the dough.

As far as decoration goes, nothing would look better than pistachios scattered all over, but I could not simply resist the temptation of nibbling on dark chocolate with every bite.

Dorie Greenspan’s basic pastry cream recipe is a star, too. Adding the butter in bits at room temperature is what makes it so silky. I recall this technique from the book Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme (another wonderful book by Greenspan). I have prepared the chocolate pastry cream from this book for my Christmas cake as well as a raspberry version for my Swan Eclairs in the past and know how much of a difference it makes.

Pastry Cream

Recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book “Baking: From My Home to Yours”

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature

Method

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.
2. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk.
3. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, contstantly and thoroughly bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.
4. Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are fully incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape the cream into a bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate until cold or, if you want to cool it quickly put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.
5. The pastry cream can be kept, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.