Yogurt Pistachio Loaf
I dream in pink icing.
This post is about the loaf cake, not about the pretty in pink icing.
In fact, you don't even have to ice this cake, but it's always prettier to do so.
I found a nice sounding recipe for a brown butter pistachio cake on Carrot & Crumb, and decided to make a version of this, without browning the butter and cutting down on a few ingredients.
I reduced the butter and increased the yogurt. This yielded a moist crumb and a very fragrant loaf.....and oh, that pink icing.....oh yeah, and I added lavender from a Paris spice shop in with the pistachios on top. I'm fancy.
Ignore the fancy stuff and just make the cake, it's pretty simple and was really delicious. The perfect winter loaf.
Yogurt Pistachio Cake:
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup of ground pistachios
2 eggs
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
3/4 cup plain yogurt (not Greek)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
chopped pistachios and dried lavender for decoration
Start by grinding the pistachios.....I like to leave them a bit grainy, if you go too far in the food processor, they will become paste. So just a few pulses.
Add the ground nuts in a large bowl with the melted butter and sugar.
In a large measuring cup, mix the eggs and vanilla with the oil and yogurt. Pour into the nut butter mixture.
Next, add in the dry ingredients and mix to make a nice thick batter.
Pour into a loaf pan that has been sprayed and lined with parchment paper.
Bake 50 minutes (it may take another 5 minutes) at 325F. Let rest in the pan a few minutes then remove. Now you are ready to ice it.
Icing:
2 cups of confectioners sugar
1-2 tbsp of lemon juice/water/blood orange juice (you can also use milk!)
Mix the glaze until it is a nice pouring consistency. Obviously, if you are using blood orange juice, the icing will be pink!
Pour the icing over the warm cake and quickly add chopped pistachios to the center (the icing hardens quickly, so you have to work fast).
Deeelish!
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