White Chocolate Pistachio Truffles - Waiting for Blancmange (2024)

The BEST creamy and dreamy pistachio truffle recipe! These super simple white chocolate pistachio truffles are made with just four ingredients for the perfect bitesize pistachio nut treat.

Tell me about these truffles

• Loaded with pistachio - these simple homemade truffles are made with a white chocolate pistachio ganache and ground pistachio coating. This means there is a whole lot of pistachio in every single bite!
• Creamy smooth truffle filling - the white chocolate ganache here sets firm enough to handle, but will keep its silky creamy bite.
• Only four ingredients - that's right, just four ingredients! Simple processes and simple ingredients for a super easy and tasty treat.
• Easy coating - these are incredibly easy to make truffles. There's no extra chocolate coating to worry about handling, or drying time needed to make shells. The truffles are simply rolled in a layer of crushed pistachio to make a quick coating. This adds texture and even more pistachio!

Ingredient Notes

• White chocolate - a good quality white chocolate, finely chopped. You can also substitute with white chocolate chips, but I find chopped solid white chocolate melts more smoothly.
• Pistachio paste - this can be homemade (try my recipe for an easy all natural Pistachio Paste) or store bought. Be aware that pistachio creams or nut butters can vary in consistency a bit. Look for a good quality pistachio paste with as few added ingredients and as much pure pistachio as possible!
• Heavy cream - or double cream. This ingredient is called different things in different places, but essentially you're looking for a thick/heavy cream, like you would use for making homemade whipped cream.
• Pistachios - for the coating to these truffles, you'll want finely ground unsalted pistachios. These can be blitzed in a food processor for a few minutes to give you a fine crumb. If you don't have a food processor or pistachio nuts available, you can also coat these truffles in some sifted powdered sugar - it won't give the same texture to the outside, but will help make the truffles easier to handle to serve.

How to Make Pistachio Ganache

The first step to my pistachio truffle recipe is a simple thick pistachio and white chocolate ganache.

• Put the cream and pistachio paste into a small saucepan and warm this over a medium heat. Stir this to ensure the pistachio butter mixes into the cream.
• Heat until the cream is simmering and let simmer for about 2-3 minutes until well warmed through.
• Pour this over top of your finely chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Let this sit for 2 minutes before stirring smooth.
• Once you have your thick pistachio ganache, put this in the refrigerator to allow it to firm up.

Turning Ganache into the Perfect Pistachio Truffle

Once you've got your thick white chocolate pistachio ganache, you're almost done! All that is left is rolling these into balls and coating in your ground pistachio crumbs.

• Let the ganache chill to make this more firm and easier to shape.
• When ready, remove from the refrigerator and put ground pistachios on a small plate or bowl.
• Scoop the ganache into about 1 tablespoon dollops and roll these individually with your palms to form rounded balls.
• Roll the balls in the ground pistachio crumb to coat.

Expert Tips

• Due to the pistachio paste, the cream mixture will be very thick. When pouring this over your chocolate, gently spread it out over the chopped chocolate to ensure it is covering and warming the whole bowl.
• Letting the chocolate sit with the warmed cream for a couple of minutes makes this a lot easier to stir smooth. This is because it will help to warm and start melting the chocolate before you start stirring.
• When grinding up the pistachios for the coating, you're aiming for fine bits, a little chunkier than if you were grinding up Oreos for a cookie crust. The finer the ground, the better coverage on your truffle balls. But, you don't need it becoming a complete pistachio flour!

Troubleshooting

There are a couple of common issues with making ganache based truffles. Here are a couple of quick fixes:

1. Chocolate not melting in cream

The process of melting the chocolate with warmed cream is not 100% precise. This is because a lot of factors are at play - the temperature of your cream, but also the temperature of your kitchen.

If your chocolate doesn't melt smoothly after following the recipe instructions, this may be because:

• The cream wasn't thoroughly heated enough.
• Your kitchen (and the bowl you're pouring into) are too cool and have sped the cooling of the cream.
• Your chocolate may not have been chopped finely enough.
• You may have let the cream cool too long before stirring.

Don't worry though! If you've stirred your ganache mixture and there are still chunks of chocolate unmelted, we can fix this!

There are two main methods - stovetop and microwave:

• Microwave method: place the bowl of ganache in the microwave and heat in short 10 second bursts, stirring each time until smooth.
• Stovetop method: place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (choose a saucepan that the bowl will fit snuggly over - the base of the bowl shouldn't touch the water). Warm in this DIY bain-marie while stirring until the remaining chocolate melts.

2. Ganache difficult to scoop

If your ganache has hardened in the refrigerator to the point that it is difficult to scoop, allow this to sit out on the counter to warm up before attempting again.

Room temperature ganache should be scoopable with a spoon. If pressed for it to soften more, heating gently in the microwave or on the stovetop (with the bain-marie system) will loosen it further, but this will most likely go too far and you'll end up with a liquidy ganache again that can't be moulded into balls.

3. Truffle balls getting messy and sticky

So, handrolled truffles are going to be a little bit on the messy side - no sense in lying! If you're finding that yours are sticking more and more to your hands, which will happen as the ganache warms up, try one of these methods:

• Use lightly dampened hands to handle the dough. Cool water on your hands will help form a protective barrier making the balls easier to shape.
• Alternatively, you can use a bit of powdered sugar brushed on your hands. The powder sugar will work like flour when rolling pastry.

Both of these methods will need replenished - you'll find after a couple of balls, you may need to re-dampen your hands or add a bit more powdered sugar.

The moral is to try to work relatively quickly and avoid overhandling the ganache. This will avoid excessive melting down.

I like to form all of my truffle balls, set them aside, and then roll them all in the coating. This bulk process is a bit quicker than working one at a time individually.

FAQs

Looking for more pistachio inspiration? Try:

• Pistachio Coconut Cinnamon Rolls
• Salted Pistachio Brittle
• Pistachio Buttercream
• Cardamom Pistachio Cake
• Pistachio Cardamom Challah Buns
• Pistachio Panna Cotta

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