Chinese Pistachio Paste Dessert Recipe (开心果糊 Chinese Pistachio Sweet Soup)

This Chinese pistachio paste dessert recipe is my take on the sweet pistachio soups going semi-viral in China at the moment.

If you're familiar with Chinese sweet soups and nut paste desserts, you might already know about almond paste, walnut paste and black sesame paste dessert.

Since Dubai chocolate rang in the age of pistachio-flavoured-everything, some popular dessert shops in China started making pistachio versions: 开心果糊.

I've seen two different versions of Chinese pistachio paste dessert: super smooth and almost like a custard, and super thick and a bit textured. I tried the second kind at a dessert shop and bakery RUXU入续糖水铺与包 in Shenzhen, and I fell in love. So I decided to try to recreate it at home.

Traditional Chinese nut paste / nut sweet soup recipes are made by blending the whole nut or grain with soaked whole rice and water, filtering out the remaining solids (with a muslin cloth, for example), and cooking down the remaining liquid until thick. This would create the smooth, custardy version of it.

I both like the thick, textured version and am lazy though – so instead of blending whole rice, I used glutinous rice flour to thicken my paste and skipped the filtering step.

You can also watch me make this on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

(Serves two.)

Ingredients:

80g ground pistachios
20g glutinous rice flour
50g caster sugar
280ml water
A few whole or chopped pistachios (to serve)

Method

1. Place everything in a large jug and blend until smooth with a stick blender (or, whizz up in a big jug blender).

2. Pour into a saucepan and cook over a medium heat, stirring continuously to keep smooth.

3. Serve warm with a sprinkling of roughly-chopped pistachios.

Enjoy, and have fun.