Pistachio cream & white chocolate brownies

Come to mama

One of the promises I made myself when I started this Substack was that I wouldn’t give myself a hard time on the weeks I don’t show up.

Back in my blogging days - take a bow, Pudding Lane - I’d create content schedules and posting plans which, while all well and good, simply weren’t realistic. When I inevitably failed to stick to them because my life - and, more often, full time job - got busy, I’d add more stress to my plate by feeling cross with myself for slipping up. It got to the point where every other post started with an apology for my absence, which doesn’t make for very fun reading does it?

In the almost decade that’s passed since I started blogging, side-hustles, multi-hyphen methods and the realities of the frankly dangerous ‘having it all’ narrative have become common parlance, which is all for the good. And so I want to be more honest about my juggle, which might not include babies, but does feature a relatively new and often demanding full time corporate role, alongside a raft of various baking exploits, from making wedding cakes to writing cookbooks. Oh, and we’re getting married in a few weeks - probably the main culprit for my time away from the kitchen and my keyboard.

So here’s a recipe I actually baked and shot over a month ago, but still want to share because it’s one of my creative highlights of the year so far. Pistachio cream - one of my favourite things to eat with a spoon from my pantry when nobody’s looking - does a lot of heavy lifting. Not only does it bring aromatic pistachio flavour, it yields a velvety soft texture, plus a cheering dose of verdant green for all those eyeballs that allegedly get to eat first. The white chocolate brings an added contrast - both with sweetness and aesthetic - which I love, but you could make these without it if you preferred.

This recipe is adapted from my OG brownie recipe, which you can find in my cookbook, Postal Bakes (available via Amazon, Waterstones and all good bookshops).

300g unsalted butter

400g caster sugar

100g soft brown sugar, light or dark

4 eggs

70g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

70g cocoa powder

140g plain flour

1/2 tsp fine salt

200g pistachio cream

100g white chocolate, chopped into chunks

25g pistachios, roughly chopped

Flaky sea salt to finish

Heat your oven to 180C and line a deep rectangular baking dish with baking paper.

Place the butter, both sugars, dark chocolate and cocoa powder in a large saucepan, and set over a low heat to melt gently.

Once melted, remove from the heat. Crack in the eggs, then whisk until smooth and glossy. add the flour and salt and mix until combined.

Pour into the lined tin. Top with dollops of pistachio cream, then use a knife or toothpick to ripple this through the brownie mix. Scatter over the white chocolate and chopped nuts, and sprinkle with a little flaky salt.

Bake for 25-40 minutes, until puffed, the surface is crinkled, and the brownie mix doesn’t wobble when lightly shaken. Allow to cool completely before slicing.