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Saffron Pistachio Blondies
![Saffron Pistachio Blondies](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/03/09/dining/07HOLIREX-saffron-pistachio-bars/merlin_202736367_9d208d1e-d43f-4cd4-b3f9-af18fb0fae17-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 1 hour, plus cooling and chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ¾cup/112 grams raw, unsalted pistachios, plus more for garnish
- 1cup/130 grams all-purpose flour
- ¾teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- ¾teaspoon baking powder
- ½teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¾cup/173 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1¼packed cups/250 grams dark brown sugar
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- ½cup/87 grams white chocolate chips
- ½teaspoon/.33 gram packed saffron threads
- 1½tablespoons whole milk
- 6ounces/170 grams cream cheese, softened
- ⅓cup/77 grams unsalted butter, softened
- ⅔cup/93 grams confectioners’ sugar
- Pinch of coarse kosher salt
For the Bars
For the Frosting
Preparation
- Step 1
Make the bars: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper such that the paper spills out over the sides of the pan, like wings.
- Step 2
In a food processor, pulse the pistachios until the nuts are very finely ground. Don’t let them get pasty. Add the flour, salt, baking powder and cardamom and pulse to combine.
- Step 3
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together melted butter and brown sugar until smooth and shiny. (The butter will separate at first, then blend in.) Whisk in the eggs until incorporated. Add the pistachio mixture and mix with a silicone spatula to combine. Gently stir in the white chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread in an even layer.
- Step 4
Bake until the sides are brown and pull away from the pan, and the middle is slightly paler in color, 25 to 27 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center will come out with a few crumbs attached. Cool completely in the pan on a rack.
- Step 5
While the bars cool, make the frosting: Finely grind the saffron threads in a mortar using a pestle or in a microwave-safe bowl using the back of a spoon. If needed, transfer the ground saffron to a microwave-safe bowl or to a small saucepan if you don’t have a microwave. Stir in the milk, and microwave on high or heat over medium until the mixture is frothing around the edges but not boiling, about 30 seconds. Place the bowl in the refrigerator or freezer to quickly cool the mixture.
- Step 6
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, use an electric hand or stand mixer or a heavy whisk or wooden spoon to beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. If working by hand, this takes some muscle. Add the confectioners’ sugar and salt and beat again until homogeneous and no clumps of sugar remain. Beat in the cooled saffron milk until well-combined. The frosting will turn a bright golden hue.
- Step 7
Once the bars have cooled completely, scrape the frosting over the top, and use a spatula to spread it evenly. Crush or chop some pistachios for garnish and sprinkle all over the top. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before eating. The bars keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 1 month.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Had all the ingredients on hand so I made these yesterday and took them to a meeting last night. Beautiful colour, a delicious riff on blondies, raves all around. If you love the combo of pistachios, cardamom and saffron, you're all set. Surprisingly, despite the amount of sugar + white chocolate, they weren't over-the-top sweet as I expected. I freshly ground the cardamom -- and it took more like 4 hours for the frosting to set in the fridge. Will definitely make again.
I made them to share with friends from the neighborhood. They were a hit. But if I make them again, I will change a couple things: (1) I thought they were WAY too sweet. Even though I cut the bars in tiny portions, I thought they were a little overpowering. I'll skip the white chocolate next time, and (2) a half teaspoon of saffron is too much, given the price and overpowering taste. I'll cut that down -- maybe an eighth of a teaspoon.
I made these today. Love the bar, but the frosting never set. I would definitely cut the amount of milk or add it “as needed” for a spreading consistency.
Delicious, but just way too sweet. I didn't even add the white chocolate! The cardamom overpowered the pistachio, so I would cut that in half next time. The frosting was excellent though, wouldn't change anything there. I did not have issues with the frosting setting.
For a sweet cake that size I use only one-half cup sugar. Plenty sweet. Plus you have white chocolate in the batter and a sweet frosting.
Not sure why other people complained. These are excellent cookies. The pistachio flavor is divine. I have a couple of notes. I did not have white chocolate chips; so I cut up a bar of Callebaut white chocolate into tiny pieces, more like shaved chocolate. With this technique the chocolate didn’t sink and blended throughout the cookies. They did need an extra 5 minutes to bake and the frosting stayed a little gooey. But they are still fantastic.
WOW....I'm in the process of making these. Pan has been in the oven 30 minutes and they still are not done. I have no idea why.
Made these today, some have said they were too sweet, but I didn’t have that experience, probably because I used lightly salted roasted pistachios as that’s what I had on hand! Honestly, I think that’s a better choice- nutty texture and really cut the sweetness - all around, an unusual and tasty treat!
Definitely not! Saffron has a flavor to it as opposed to turmeric which is mostly used for color.
This was so uninteresting. Not one of these ingredients shines; making it an uninteresting and uninspired muddle of flavors. Perhaps orange zest or orange blossom water in the frosting? And I would go way heavier on the cardamom in the blondie. Not a repeat.
I absolutely loved this treat. Reminded me of Diwali sweets. Made a couple of changes after reading the reviews, used salted pistachios, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup white chocolate chips. DIVINE! Cannot wait to make it again.
rock solid. used roasted + salted pistachios, which ended up balancing out the sweetness of the icing; keep the white choc chips as-is, gives a little sweetness to the bar -- great recipe
Disaster! The chips sank to the bottom and crusted. The frosting was not very good and you cannot taste the pistachios.
What a treat! I had roasted and salted pistachios, so decreased the salt to 1/2 tsp. Baking in an 8x8 pan took 40 minutes. These were perfection and reminiscent of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Ten out of five stars
I didn’t even make the frosting because the bars were already far too sweet. My wife and I both think the butter and sugar listed is higher than it should be. The bars came oily and cloying. I made the recipe by weight for the ingredients that had weights listed.
RAVE reviews from the book club. I will make again, but next time will sub turmeric for the saffron. It gets lost in all the other flavors.
This is a waste of ingredients. I rarely write reviews of recipes wanting to give the benefit of the doubt to both the writer and allow for user error. But this recipe is a failure of quality control/testing. I rarely find it necessary to pre-grease/butter dishes from anytime as their butter proportions usually provide plenty of moisture to easy my baked goods out of whatever dish. But
These are amazing. Worth the time to complete all the steps. I cut them into 16 pieces and that was a very nice dessert size. I added some fresh sliced strawberries on the side when served.
The family loved these. I cut the sugar down to 150 grams and tossed the white chocolate chips in the dry mixture before adding to the wet, but otherwise followed the recipe. Perfectly sweet and will make again!
I took a lot of liberties with this recipe, and it turned out pretty tasty. Reduced the sugar in both the frosting and the blondies. Also reduced the cardamon in the blondies so it didn't overpower the pistachios. Semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips because I had them and i think white chocolate is gross. Suffered from saffron sticker shock, so skipped it and added cardamon and turmeric to the frosting.
1/2 the sugar, salted pistachios, added orange zest to the batter. Astounding
Frosting disaster!! The recipe calls for room temperature cream cheese. I ignored the instruction "room temperature" and wondered why oh why my frosting looked like undercooked hard boiled eggs...turns out, if cream cheese is cold, it won't mix properly and have a lumpy consistency. Making this on Thanksgiving wasn't the smartest play either. The blondie portion, was fantastic. Will make again with a simple butter cream frosting.
A hit at Friendsgiving! The frosting was a bit on the softer side so add time for extra cooling if needed.
Going to make this, looks delish. Wondering what i can use instead of flour (wheat-free) – almond meal too nutty/thick. Will do a cashew frosting, from comments the reco frosting is a bit rich.
Great. Not too sweet. Very pretty
These are so good!! I’m desi and I’m loving the South Asian flavors in this. I’m pretty sure saffron cream cheese frosting is my new favorite thing. I forgot to set a timer when I put the blondies in the oven so I guesstimated 19 more minutes but then they needed like 15 more minutes than it called for! I think I had these in the oven for like 30-45 minutes in total which was confusing and I’m not sure why they took so long; the blondies were still super jiggly and not passing the toothpick test
I just made these to bring into work - it is 30 Celsius outside so the frosting melted a bit but my colleagues in the newsroom were crazy for them! One colleague said ‘this is the best thing you’ve ever made’ and I make 3 cakes a week to bring in for people… so I’d say they were a success.
10g molasses
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