Yoghurt and Pistachio BabyCakes

Has anyone else been enjoying fresh pistachios lately?

I've just discovered these at Victoria Market this season and love peeling off the soft pink-green outer shell to reveal the harder shell of the nut that we normally associate with pistachios. The same colours are reflected on the inside, with the paper-thin pink skin covering up a bright green kernel.

I had some fresh pistachios in the fridge and knew that I wanted use them in this recipe as soon as I came across it. Although Gini used labne (Middle Eastern strained yoghurt), I just went with a natural fat-free yoghurt.

:-o I just realised, as I'm typing this recipe out, that I completely left out the 1/2 cup of EVOO that shold have been mixed in together with the yoghurt! Trust me to get a recipe wrong, but hey maybe it was actually right this time because the cake turned out to be light, fluffy and moist. It reminds mw of a chiffon cake. I think I may just leave out the olive oil again next time :-p I didn't grind the pistachios so finely that it was like using pistachio meal, so it was lovely to get the crunch of some pistachio pieces as you eat the cakes.

Yoghurt & Pistachio BabyCakes

1 cup raw unsalted pistachios, 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 6 eggs (separated), 1 1/4 cups sugar, 3/4 cup yoghurt

1. Roast pistachios at 150C for 10-15 min then rub in the folds of a clean tea towel to remove the outer skins (like Gina, I didn't go out of my way to get all the skin off and it didn't seem to pose any problems). Increase oven to 175C.
2. Grind finely in a food processor then add flour, salt and baking powder and process briefly to mix.
3. Beat egg whites with 3/4 cup sugar to form stiff peaks. Remove to another bowl.
4. Beat egg whites with rest of the sugar until pale yellow. Add yoghurt then mix in pistachio-flour mix with a spatula.
5. Gently fold egg whites into batter and pour into lined cake tin. I used most of the batter in a 20" round tin and the rest into my new silicone mini muffin tray.
6. Bake for 40 - 50 min until skewer comes out clean. With the babycakes, I baked for around 15 min.