PISTACHIO

CHEESECAKE

Copyright©2021 International Culinary Academy KICA, All rights reserved. Photo credit: Nataliya Khoroshaeva
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Copyright©2021 International Culinary Academy KICA, All rights reserved. Photo credit: Nataliya Khoroshaeva
 PISTACHIO CHEESECAKE

PISTACHIO PRALINE

Ingredients Total weight: ~ 335 g 100%

Green pistachios 200 g 60%

Sugar 133 g 40%
Sea salt 2g <1%

1 Dry the pistachios in the oven at 120 °C / 248 °F for 10-15 minutes and cool them down at room
temperature.

2 Pour the water in the saucepan and add the sugar. Start to warm them up till the sugar dissolves.
You can swirl the saucepan, but don’t stir the mixture otherwise the syrup will crystallize. Cook it
to 175 °C / 347 °F maximum to obtain a light caramel color.

3 Pour the caramel on top of the pistachios, sprinkle them with sea salt and leave to cool down at
room temperature for about 20 minutes.

4 Then put the pistachios with the caramel in a food processor and process into a praline (semi
liquid texture) at low speed first, increasing it gradually.
TIP
If your food processor is not powerful enough, add a bit of neutral flavored oil (sunflower, rapeseed, grapeseed or
canola oil) to make the blending process easier.

5 Transfer the ready praline into a clean mixing bowl and leave it to cool down.

6 Ready praline can be stored at room temperature in a closed container for 3 months, and for 1
year in the freezer.

SHORTBREAD

Ingredients Total weight: ~ 462 g 100%

All-purpose flour 200 g 42%

Icing sugar 80 g 17%
Almond powder 30 g 6%
Sea salt 2g <1%
Butter 82% 110 g 25%
Whole eggs 40 g 9%

1 Put the flour and the icing sugar, both sifted, into the mixer bowl. Add the sea salt and the almond
powder. Next, add cold diced butter and using a paddle attachment process all the ingredients at
low speed until the sandy texture appears.
TIP
You can use any nut powder of your choice or you can just skip this ingredient if you don’t need any nuts in the recipe.

2 When the texture resembles wet sand and its color turns yellowish, add the eggs and mix just
until combined not to develop gluten. The ready dough is soft, smooth and pliable.

3 Roll the dough to 2-3 mm thickness between two parchment paper sheets or between the
silicone mats. 3

Copyright©2021 International Culinary Academy KICA, All rights reserved. Photo credit: Nataliya Khoroshaeva
 PISTACHIO CHEESECAKE

SHORTBREAD

4 Remove one parchment paper sheet, transfer the dough on a tray and bake at 150 °C / 302 °F for
15-20 minutes to obtain even and golden brown color. Preferably, bake it with a fan on. But if you
don’t have a fan assisted oven, then keep in mind that the baking time will be longer.

5 Cool down the shortbread at room temperature. It will take approximately 30 minutes.

6 Break the cooled down shortbread into pieces and grind into powder in a food processor.

7 Transfer it into a clean mixing bowl and use it in the cheesecake base preparation.

CHEESECAKE BASE WITH PISTACHIOS

Ingredients Total weight: ~ 450 g 100%

for 1 cake ring d=18 cm and h=6 cm

Baked and ground shortbread 320 g 70%

Pistachio powder 30 g 7%
Chopped green pistachios 30 g 7%
Butter 82% 70 g 16%

1 Put the chopped green pistachios in a big mixing bowl.

2 Then add pistachio powder to brighten up the color of the base or just skip this step and replace
this ingredient with the shortbread crumbs.

3 Add the shortbread crumbs and mix briefly.

4 Next, add the room temperature softened butter and mix everything with a spatula.

5 Place a cake ring d=18 cm and h=6 cm on a tray with the parchment paper or silicone sheet. Put
350 grams of crumbs and butter mixture into a cake ring and press it to the sides of the ring to
form even borders. The rest is used to make the bottom part of the base.

6 Put it in the fridge for 10 minutes.

ASSEMBLING

Ingredients

Stabilized cheesecake base with pistachios

Cheesecake mass

Copyright©2021 International Culinary Academy KICA, All rights reserved. Photo credit: Nataliya Khoroshaeva
 PISTACHIO CHEESECAKE

CHEESECAKE MASS

Ingredients Total weight: ~ 790 g 100%

for 1 cake ring d=18 cm and h=6 cm

Cream cheese 450 g 57%

Whole eggs 110 g 14%
Whipping cream 35% 45 g 6%
Sugar 65 g 8%
Pistachio praline 65 g 8%
Cornstarch 10 g 1%
Chopped green pistachios 45 g 6%

1 The temperature of all ingredients has to be the same, they should be either cold or room
temperature (18-20 °C / 64-68 °F). Put the cream cheese in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add
the sugar, cornstarch, praline and whipping cream and start mixing with a paddle attachment to
combine all the ingredients into a creamy texture with no air bubbles. Do it at low speed first,
increasing the speed gradually.

2 When the mixture turns smooth and shiny with no lumps, gradually add the eggs. Continue
mixing till a bit shinier and more liquid texture.

3 Pass the mixture through a fine sieve, add the chopped pistachios, mix with a spatula and pour
into the prepared cheesecake base.

4 Put the cheesecake in the oven which is preheated to 200 °C / 392 °F and drop the temperature
immediately to 120 °C / 248 °F. Bake it for 45-50 minutes. When ready, the cheesecake will set on
the sides but jiggle in the middle. You also can check the doneness of the cheesecake using a
probe thermometer: its internal temperature has to be 65-70 °C / 149-158 °F.

5 Leave the cheesecake to cool completely at room temperature. It will take about 1.5-2 hours.

6 Transfer the cheesecake in the fridge for 2-3 hours more so it cools down to 3 °C / 37 °F.

UNMOLDING THE CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

Well-chilled assembled cheesecake

1 Take the assembled cheesecake out of the fridge. Warm the cake ring up with a heat gun to
unmold a cheesecake.

2 Transfer the unmolded cheesecake in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Copyright©2021 International Culinary Academy KICA, All rights reserved. Photo credit: Nataliya Khoroshaeva
 PISTACHIO CHEESECAKE

CANDIED PISTACHIOS

Ingredients Total weight: ~ 121 g 100%

Green pistachios 25 g 21%

Colored pistachios 25 g 21%
Sugar 50 g 41%
Water 20 g 17%
Sea salt 0.5 g <1%

1 Pour the water in the saucepan, add the sugar and salt in, and start heating everything to
116 °C / 241 °F.
TIP
By adding sea salt you ensure a richer taste of candied pistachios.

2 Remove the mixture from heat, add the pistachios immediately and mix well until the syrup
crystals coat the nuts. Shake off the excess sugar using a sifter.

3 Let the nuts cool down at room temperature.

DECORATING THE CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

Icing sugar
Candied pistachios
Pistachio praline
Chilled unmolded cheesecake

1 Sprinkle the borders of unmolded cheesecake with icing sugar using a fine sieve.

2 Then pipe a thin layer of pistachio praline on top of the cheesecake.

3 Decorate the top of the cheesecake with whole pistachios, halved pistachios and candied
pistachios.

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Copyright©2021 International Culinary Academy KICA, All rights reserved. Photo credit: Nataliya Khoroshaeva