Chocolate Pistachio Bites

All nuts are considered to be a healthy snack.  In general, they are loaded with a lot of minerals and vitamins, are good sources of protein and fiber, and have high ratios of beneficial fatty acids and antioxidants.  Pistachios are high on the top of the list for healthy nuts.  Pistachios are among the world’s oldest nuts too.  They are even mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible as a healthy food source.

When I saw this simple recipe for these chocolate pistachio bites, I knew I just had to make them right away.   I saw these tasty, healthy treats on my blogging friend nadiiag’s website FitnessBlog.  You should check out her page.  She has a lot of great ideas and tips about health and nutrition.  Believe it or not, these chocolate pistachio bites are actually pretty healthy snacks too.  I also added some heavy whipping cream into the chocolate when I melted it to give the chocolate a shiny coating, and to make it as a ganache.  By adding the whipping cream, it made it a little less healthy, but not by much.  There is so little whipping cream, that it did not affect the healthy benefits of these snacks.  If you want to make these vegan, and still want to make them with a ganache coating, just substitute soy or coconut milk for the whipping cream.  The consistency will be a little different, but they will be healthy and vegan, if that is what you are looking for.

Chocolate Pistachio Bites

There are ONLY 3 ingredients in these healthy little treats, 4 if you include the water.

2 cups of pistachios or 15 oz of pistachio paste

2 bars of baker’s chocolate – I used semi sweet, but you can use any kind of chocolate you like

1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream, or soy or coconut milk

 

I made my own pistachio paste by boiling some water to a rapid boil, then adding the pistachios and boiled them for 1 minute.

After 1 minute, drain the nuts and put them in an ice cold bath of cold water and ice cubes to shock them.

Drain the nuts again.  The reason for boiling and shocking the nuts is to get rid of the skin around the nuts, so they are softer and to make them as “green ” as possible.  After the nuts have drained, “skin” the nuts by rubbing them in between your thumb and forefinger, or by rubbing them together in your hands, and the skin will come right off, very easily.  Though this was not hard to do, it was more of a pain in the neck than I anticipated.  But, look how “green” the pistachios are for doing it.  I guess the end results make it all worthwhile.  🙂  Sometimes I just get these crazy ideas into my head that sound good and fun at the time, and then once I get started I just kind of shake my head and say to myself “what was I thinking?”.  But once I start something, I always see it through to the end.  This time I am really glad I did too.

Once you have all the nuts “skinned”,  put them all in a food processor and process until they are ground into a fine paste.  Save some of the nuts to place on top of the chocolate covered candies.

Shape the paste into little nuggets with your hands.  Get about 1 heaping tsp full of nut paste and squeeze and press it together.  Then shape it how you like.  I made mine into nuggets about 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 in size.  Place the nuggets in the refrigerator for at least an hour to chill and set before dipping them into the chocolate.

Melt the chocolate together with the heavy whipping cream (or soy or coconut milk), stirring constantly, until all the chocolate is melted and it is smooth and shiny.  Then dip the nuggets into the chocolate by placing them on a fork.  Make sure to completely coat the nugget.  Place the coated nuggets onto a piece of parchment paper and place a whole pistachio on top.

Once all the nuggets are covered, place them in the refrigerator once more.  Let them chill and set for at least 2-3 hours before serving.

Once the nuggets have set, cut away all the excess chocolate from the edges and plate them up to serve and enjoy.  These are healthy little treats that you do not need to feel guilty about for eating.