Vegan Pistachio Almond Thins

January 1, 2013

Vegan Pistachio Almond Thins
I have this thing for pistachios. I don’t even know how to define it. Love? No, it’s more than just love. Obsession? Kind of, not exactly on point though.
Let’s put it this way: if pistachios were a girl I would probably become a crazy stalker. Watching through binoculars, stealing mail, sending notes, following everywhere, calling work and making trouble, etc. You know, all those creepy things stalkers do.
Luckily (for my own sake) pistachios are "just" a nut that can be bought almost in every shop. No stalking necessary.




Given my thing for pistachios, I struggled to make this recipe for almost a week. What happened was that I went to the store, bought pistachios, but on the way home ate them, all. Every single time. Five times in one week. In the end I had to send one of my roomies to buy them for me.




If you manage to get all the ingredients, then making these thins is a snap.
The result are crisp, crunchy and delicious thins that can be enjoyed in so many different ways. Dunked into your morning beverage, munched with frozen yogurt, or served with a fruit salad. I’m also thinking at a vegan butter cream filling to make sandwich thins. I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out how to put them to good use.
Lastly, let’s not forget that these thins are vegan, gluten-free, low in calories and full of health benefits (thanks to the almonds and the pistachios). There’s no feeling guilty about them.




Vegan Pistachio Almond Thins
Print this Recipe!

Few notes. As there’s no fat (oils or shortening) involved you want make sure to you use good quality almond milk. Definitely pick the already sweetened kind, even better if vanilla flavored.
If you have a sweet tooth feel free to add further ¼ cup of powdered sugar, you’ll need to balance that out with more almond milk. The dough will never come together otherwise.
Lastly, if you don’t have gluten intolerance you can use whole wheat flour instead of rice flour. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend following the recipe. The rice flour and the corn flour give to these thins a very nice texture.

Ingredients
Makes 48 Thins

2 cups / 8.8 oz / 250 gr rice flour
¾ cup / 2.8 oz / 80 gr corn flour (aka very finely ground cornmeal)
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup / 250 ml vanilla almond milk (or sweetened unflavored almond milk)
¾ cup / 2.5 oz / 70 gr powdered sugar
½ cup / 2.1 oz / 60 gr blanched almonds
½ cup / 2.1 oz / 60 gr pistachios
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of fine grain sea salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 340°F (170°C), place a rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place the almond milk, almonds and vanilla extract in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the almonds are really broken down and well mixed with the almond milk.
In a large bowl, mix together rice flour, corn flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the almond milk mixture, the pistachios and knead dough with hands until it comes together. If it doesn’t and it’s still on the crumbly side, add some more almond milk, one tablespoon at a time.
Place the dough on some parchment paper. Roll out it with a rolling pin until it’s about ¼ inch (5 mm) thick.
With a sharp knife, slice into 1½ inch (4 cm) squares.
With help of a spatula arrange thins a ¼ inch apart on parchment lined baking sheet. Don’t worry about separating them too much they will not spread out.
Bake for 12 minutes until just beginning to brown at the edges and tops start to crack. Cool on baking sheet, then store in airtight container.

Nutrition facts

One vegan thin has 54 calories, with 1 gram of fat, 10 grams of carbs and 1 gram of protein.

The Iron You

7 comments:

  1. This actually sounds like a fantastic recipe- and I too love pistachios (come to think about it, I think I have yet to come across someone who doesn't love them!). Is corn flour what you make 'cornbread' with? I think I may have some in my pantry actually... I just know that it is not the same as what in Mexico we call corn flour (I think you call it masa harina...).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing! Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love pistachios and have recently started baking with rice flour. This recipe looks wonderful and I'm looking forward to trying it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. These sound like such a unique and healthy treat! I love pistachios and don't see them in recipes very often.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love pistachios, too! Yum! These look great.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great! Thanks for sharing! They look really amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can you substitute a less refined sugar for the powdered sugar?

    ReplyDelete