Do you believe in destiny? Actually I am not the one thinking someone else is in the driving seat of my life’s car (this is so ‘The Game of Life )  On the other hand if this cake is not controlled by kismet or karma or what ever, I don’t know…

I have to admit this recipe was not meant for you. I love you guys and sharing recipes with you is more than fun, but you were not supposed to see this one. This one is simply to get rid off unwanted, space-consuming troublemaker. It started with pistachios, salted and in their shells, moving around in my kitchen from one corner to the other. I just didn’t want to throw them away, but their shells were holding me up from simply popping them in my mouth. They seem to be constantly in my way and I had to deal with them. I discovered some breakfast’s leftover berries, leaking red water all over the fridge and some yoghurt, way over the date of expiring but still smelling OKish. With cake on my mind and some notes I started baking, I decided to add a topping, switched some things in between and voilà! Seriously the piece of paper with my recipe notes has a lot crossed out numbers and words  and I had a hard time to decode my scribbling.

The first bite made me eat the whole piece and than another and I had to stop myself and get my camera before all evidence had been eaten distroyed by me. I have to admit I never ate and took pictures at the same time of the same food.

The good thing about all the chaos? I made the whole cake again, just for you and to make sure, it will work out and taste the same for the second time and if you are making it. The batter is rather firm, that will prevent the berries from sinking to the bottom of the cake. After baking the cake is soft and spongy and not too sweet. The topping is crunchy, buttery and nutty. Although the topping gets softer after two days, the cake is still good for some more days, I think the berries keeps it moist.

berry and pistachio coffee cake

It’s best if you have all ingredients at room temperature. If you have salted pistachios on hand, put them in a colander and rinse the salt off, works great. You’ll need 2 sticks of butter altogether (just to clarify the butter situation). While browning the butter: the brown specks might be hart to see in a nonstick pan, in this case use your nose, it should smell like brown butter, nutty and a little toasty, rather stop earlier, if you are not sure, black butter is not what we are going for…

ingredients:

80 g / 2.8 oz pistachios (without shell)

300 g / 10.58 oz all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

170 g / 1.5 stick unsalted butter (at room temperature)

200 g / 7.05 oz sugar

200 g / 7.05 oz plain yoghurt (fat free Greek yoghurt)

2 eggs

1/4 tsp almond or vanilla extract

160-200 g / 5.6-7.1 oz mixed fresh berries

topping:

4 Tbsp unsalted butter

3 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp ground pistachios (saved from the amount above)

instructions:

Preheat your oven to 175 C / 350 F. Grease or line a baking pan 20 x 30 cm / 8 x 12 inch. with parchment paper.

Grind pistachios in your food processor until very finely chopped. Add pistachios to a small bowl but save two tablespoon for the topping. Measure flour, baking powder, salt and mix with the pistachios, set aside.

Prepare topping: in a pan over medium high heat, add butter, sugar and (2 Tbsp) ground pistachios. Let cook, stirring frequently until you see some small brown specks, remove from heat and set aside.

Add butter, sugar, yoghurt, eggs and almond or vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl. Mix with a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer until well combined, about one minute. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and mix shortly.

Pour batter into the baking pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle with berries and the browned butter topping and bake for 30 minutes. Check after 25 minutes.