A salute to the pistachio kernel — theguardian.com

Nut-based cakes can tend to slump into shades of brown and beige, but pistachios will lift your baking out of that rut and into greener pastures. Grind the nut kernels to a fine meal and they can be folded through anything from cookie batters to cakes, frangipane and buttercreams. Both of this week’s recipes call for a food processor or coffee grinder to blitz the pistachios. I try not to be prescriptive when it comes to kitchen equipment (you don’t need fancy gadgets to bake well – I baked for years in a squalid student kitchen, using saucepans for mixing bowls and forks for whisks) but if you can get a cheap coffee grinder or multipurpose processor I’d strongly recommend it. You’ll be able to grind nuts, seeds and spices quickly and easily, unlocking recipes like these, which use ground pistachio in place of the more readily available ground almond.

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