These Pistachio-Rose Tarts begin with a buttery crust that has a delightful pistachio mousse spooned on top of tart raspberry jam. They are embellished with fresh raspberries and elegant rose whipped cream!

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Pistachio is a flavor I’ve come to appreciate only recently, now that I’m an adult.

When I was younger, I knew pistachio as simply “that ice cream flavor that looks like mint chip but– annoyingly, emphatically– is NOT mint chip.” (Seriously, why do they do that? It’s cruel.)

However, now that my tastebuds are all grown up, I really love the sweet, mild nuttiness of pistachio, and the artist in me loves the delicate pale green color it can bring to springtime desserts.

Jason brought home an 8-pack of raspberry pints recently (bless that boy) and after we scarfed two of them down, Cookie Monster-style, I quickly claimed two more in the name of dessert. I have learned the hard way that unclaimed berries do not last long in the wilds of our refrigerator.

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It didn’t take me long to decide what to make with my berries. When I looked at the raspberries, a weird neural pathway in brain fired—ping!—and said “Pistachios!” As soon as the thought appeared, there was another one—ping!—that said “Roses!” Shortly thereafter, there was a final ping, and this one said simply, “Genius!” Have I mentioned my brain’s a bit of a braggart?

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After all of those mental gymnastics, though, raspberries are just a supporting player in these tarts. The real star are the pistachios, which appear in both the buttery, crispy tart crust and in the soft mousse filling the tarts. The mousse is spooned on top of tart raspberry jam, and then fresh raspberries are used as a garnish atop the rose whipped cream—oh, did I forget to mention the rose whipped cream? My apologies, because: NOM NOM NOM.

Rose is yet another flavor I hated when I was younger that I’m kind of obsessed with now. Back then it was the culinary equivalent of eating soap, and now I just can’t get enough. It’s the perfect flavor to go with softly whipped, lightly sweetened cream. I guess between the pistachio and the rose, these are tarts for mature tastes, or as I like to think of them, adult tarts.

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Hm. On second thought, maybe I won’t call them that.

At any rate, these little desserts are light and fresh and taste like springtime on a plate…and folks of all ages can appreciate that!

A Pistachio-Rose Tart on a white square dessert plate.

Pistachio-Rose Tarts

5 from 1 vote
These Pistachio-Rose Tarts begin with a buttery crust that has a delightful pistachio mousse spooned on top of tart raspberry jam. They are embellished with fresh raspberries and elegant rose whipped cream!
Prep1 hour
Cook25 minutes
Total1 hour 25 minutes
Yields5 6-inch tarts

Ingredients

For the Pistachio Tart Dough:

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup pistachios, shelled and ground
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4.5 oz unsalted butter, (9 tbsp), cold, cubed
  • 1 large egg yolk, cold

For the Pistachio Mousse:

For the Rose Whipped Cream:

  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp rose water, or more to taste

For the Tart Filling & Decorations:

  • 1/2 cup raspberry jam, high quality preferred
  • Fresh raspberries, for garnish, optional
  • Pistachios, toasted, for garnish, optional
  • Rose petals, pesticide-free, for garnish, optional

Instructions 

To make the Pistachio Tart Dough:

  • Put the flour, ground nuts, powdered sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine.
  • Add the butter and pulse until the butter is cut in coarsely.
  • Add the egg yolk and process in long pulses – about 10 seconds each – until the dough just starts forming clumps. Just before your reaches this clumpy stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change.
  • Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times to incorporate any flour left in the bottom of the bowl. Divide it into five pieces.
  • To fill and bake the tart shells, spray the 6-inch shells with nonstick cooking spray. Press the dough into the shells in an even layer. Freeze the tarts for half an hour while you preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  • Once the tart shells are frozen, press foil or parchment onto the dough and fill them with beans or rice. Bake off the shells until they are light brown, about 12-15 minutes, rotating halfway throughout. Carefully remove the parchment or foil and beans.
  • Return the shells to the oven and bake for another 7-8 minutes, until golden brown on bottom and cooked throughout. Let them cool completely at room temperature before filling them.
  • Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam in the bottom of each tart shell before you make the pistachio mousse.

To make the Pistachio Mousse:

  • Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave, and set it aside for now.
  • Grind the pistachios in a food processor until they are in small pieces. Add the powdered sugar and continue to grind them—the sugar will help prevent the nuts from clumping and will give you a finer texture. Process the nuts until they are a very fine powder, but stop before they start to turn into nut butter.
  • Place 1 inch of water in the bottom saucepan of a double boiler, and bring it to a simmer. Combine the eggs and the sugar in the top half of a double boiler, and whisk them together. (Alternately, you can use a regular saucepan with a tight-fitting metal or glass bowl on top.) Put the eggs and sugar over the double boiler and continue to whisk them constantly as the mixture heats up. Whisk and heat the eggs until they are thick and creamy, with a texture almost like pudding.
  • Once thickened, remove the eggs from the heat. Stir in the melted white chocolate and the almond extract, then stir in the ground pistachios. Refrigerate the mixture to cool off while you whip the cream.
  • In a mixing bowl, whip the cream with a whisk attachment until it forms firm peaks. Fold the cream into the cooled pistachio mixture. Divide the mousse evenly between the five tart shells, and spread it into an even layer on top. Refrigerate the shells to set the mousse, for at least 6 hours or overnight.

To Make the Rose Whipped Cream:

  • For best results, chill the mixing bowl and whisk attachment for 15 minutes before you begin. Begin to beat the heavy cream in a mixing bowl with a whisk. Gradually add the powdered sugar and the rose water. Beat until stiff peaks form. Taste the whipped cream and add a little more rose water if you’d like a stronger flavor. You can also add a touch of pink food coloring to give it a rose color, if desired.

To finish the tarts:

  • Top each tart with a generous spoonful of rose whipped cream, and garnish them with fresh raspberries, chopped pistachios, and/or pesticide-free rose petals.

Measuring Tips

Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.

Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?

Nutrition

Serving: 5g | Calories: 899kcal | Carbohydrates: 87g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 57g | Saturated Fat: 30g | Cholesterol: 243mg | Sodium: 370mg | Potassium: 340mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 51g | Vitamin A: 1735IU | Vitamin C: 4.2mg | Calcium: 112mg | Iron: 2.7mg
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Hi, I’m Elizabeth — a trained pastry chef, cookbook author, video instructor, and your new Baking BFF! I’m going to teach you everything you need to know to be a sugar hero. ❤️

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14 Comments

  1. That dessert is just pure loveliness. The colors are so perfect for spring and summer. I love the pistachios in it (always loved pistachios but you are right about the mint choco. chip mix-up) and the rose color in the cream is so soft and pretty. Bookmarking these!

    1. Thank you so much! I admit I sometimes plan how desserts will look first, before finalizing the recipe–but hey, it’s only natural since we eat with our eyes. If you try it, please let me know how you like it!

  2. This looks ridiculously good! I’ve never tried anything rose before.. This is really new to me, but I am intrigued..

    1. Oh, you should! It sounds weird but tastes great, especially when it’s not the only flavor in the dessert. I’ve found rose water in the middle eastern section of grocery stores, it’s like $3 for a bottle and it lasts forever. Also try adding a little to lemonade for a crazy good summertime drink…

  3. Pretty! As always, you bring out aesthetic value and bring it at par with the wonderful gastronomic quality of your recipes. I am always impressed. Bookmarking the page…

  4. I just made these a couple days ago with my sister. They taste amazing. I’ll definitely be using this recipe again.

  5. Hello Elizabeth,

    I first wanted to thank you for this recipe so much, ever since visiting Turkey at the age of 6, I’ve been in love with flavours such as rose and pistachio. Finding this recipe was so exciting.

    I made this last night, and added the rose cream this morning. I had trouble with one part of the recipe, I’d written it out in note form, and I realise where I went wrong now having looked at the site. I mixed the eggs and sugar over the heat from the start, so they didn’t get to a “thick and creamy” stage, I tried again and made the same error, so just went along with it and realised the texture might not be right.

    This morning the mousse was still not set, and I know why that is now, it was more of a very thick cream. But the tastes, oh wow, best dessert ever.

    Something I want to ask is, I had loads left over, so I have enough to make it again, as the pistachio mousse is already mixed up, do you have any idea what I can do to make it more of a mousse consistency?

    I have fine leaf gelatine at home which I could use, I’ve followed a few recipes from the US before using gelatine and they mention blooms and quality of gelatine, we don’t seem to do that in the UK. But this is the best quality stuff around. I was wondering if I could use this? if so how much? A sheet or maybe a half?

    Thank you!

    (I hope to bring some to work tomorrow, as I work in a kitchen, I’m hoping to do an NVQ in “Professional Cookery” at work, they know I’m enthusiastic but I want to show them.

    Thanks!

    1. Hi! Thanks for the comment–so glad to find a fellow rose/pistachio lover! I’m sorry to hear that the mousse didn’t set, but I think you can totally save it by adding a little gelatin. This is going to be a bit of a guess, since I don’t know how much mousse you have remaining (almost the whole batch?) or what strength gelatin you have–leaf gelatin that I’m familiar with is usually sold by strength, ie silver, gold, etc. But here’s what I would try. Assuming you have most of the batch of mousse remaining, and assuming it’s pretty loose–like barely whipped cream–I would use two sheets of gelatin. Let the mousse sit out of the refrigerator until it’s room temperature–it shouldn’t be cold at all. Soak the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cold water until they’re soft. Wring them out to remove any excess water, then combine them with a little cream–maybe a few spoonfuls?–in a bowl and microwave in 10-second intervals, just until it’s melted together. Stir well. Let it cool, stirring occasionally, until it’s barely warm to the touch but still liquid. (The goal is to have the cream/gelatin and the mousse be as close to the same temperature as possible.) Whisk the mousse and gelatin together, then pour into whatever container/tart shell you’d like. Refrigerate until (hopefully!) set. I can’t guarantee this will work perfectly, since I haven’t tried it myself, but it’s what I would try in this situation. I hope this helps, and please let me know how it turns out!

      Best,
      Elizabeth

  6. Hello! I absolutely LOVE that this recipe exists…pondering over what to bring to Easter dinner & I kept thinking “pistachio rose raspberry tart” (no kidding! Pistachio + rose is classic, pistachio + raspberry is classic, raspberry + rose is so springy & fresh, so I thought to combine them all!), so I jumped on Pinterest to look up a few different recipes with plans to borrow elements from different ones to create what I wanted, when low & behold, what I want already exists! Your recipe! So perfect!
    I’m writing in hopes of confirming my desire will work though…I don’t plan on doing single tarts but rather one large one. I have 2 tart pans that fit standard recipes, one circle, one square. Should this recipe work well as a single large tart? I’d hate to go into it & find out there isn’t enough of one element or another to fill up the space of a full size tart pan. Thoughts?

  7. What a gorgeous looking tarts. And nothing can go wrong with a combination of rose and pistachio. As an Indian , using rose water is a part of our culinary culture. Would be making this very soon. Unfortunately I do not have that many 6 inches tart pans. Would you be kind enough to let me know how many inches tart pan would suffice for this recipe? Would it require more than one pan ? Thank you in advance .

    1. Yeah! One standard, 9″ tart pan should be just fine! Let me know if you have any other questions!

  8. Do you know how firm this mousse sets up? I would like to use your pistachio mousse recipe in a cake.

    1. Hey Jim, I have never tried it with gelatin so I can’t say for sure. If you give it a shot and it works out we would love to hear back about it! Thanks!