Creamy Pistachio Ice cream bar (without machine)

This Homemade Pistachio Ice cream bar recipe is almost as creamy as the pistachio gelato I had last time I was in Italy! Believe it or not, it is made of using 4 simple natural ingredients in 10 minutes without any ice cream machine! It is creamy and soft with delicious and deep pistachio flavour without being icy or hard!

This Homemade Pistachio Ice cream bar recipe is seriously better than store bought as store bought pistachio ice cream often either does not have any pistachio taste or only the taste of the aroma! My Pistachio Ice cream recipe is made of using natural ingredients only – unlike store bough ice cream – and what makes it super delicious and nutty is the 100% pistachio paste! The recipe does not use egg, neither gelatin! Let´s get started!

My Top 3 Baking Tips for home bakers

1. Read the recipe carefully including my tips and recommendations on how to avoid and fix typical issues during making this easy Homemade Pistachio Ice cream bar recipe
2. Avoid using substitutes and changing the recipe unless you are aware of how to fully reformulate the recipe in order to keep the balance in texture as well as flavour. This easy Pistachio Ice cream bar recipe is made of using 4 ingredients only and no, you can´t replace any of those if want to keep the creamy texture and deep nutty flavour
3. For consistent, happy baking experience always measure your ingredients with the help of a Digital scale. Cup measurement is provided as an indicative figure only and might be used for less complex and large batch recipes however it is not an appropriate method if you want consistent results

Some important notes regarding the INGREDIENTS of this easy Pistachio Ice cream bar recipe

• Heavy cream: Heavy cream also known as whipping cream has a fat content between 36% and 40% , the cream I am using is 36% to make this Pistachio ice cream recipe that makes the ice cream super creamy and fluffy. Use it very cold. Don´t have substitution for this as you need a very rich, fatty cream for the right soft and fluffy ice cream texture
• Sweetened condensed milk: Condensed milk is cow’s milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of sweetened condensed milk. Sweetened condensed milk is a very thick, sweet product, which when canned can last for years without refrigeration, if not opened. Possibly you can substitute it with a product called evaporated milk, which has undergone a lengthier preservation process because it is not sweetened. Evaporated milk is known in some countries as unsweetened condensed milk. Both products have a similar amount of water removed however since evaporated milk does not contain sugar, you will need to add sugar into it (possibly glucose syrup that makes the ice cram softer vs granulated sugar)
• Pistachio paste: This Pistachio Ice cream bar will be made with 100% pistachio paste for the maximum nutty taste! You can either make pistachio paste at home by gently roasting and processing pistachio nuts until it becomes a paste or you can purchase pistachio paste (sometimes called pistachio butter) from store. If you purchase it, make sure you buy 100% pistachio paste that does not contain added sugar or oils etc. It has the texture like peanut butter, slightly oily and has a super deep nutty flavour without being sweet (no added sugar). Please note that the colour of the ice cream is very much depending on the quality of your pistachio paste, it can go anywhere between dark green, light green or even a bit brownish
• Chocolate: The chocolate coat is quite an important part of this Pistachio ice cream bar both in terms of taste, also in terms of cruncy texture. Make sure you use high quality chocolate that has a pleasant taste! In this recipe I am using is Callebaut WhiteChocolate (callets). This  is a high-quality chocolate (yet affordable) that contains a higher percentage of cocoa butter than the average supermarket chocolate
• Chocolate food coloring: I am using a very small amount fat soluble green chocolate food coloring to color the white chocolate into more pistachio color. You can totally skip it
• Chopped pistachio (optional): A little but of chopped pistachio is added as decoration

As you can see, it is totally possible, in fact super easy, to make ice cream at home using very few natural ingredients. Let’s have a look at the technique part of making home-made ice cream step by step in the next section.

My top 4 tips regarding the TECHNIQUE of making this Homemade Pistachio Ice cream bar

1. What equipment is needed to make homemade Ice cream bars

By now you already know that this Pistachio Ice cream recipe does not require an ice cream machine! Hurray! You can totally use a paper cup or plastic container to make ice cream however if you want to make your ice cream into a bar format then you will need a mould and some ice cream sticks.

The product I am using is a rather affordable Ice cream mould from Silikomart that you can purchase from Amazon in here, it contains the sticks too and perfect for making ice creams, I am very pleased with it! It has a nice size, and super easy to release the frozen product.

2. What is the process of making Pistachio Ice cream bar

Making this Pistachio Ice cream bar could not be simpler, literally 10 minutes or so, the most difficult part is the waiting until it sets in the freezer. The recipe makes 4 ice cream bars, feel free to half or double the recipe, if needed.

1. Measure all your ingredients with a Digital scale
2. Mix 100% pistachio paste into sweetened condensed milk until fully incorporated – try not to eat the mixture!
3. Whip heavy cream with the help of an electric hand mixer until early hard peaks. The consistency is quite important for the perfect soft and fluffy ice cream texture so make sure that the cream is whipped up correctly and you stop as soon as early stiff peaks. If you happen to beat the cream longer, you might find that it will form clumps which then would make it impossible to fold it into the condensed milk mixture
4. Carefully, with the help of a rubber spatula, fold whipped cream into the condensed milk & pistachio paste mixture
5. With the help of a spoon fill 4 cavities of your Ice cream mould. Gently tap the mould onto the kitchen counter a few times so air bubbles will come to the surface then press one stick into each – the end of the stick should be where the mould indicates it, please see picture below
6. Smooth the top with an offset spatula. Make sure that the top is properly smooth and flat
7. Place Ice cream mould into the freezer for 6 hours and now it is onto waiting. Please note that if you don´t wait long enough, the ice cream might stuck into the mould also won´t be too easy to coat later

3. How to chocolate coat Ice cream bars

Coating these Pistachio Ice cream bars could not be easier! Basically you will need to dip the frozen ice cream bars into melted chocolate however it is very important that both of these are on the right temp.

To be able to successfully and quickly coat your ice cream bars, make sure that ice cream is properly frozen (min 6h in the freezer). For coating, chose a tall but skinny glass that you will pour the melted chocolate in just before coating. Truth is, you won´t need all the chocolate stated in the recipe, but you have to melt enough chocolate to be able to dip the ice cream into it. Any leftover chocolate can be poured onto a parchment paper then it will set in a few hours and can be reused. Since chocolate won´t be tempered this time (no need), the leftover chocolate won´t set hard and snappy. But, you can always use it for making other desserts, check my brownie recipe or brownie cookie recipe with the green color and some added pistachio, they they would look actually amazing!

So the process of chocolate coating these Pistachio ice cream bars is the following

• Melt chocolate in the microwave stirring every 30 sec. I use Callebaut WhiteChocolate (callets) and melted it to 45C. Make sure you don´t burn the chocolate, use plastic container (not glass)
• Once chocolate is melted, optionally color to with a very small amount green fat soluble food coloring
• Pour melted chocolate into a tall and skinny glass
• Unmould the pistachio bars ice cream by gently releasing it from the Ice cream mould . The stick should come through the top. They should come out well, but a little bit of imperfection is fine since anyway they will be coated
• While holding the stick, immediately dip ice cream into melted chocolate then very gently shake the ice cream a bit so that coating will run through it without setting too thick. Since ice cream is very cold, the chocolate coating should set on it fairly quickly, in literally 30-60 seconds on room temp.
• Store ice creams in freezer until they fully set then few minutes later you can decorate them with melted white chocolate and pistachios
• Needless to say you have to work quick with ice cream, there is no time to wonder around or they start to melt especially before they are coated with chocolate

Tip 1: Make sure that ice cream bars are very cold, use them straight out of the freezer. Before ice cream is coated, don´t leave it outside the freezer, not even for one minute. Make sure that the 2nd ice cream is in the freezer in the mould while you are playing around with the 1st one and so on.

Tip 2: Only dip the ice cream bar into the chocolate once. A second tip would risk 1. they melt together 2. chocolate set uneven “wrinkled”

Tip 3: If you have a warm kitchen and coating does not seem to set, open the freezer door and hold the ice cream “into the freezer” with the help of the stick. The chocolate coat will set in this cold temp fairly quickly

4. How to store these Homemade Pistachio Ice cream bars

Once chocolate coating sets, you have store these Pistachio Ice cream bars in the freezer either in a plastic container or eg. wrapped in parchment paper. Make sure you do not wrap it before chocolate coating properly sets as that would remove the chocolate coat.

Since this is a full natural ice cream using 4 real ingredients – unlike store bought ice cream – I find they might be a bit hard straight out of the freezer and they need about 3 minutes on room temp before the inside starts to get soft and they get the texture you see on these pictures. Obviously it depends on where you live, in a warmer climate they might start to melt already after one minute – this has never happened to me in Sweden:)

Want to try some other homemade ice cream recipes too?

Ruby Raspberry Ice cream – This Homemade Ruby Raspberry Ice cream bar recipe is the best thing that can happen to raspberries this summer. Super creamy and delicious raspberry yogurt ice cream bar coated with Ruby chocolate, that has a wonderful natural pink color! The ultimate girly pink ice cream recipe you must try. Recipe in here

Chocolate Ice cream – This Chocolate Ice cream bar is creamy, soft, full of natural chocolate flavours without being icy or hard! Hands down, the best chocolate ice cream you can make without using fancy and expensive ice cream machines! Recipe in here

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