Sweet as a nut
This year’s nut harvest is ready to eat. Nicola Galloway has some cracking ways to include them in baking.
Although most tree nuts are gathered in autumn, they need time to dry and cure. So early winter is a good time to get cracking. We have a walnut, almond and two hazelnut trees on our suburban property. The trees are now six years old and each year the nut harvest doubles.
This year we gathered a small box full, but, if that continues on the same trajectory, in a few years we’ll be quite flush in nuts. The almonds in particular are a true labour of love as they need a strong cracker to open the shells and the resulting nut quantity is always a little disheartening after the effort.
After a recent nut-cracking session I had just enough almonds to make a small batch of almond butter: 1 cup of almonds was lightly roasted at 150C for 15 minutes until golden. Once they cooled to being warm, the nuts were blended in a food processor with a pinch of salt until smooth. A few drop of olive oil helps with the momentum if needed.
Parsnip & carrot cake with walnuts & ginger
Carrot is a well known addition to cake but parsnip also works well due to its mellow sweetness. In this cake, I combine parsnip and carrot with crunchy walnuts and warming ginger.
Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 35 minutes Serves 12
3⁄4 cup (185ml) olive oil
1⁄3 cup (65g) brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup or honey
3 eggs
1 cup grated parsnip (120g), packed 1 cup grated carrot (120g), packed 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
root
1 cup (150g) standard white flour
1⁄3 cup (50g) wholemeal flour or more white flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger
1⁄2 cup (50g) chopped walnuts
Spiced cream cheese icing 250g cream cheese (or use the
thick creamed part of a can of coconut cream to make the icing dairy-free)
2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
1⁄2 tsp ground ginger Chopped walnuts, to decorate
Preheat oven to 170C. Line and grease a 20cm round cake tin.
In a mixing bowl, combine the oil, sugar, syrup and eggs and whisk until smooth. Mix in the grated parsnip, carrot and ginger.
In a separate bowl combine the flours, baking powder, spices and walnuts. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix and fold together until just combined.
Scoop into the tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out cake on a cooling rack.
Make the icing: Use a spoon to beat together the cream cheese, maple syrup and ground ginger until smooth.
Use a butter knife to neatly spread onto the cooled cake. Decorate with walnuts and serve. Store in a cake tin and consume within 3 days.
Sweet little nut butter cookies
Any nut butter can be used in this recipe, or use sunflower seed butter to make them nut-free.
Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 12 minutes Makes 12
1⁄2 cup (100g) almond butter or
peanut butter
4 tbsp maple syrup or honey 1 small egg
3⁄4 cup (120g) standard flour
(or gluten-free flour)
1⁄2 tsp baking powder
50g dark chocolate, chopped Generous pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
Place the nut butter, sweetener and egg in a bowl and mix well to combine. Add the remaining ingredients and mix into a stiff dough. Roll into 12 walnut-sized balls and arrange evenly on the tray. Press the balls down gently with fingers to shape (the cookies won’t spread much). Bake for 12 minutes until lightly golden, then cool on a rack. Store in a cookie tin and consume within 4 days.
Nicola Galloway is an awardwinning food writer, cookbook author and culinary tutor. homegrown-kitchen.co.nz