When we moved to the Midwest, it became very clear that black walnuts was a real thing here. With several black walnut trees towering over our little white farmhouse. Come fall, those trees began to rain! I mean pour down mana from the heavens…well black walnuts that is.
My neighbor brought over all the gear to collect and harvest the walnuts, and it was go time! We Collected over 700 LBS of black walnuts! And it took 700 hours!
No, I’m just joking! But it felt that way.
We sold most of them for a small price to the Hammons Black Walnut company. Which is better than letting them rot on your lawn. Its like having a million golf balls in your grass;; impossible to walk through with out rolling an ankle. So it felt good to clean up the yard, learn a new skill, and harvest a natural crop from our newly bought farm land. It was in a sense, our first crop!
We kept a couple backs of hulled walnuts for our selves and stored them in a burlap bag on the porch (out of the rain). I had no clue how to crack these babies. They are in fact the HARDEST nut I have ever encountered!
Once again my neighbor came to the rescue with a nut cracking contraption. A mechanical device with a controlled pressure to crack the nut. It was a tedious process, cracking each shell and picking out the nut. But it made every morsel even more precious and hard earned. I knew I needed to make something especially scrumptious with these nuts.
Candied Black Walnuts
First I made candied Black Walnuts. The raw black walnuts have a potent flavor and I thought it might calm the flavor down by roasting them in butter in sugar. I mean common…everything is better in butter!
Start by…
Start by melting 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet. Then add 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Melt in butter. Then add 1/2 to 3/4 cup black walnuts. Coat the nuts with the melted sugar. And stir the nuts around for a few minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved and the nuts are toasted. Its easy to burn the nuts. So pull them off right when you think that sugar is completely dissolved. The nuts will continue to toast. If you cook it too long, the sugar will harden.
Let the candied nuts cool in a bowl. Then you can store them in an air tight container for a few days or freeze them for longer.
These candied nuts are fantastic for tossing over a winter salad. Or eating them as a snack with some fruit and cheese. You could put them in just about anything to add a sweet crunch!
Black Walnut and Maple Scones
I knew I needed to bake something with these nuts. Something sweet and toasty. And scones were just right!
Walnuts and Maple is a match made in heaven. These scones are buttery, nutty and drizzled with a maple glaze. YUM!
Here’s the Recipe friends:
1/2 Cup chopped walnuts
1 3/4 cup white flour (I’m always down for mixing flours. Opt. for half whole wheat or almond flour)
1/2 cup sugar (Always down for sugar subs too! Try coconut sugar or honey-but honey will make the sconed dough wetter. Go lighter on the cream if needed)
1 TBL baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 TBL Cold butter cut into cubes
1 egg
1/3 cup of heavy cream
1 tsp of maple extract
1 tsp of vanilla extract
Start by toasting the black walnuts. Set the oven to 375 F. Spread the walnuts over a parchment lined baking sheet and roast for about 8 minutes; util golden brown. And let them cool on the counter. Save the parchment for baking the scones.
Add all the dry ingredients and mix. Chop the cold butter into small cubes and cut into the dry ingredients until crumbly. Then add the toasted walnuts.
Mix in the wet ingredients. And stir until combined. I always start out with a fork and then get in there with my hands. And feel for the right consistency. You want to mix until the dough can all form into a ball and has picked up all the dry bits.
Put your scone dough on the parchment and flatten into a disc. About an inch and a half thick. Cut the disc like a pizza, making 6 slices.
Bake that baby about 20 minutes. Let cool for a couple minutes. Then recut along the slices and pull scones apart.
I think the scones are much more moist when baking as a full disk. (That’s how I like them!)
For the Maple Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 tsp maple extract (easy does it, that stuff is powerful!)
Whisk the glaze and add the cream slowly. Your going for a nice think glaze. Not to runny. Try drizzling on the parchment paper first to see if its right. You can always add more powdered sugar or cream.
After the scones are quiet cool, drizzle with the glaze.
Can I make this the night before and bake in the morning…
Yes! You can defiantly make up the dough the night before. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in saran wrap and store in the fridge. In the morning you can slice and bake up.
Perfect for a weekend breakfast or for the holidays.
I hope this gave you some good ideas for making delicious things with black walnuts.
Do you have any good Black Walnut recipes to share? Tell me! I’m dyeing to know!
Thanks for stopping by! Stay awhile and catch up on some recipes.
You can see how I cracked these walnuts and made these delicious recipes HERE:
