Archive for: walnuts

Chewy Walnut, Ginger and Toffee Blondies

Blondies are a great everyday treat to bake. They’re just as easy to make as a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but take much less time because they’re baked in a pan and sliced later, rather than being baked off one by one in multiple batches. The bar cookies also invite experimentation, because there are many flavors that go well in the chewy cookie base. I’ve used everything from chocolate to nuts in my blondies before, and put a spicier spin on these Chewy Walnut, Ginger and Toffee Blondies with some candied ginger.

Candied ginger is a great ingredient to work with in baking because it has a sharp, spicy sweetness and a hint of crunchiness from the sugar on the exterior of the ginger. The flavor is bright and bold, and if you buy larger pieces of ginger and chop them up yourself, you have a lot of control over how big of an impact the spicy ginger will have in your baking. Here, I’ve paired the ginger with buttery walnuts and bits of toffee and it is a blend of flavors that works out very well.

The blondies are chewy and have a slightly fudgy, brownie-like quality to them – although, of course, there is no chocolate in this recipe. The fudgy texture comes, in part, from the fact that there is no baking powder or baking soda in this recipe (something common to brownie recipes), so as the sugar caramelizes in the bars it leaves them with a rich, dense texture. The walnuts are crunchy and give the blondies a lot of texture, while the ginger adds a spicy punch and the toffee balances it out.

As with many recipes, I prefer to use toasted and lightly salted walnuts in this recipe. It makes the nuts a little bit more flavorful and gives them a little bit of an extra crunch. It also makes them stand out even more from the sweet toffee and spicy-sweet candied ginger because they introduce a salty element to the bars. That said, unsalted and even untoasted walnuts will still work very well in this recipe, lending a more subtle crunch to the finished blondies but a lot of buttery walnut flavor.
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Nutty Pumpkin Bread

My go-to quick bread is banana bread, as I often have overripe bananas in my kitchen or in my freezer and there are so many variations you can put onto it to make it interesting. But winter and fall give me the perfect excuse to switch things up and make more pumpkin breads. Pumpkin breads are very similar to banana breads, in that they are moist, perfect for snacking any time of day, and can be subject to almost any number of variations.

This pumpkin bread is nutty – very nutty. It is packed with lots of pecans and walnuts, which serve to add both a buttery, nutty flavor to the bread and add some crunch to each bite. They also give the slices a great look, as the nuts make interesting patterns in the bread when sliced. The bread itself is soft and moist, with a firm crumb that slices easily and holds up well to a smear of cream cheese or butter. It is not too sweet and you definitely get a good pumpkin flavor, but the bread has a nice spiciness from all of the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom in the recipe. Your kitchen will smell fantastic while your loaf is baking.

You can use other types of nuts in this recipe, if you prefer to use almonds or hazelnuts instead of either the pecans or the walnuts. That said, I do think that pecans and walnuts blend into this bread perfectly. I didn’t toast my nuts, but using toasted nuts will give this recipe just one more flavor boost. This bread keeps well for a couple of days when well-wrapped with plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container.
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