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Tag Archives: Walnuts

Banana Walnut Muffins

30 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes, Still life

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Tags

Baking, Bananas, Barley, Breakfast, Cooking, Flour, muffins, Raisins, Syrup, Walnuts

Banana Walnut Muffins

 

 

I have both of Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbooks, and this muffin recipe is from her first one, “My Father’s Daughter.”  It is very easy to make, and pretty healthy. I, as usual, used what ingredients I have in my house, so it’s a little altered from hers.

Banana Walnut Muffins

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
1 cup whole spelt flour
1 cup white spelt flour
1/2 cup barley flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
3 very ripe medium bananas
1/2 cup real Vermont maple syrup
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

(I can never find spelt flour, so I used unbleached all purpose and unbleached whole wheat flours. I also did not have barley flour, so I just used 1/2 cup of the whole wheat in its place. Also, I used 3/4 cups of maple syrup because I can never find rice syrup either.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin or oil them with 2 tablespoons of the canola oil.

Sift the flours, baking soda and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Puree the bananas in a food processor or blender and then add the 1/4 cup of canola oil, syrups and vanilla and pulse to combine. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir just to combine and fold in the raisins and walnuts. Do not over mix or the muffins will be tough. Use an ice cream scoop to distribute the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick tests clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

 

Banana Walnut MuffinsPansies

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Walnut (or Hickory) Cake

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes, Recipes gone wrong

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Tags

Baking, Buttercream, cake, Honey, Vanilla, Walnuts

Hickory cake

Walnut cake with buttercream frosting

This is a recipe from my great grandmother’s collection she cut out of one of the Chattanooga, Tennessee newspapers back in the 60s or 70s. It was submitted by a lady from Sewanee, Tennessee.

I had a few problems with it – of course.

The entire time I was making it, I kept thinking, “As long as it LOOKS good, it doesn’t have to taste good.”

The batter resembled biscuit dough at first. Hmmm. I knew that wasn’t right. I also knew I followed the recipe exactly and measured correctly. Perhaps there was a misprint in the paper. It’s happened before.

So! I added more milk. I was afraid to add too much, so the batter was still pretty thick. It also cooked faster than expected. And it didn’t rise as high as it should have. But, the batter had been thick. So again, I bet I should have added more milk.

On to the icing it called for: Honey frosting – uncooked

It was more like a glaze, and NOT very tasty. Because I had an image in my head as how I wanted to photograph the cake, I chucked the “glaze” and went with butter cream icing so I could add chopped walnuts to the top. But by this point, I was getting frustrated. So instead of measuring the exact ingredients for the buttercream frosting, I just started dumping them into the mixer. Well, that was fine until I got to the milk. Instead of measuring 2 tablespoons, I just poured in the milk.

Too much, of course. So I added more confectioners’ sugar. And then more. It never did get thick enough for frosting, so I knew it would not stay on the sides of the cake.

Great. But it turned out better because I let the frosting pour over the sides. It looked pretty cool – in most spots. Then I chopped some walnuts and sprinkled them on top; and believe it or not, the cake turned out to be very delicious. But I wouldn’t follow my instructions very closely if you want to save yourself some trouble.

RECIPE

2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs separated
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg yolks. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add alternately with vanilla and milk. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites and nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Test with a toothpick in center of cake until it comes out clean.

Honey Frosting – uncooked

1/4 cup honey
1 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Combine all ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes or longer until of spreading consistency. Three tablespoons of cocoa may be added for Chocolate-honey frosting.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream (I used milk because I did not have cream)

Combine butter and sugar in a standing mixer on a low speed until well-mixed, and then increase speed and mix for about 3 minutes. Add vanilla and cream and beat for another minute. Add more cream for spreading consistency.

Walnut cake slice

A slice of old fashioned walnut cake.

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Prize Date Bars – Mrs. Shuptrine’s

29 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by lewstories in Baking, Food, Photography, Recipes

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Tags

Baking, Cloves, Date bars, Dessert, Nutmeg, Powdered sugar, Walnuts

Date bars

Mrs. Shuptrine’s prized date bars.

My great grand mother had two date bar recipes, and I can never remember which one is better. I think I like the other recipe better now that this one is made, but this one is really good, too. It does call for cloves, though. Next time I will probably leave them out. Cloves tend to taste a little bitter to me. I like sweet tastes.

RECIPE

1/4 pound butter (1 stick)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour sifted
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 packages dates, cut

Cream butter, add sugar and vanilla. Then drop the whole eggs in and beat thoroughly. Sift all dry ingredients and add gradually to egg mixture. Lastly, add nuts and dates.

Line square baking pan with waxed paper and pour in batter. Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool before cutting into squares.

Roll in powdered sugar. (I just sprinkled some on top)

Old fashioned dessert

Date bars with nuts

Date bars

 

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