I found a treasure trove of bags of shelled black walnuts (in one of those stores where unsold or unsuccessful items go to die). They’re an acquired taste, but I’ve loved them since childhood. So, if you like them too, what do you do with them? Cookies? Pie? Trail Mix? Please share.
Black walnut quick bread, or maybe some brown sugar black walnut cookies.
Glazed with honey or maple.(many recipes online) Eaten out of hand.
I like plain ones in salad.
I have a tree. It gets ransacked by the squirrels and deer every year. I’m lucky if I get a gallon a year.
Use them as the base for rum balls! I buy them already chopped. We have black walnut trees in our yard but I can’t get the little emeffers open so I leave ours to the squirrels.
Rum ball recipe I sub gingersnaps for nilla wafers. Try using spiced rum, cherry brandy, or flavored vodka. You’ll be the life of the party.
Furniture repair.
No, seriously. When you get an ugly scratch in the finish of a piece of wood furniture, you just take the meat of one walnut (the part you’d eat), and rub it on the damaged spot for a minute or so. You won’t be able to tell the difference.
Oh, and chocolate chip cookies.
They’re bitter, aren’t they?
Country Maid Ice Cream in rural Richfield, Ohio, makes a black walnut flavor, but my sister warned me against it. “It ain’t maple walnut.”
Damn good ice cream. Stop by if you’re ever in between Cleveland and Akron.
Chopped up stirred into a recipe of fudge right before you pour it up.
I think the last ‘gift’ I ever received from my late Mother-in-Law was a 5lb (or something ridiculous) bag of shelled Black Walnuts.
Still got about 4.98lbs left in the fridge.
^^ Aw, Beck, yer stealing me heart, you are!
Banana bread, choco chip cookies.
Mmm…I haven’t had a black walnut in decades. I used to go to a summer camp in Pennsylvania with plenty of black walnut trees. I can still see them and smell them in my mind’s eye.
I didn’t know they were an acquired taste; I always assumed their delicious taste and fragrance were a given. Interestingly, though, I compare durian to black walnuts, and durian is definitely not popular with everyone.
I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten one. We used the husks to dye stuff.
Black Walnut cake with cream cheese frosting
My mom made one similar using a cake mix and adding black walnuts.
I have a black walnut in my back yard. The squirrels love the walnuts. This year there were almost no walnuts left in the yard. Sunflower thinks this is a sign that we will have a hard winter.
Every time someone points out caterpillar fuzz, nuts on the ground, etc as a sign we’ll have a hard winter, I remind them that all winters are hard.
Black Walnut Ice Cream
baseline ice cream recipe:
To make 4 quarts:
2 12-oz cans condensed milk
4 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp vanilla (always use vanilla, even when making a fruit flavor)
1 2/3 cup sugar (use more or less, depending on fruit)
fruit or other flavoring ingredients (see below)
Enough milk to fill the churn to the proper level (will take about 1/2 gallon).
Black Walnut:
melt 1/4 stick butter and add to mixture; substitute dark brown sugar for 1/2 the sugar; 10 oz black walnuts (measured on food scale) was very high # of walnuts, quite tasty, could definitely do with fewer walnuts.
^ If you think I’m cranking that by hand, well, I’ll be right over.
You know whats good? Good vanilla icecream with crumbles of walnut fudge on it. It’s a death sentence, but what a way to die!!
Black walnut caramels (possible recipe here), but hand-pulled (directions).
Not sure if I even has the correct recipe, so I’m not going to go look for it. My parents have the the hook my mom’s family always used for making black walnut caramels/taffy, which was hand-pulled in the barn, after the turkeys were shipped to the market. We tried it once, and the candy was fantastic, but lots of work.
If I had any black walnuts, I would try the recipe I linked above. Never seen them for sale here, but maybe I could try at the farmer’s market or one of the larger natural food stores.
I find even brown walnuts bitter and unpleasant. Are black walnuts even bitterer?
I can see, though, how they might be good in ice cream.