Who doesn’t love the satisfying crunch of walnuts in their cookies, bread or on top of their cake? These crunchy walnuts make a great topping for a festive treat. The simplest way to take a dessert to the dinner party level is to add walnuts to it. They are exceptionally nutritious and have high antioxidant activity.

Here are the favourite walnut recipes that are musts for nut fanatics.

Wholesome – Walnut Bread 

Ingredients

Fresh yeast: 25 g

Warm water: 13/4 cup

Honey: 1 tbsp

Malt flour: 2 tbsp

All-purpose flour: 375 g

Whole grain wheat flour: 200 g

Walnuts, coarsely chopped: 150 g

Salt: 7g

Method

In a large bowl, dissolve the fresh yeast in lukewarm water. If you are using dry yeast, add this together with flour. Add honey, all three types of flour and then stir/knead everything into a nice dough. Add chopped walnuts and salt and knead everything into the dough. The kneading time is 5-10 minutes. Leave the kneaded dough in the bowl, cover it with a dish towel and set it aside someplace warm. Let the dough rise for 60 minutes.

Divide the dough into six pieces and roll each piece into long ‘sausages’. Take three sausages and connect them in one end. Braid them, and connect them at the other end. Continue the same way with the next three sausages. Now you twist the two braided breads into one single bread. Fold the two ends under the bread. Place the twisted bread on a parchment paper-covered oven plate. Cover it with a clean dishtowel and let it rise for another 30 minutes someplace warm.

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Spray a little cold water into the oven to create some water vapor. Now bake the bread for about 35 minutes. The bread is done when it sounds hollow when knocking at the bottom of it.

Easy simple serves with ‘Cream Cheese and Walnut Brest and Greens’.

Walnut Pesto

Ingredients

Fresh Basil leaves: 2 cups

Walnuts: ¼ cup

Garlic clove, peeled and samashed: 1

Lemon Juice: 1 tspn

Olive oil: ¼ cup

Walnut oil: 2 tspn

Parmesan: ¼ cup

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Method

To the bowl of a food processor, add basil walnuts, ¼ cup olive oil, garlic, parmesan and lemon juice. Blend until smooth, adding the final 2 tbsp walnut oil through the chute in the lid while the motor is running. Taste. Then add salt and pepper to taste. To keep pesto from browning, pour enough olive oil into the jar to completely cover the surface of the pesto. For longer storage, freeze pesto in ice cube trays then transfer frozen cubes to a zip-top bag. Thaw and use as a sauce or add frozen to soups or stews.

(Recipe Courtesy: By Cicchetti By Mr Beans)