Autumn and winter are nut season. After they have been dried for about four to six weeks, the nuts can be eaten and can therefore be found in almost every Santa Claus package. Walnuts can also be used in many ways in the kitchen. Our Engadin nut cake tastes wonderful with Advent coffee and young and old will love the home-roasted walnuts.
Candied nuts are a must at Christmas time
Candied walnuts
Ingredients:
400 grams of sugar
2 packets of real vanilla sugar
200 g walnut kernels
125 ml water
A sheet of wrapping paper
preparation
- Mix the sugar, vanilla sugar and water in a pan.
- Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly
- Add the nuts to the simmering mass, reduce the heat.
- Continue stirring until the caramel has settled around the nuts and reached a medium brown tone.
- Pour the walnuts onto the parchment paper and pull apart with two forks.
- Make sure you let it cool down before eating, the nuts are very hot.
engadiner nut cake
Ingredients:
dough
500g flour
300 cold butter, broken into pieces
200 grams of sugar
2 eggs
1 pinch of salt.
filling
400 g roughly chopped walnuts
200 grams of sugar
200 ml cream
2 tbsp honey
For painting
1 egg yolk
cinammon
preparation
- Make a shortcrust pastry from the dough ingredients and refrigerate.
- During this time, grease a springform or tart pan or line it with baking paper.
- Line the bottom and edges with a little more than half of the dough.
- Roll out the remaining dough and cut out biscuits, for example in the shape of a fir tree or a star. Alternatively, you can place the dough as a sheet on top of the filling.
- Caramelize the sugar in a pan, add the walnuts and deglaze with the cream.
- Spread the mass quickly on the prepared base and immediately cover with the slightly overlapping biscuits or the sheet of dough.
- Brush with egg yolk and dust with cinnamon.
Bake at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes (stick test).
The cake will keep for several weeks in a cool, dry place.
tips
Cracking fresh walnuts is a lot of work. On the other hand, the nuts without a protective shell will only keep for about four weeks, provided they are kept cool and dry in a tightly sealed container. However, walnuts freeze well in airtight packaging and can be used like fresh nuts for up to a year.