Boozy coffee & walnut cake

Easy - Cuts into 10 slices
Ready in about 30 minutes
Cake base freezes well for 3 months

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE MIX

200g caster sugar
200g softened butter
4 eggs , beaten
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
15 walnut halves
2 heaped tbsp instant coffee , dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

FOR THE FILLING

500g pot mascarpone
85g light muscovado sugar
4 tbsp Tia Maria
a few toasted walnut halves, for decoration

Method

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Butter two 20cm sandwich tins and line with non-stick baking paper. Toast the walnut halves in the oven for 10 mins. Reserve 10 and chop the rest. Dissolve the instant coffee in 1 tbsp of boiling water, cool and add the basic cake mix (see recipe for Classic Victoria sponge, right), instead of the milk.

2. For the filling, beat the mascarpone with the light muscovado sugar and Tia Maria until smooth. Sandwich the cooled cakes with a third of the filling and the chopped walnuts.

3. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the filling and decorate the top with the toasted walnut halves.

Nutrition per serving

642 kcalories, protein 7g, carbohydrate 50g, fat 46 g, saturated fat 26g, fibre 0.8g, salt 0.9 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, May 2005.

Save and share this recipe

Want to share this recipe with your family and friends? Click the button below to send them an email or save this to your favorite social network.

Pasta & mixed peppers with walnut & lemon pesto

A wheat-free main course, packed with peppers and nutty pesto.

Easy
Serves 3
Ready in 40 minutes
Vegetarian, Gluten-free

Ingredients

FOR THE WALNUT PESTO

25g walnut pieces
2 garlic cloves , crushed
zest of 1 large lemon
25g fresh parsley
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

FOR THE PASTA

2 small red onions , quartered and separated into pieces
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
250ml pack wheat-free pasta (we used Orgran rice and corn pasta)
250G jar mixed pepper antipasto, drained and sliced
50g vegetarian parmesan-style cheese , finely grated, plus extra shavings to serve

Method

1. Make the pesto. Put the walnuts, garlic and lemon zest in a food processor and whizz until finely chopped. Add the parsley, then drizzle the oil down the feed tube and whizz to combine everything together. Season to taste.

2. Preheat the grill to high. Tip the onions into a grill pan, sprinkle with 1 tbsp oil, then toss to coat. Arrange them in a single layer and grill for 6-8 minutes until lightly charred.

3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the pack instructions until just tender - it won't swell as much as wheat pasta, so taste a piece to check that it's just tender.

4. Drain the pasta in a colander. Tip the pesto, onions and peppers into the pasta pan and put back on the heat. Stir for a few moments, then add the pasta and then the cheese. Season and serve straight away, scattered with the cheese shavings.

Nutrition per serving

696 kcalories, protein 17g, carbohydrate 74g, fat 40 g, saturated fat 8g, fibre 5g, salt 2.7 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, February 2003.

Save and share this recipe

Want to share this recipe with your family and friends? Click the button below to send them an email or save this to your favorite social network.

Celeriac & walnut gratin

This dish makes a great vegetarian main meal - it can be prepared hours in advance, too

Ingredients

1 large celeriac
2 tbsp walnut oil
300ml vegetable stock
handful chopped walnuts
100g blue cheese, such as bleu d'Auvergne or Stilton

Preparation

Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Peel, quarter and very thinly slice the celeriac - this is best done with the slicing blade of a food processor. Toss in the walnut oil, salt and pepper, and spread over a gratin dish. Pour over the stock and bake for 40-45 mins, then sprinkle with the walnuts, crumble over the cheese, then cook for 15 mins until crisp and golden.

Making it different

Replace the celeriac with two peeled and sliced sweet potatoes and use a strong Swiss cheese.

Nutrition per serving

218 kcalories, protein 9g, carbohydrate 4g, fat 18 g, saturated fat 7g, fibre 7g, salt 1.15 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2005.

Save and share this recipe

Want to share this recipe with your family and friends? Click the button below to send them an email or save this to your favorite social network.

Walnut

Walnuts are one of the most popular and versatile of all nuts. When picked young, they're known as wet and their milky white kernels are mainly used for pickling. Far more common is the dried nut, either shelled or unshelled. The brown-skinned kernel has a ridged surface, which looks like two halves of the brain.

Slightly bitter in flavour, walnuts are good eaten raw or cooked, in either sweet or savoury dishes, and are particularly useful for baking.

Availibility

Shelled walnuts are available all year round. Unshelled walnuts tend to be available in our winter months, from December to February

Choose the best

If buying unshelled walnuts, look for those that are uncracked, with no holes. Shelled walnuts should be plump and crisp. Avoid any that look shivelled.

Prepare it

Walnuts in their shells can be opened using a nut cracker. To avoid damaging the nut inside, squeeze the shell gently until it cracks, then extract the nut - there are lots of different nut crackers available, so find one that's easy for you to use.

Walnuts can be eaten raw, as they are, or toast to bring out more of their flavour: place the nuts on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake on a medium heat for 10-12 minutes. They are ready when the kernels turn golden. You can achieve the same effect by dry frying them: put in a dry frying pan over a medium heat, and keep the pan moving to make sure they colour evenly and don't burn. Leave whole, halve or chop, as required.

Store it

Unshelled walnuts should be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark place - they'll last for around three months. Shelled walnuts should be kept in an airtight container in the fridge - they'll last for up to six months.

Cook it

Add to salads (particularly Waldorf salad, with apple, celery and raisins) or muesli; use for baking cakes, biscuits or pies. Eat as a snack.

Try

• Celeriac & walnut gratin
• Pasta & mixed peppers with walnut & lemon pesto
• Boozy coffee & walnut cake

Can't find it

Try pecan.

Source
BBC Good Food

Save and share this post

Want to share this post with your family and friends? Click the button below to send them an email or save this to your favorite social network.