LONELY, UNDERAPPRECIATED BLACK WALNUTS!

 I have been watching cooks on the tv cooking shows make holiday cookie recipes when I see a Biscotti recipe being made with the advice that any nuts can be used.  I notice, once again, no mention of one of the best nuts for flavoring crunchy cookies, Black Walnuts.  Maybe it is because they don't grow locally in some parts of the country.  They grow along creeks and in towns all over this area of Kansas and other parts of the South and Midwest.  A sweet girl of Swedish background that I went to school with once brought us a plate of Swedish Rusks made with black walnuts.   Yum, yum, yum!  I have fondly remembered those light, crunchy cookies all my life and looked everywhere for a recipe.  The closest recipe I had found, until recently, was a hazelnut biscotti cookie recipe in which I substituted black walnuts.  They were good but not as light and crunchy as the Swedish Rusks.  A lady in Lindsborg, Kansas, (Little Sweden, USA) gave me a recipe for Swedish Rusks that I haven't tried yet, so, I hope it will be more like the ones my friend made.  When I made the black walnut biscotti and took it to work, a co-worker told me they were the wierdest-looking cookies but she couldn't stop eating them.  She asked for the recipe every time I saw her.



This is a recipe that I haven't tried that sounds authentic.  But, it calls for almonds and cardamon seeds. Might skip cardamon and substitute black walnuts for the almonds. I think the Swedish settlers in Kansas used black walnuts because they were readily available and honestly they have so much delicious flavor, anything else is just too blah and boring by comparison.

Swedish Rusks

From the Recipe Book: Var Så God Heritage and Favorite Recipes; Handbook of Swedish Traditions

2 C sugar 1 C butter 2 eggs 3 1/2 C flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 C cream 20 cardamom seeds, crushed 1 C chopped almonds

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Put into a 9 x 13 pan which has been greased and lined with wax paper. Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes until lightly browned. Turn pan upside down onto foil lined cookie sheet. Cool and cut in thin slices - divide pan into fourths and then cut each strip into slices about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick. Toast in 250 degree F oven about 3 hours. Watch carefully. Store in tightly covered container. Keep a long time if they last that long!

I also used to make a recipe called "Shirley's Speedy Oatmeal Cookies."  I found it in my grandma's recipe collection so assumed it was my Aunt Shirley's recipe.  Back in the70's, I fancied myself a hippie and back-to-nature kind of girl, so I was always substituting brown sugar for white and whole wheat flour for white flour.  I did this with Shirley's Speedy Oatmeal Cookies and used black walnuts with them and it made a delicious, crunchy, black walnut-flavored oatmeal cookie that, again, has stayed in my memory all these years.  It was just addictive.

Another great taste combination using black walnuts is using them in a white butter cream frosting on a chocolate cake.  My grandmother, Stella Irene, who was a cook most of her life in a large bus depot restaurant called the Casa Bonita,  always made our birthday cakes like that.  My mother believes that she also put a little black walnut flavoring in the frosting, but I don't think so.  Either way, it is a delicious, one-of-a-kind combination.  It makes chocolate cake a completely different treat.  I am sure all the great home cooks out there could think of more great ways to use black walnuts.  I collect recipe books and the best recipes for anything that I can find, and have always wondered why there are almost no recipes around calling for delicious black walnuts.  They are a little different for eating straight, but, still good, but when added to baked foods, they are amazing.

I will add the recipes as soon as I dig them out of the various recipe boxes I have!