Baking with Nuts
In my grandmother’s recipe notebook, there are a surprisingly large number of cake recipes made exclusively with different kinds of nuts. No flour or breadcrumbs added. I was surprised to learn that baking gluten-free was already so popular in the early 20th century. I wonder how this abundance of nut cakes was related to health consciousness or just the availability of nut flour versus wheat flour. Most recipes use almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts. Mashed chestnuts seem to be also very popular cake ingredient in Austria and Hungary. Some recipes mix more than one nut type into the batter like in the Two Nuts Cake.
Nuts have many dietary benefits. A wealth of data from health research, diet studies and clinical trials suggest that nuts are highly nutritious and contain important vitamins, protein, unsaturated fats, fibers and minerals, while low in carbohydrates.
Different types of nuts have slight differences in their vitamin and mineral content. For example, among the vitamins and minerals, raw chestnuts contain vitamins B1, B2, B6, vitamin C, vitamin E, potassium, magnesium, iron, copper, and phosphorus.
Most of the recipes specifically instruct to lightly roast the nuts before grinding them - almonds and hazelnuts most of the time, but roasting walnuts is never recommended in my grandmother’s recipe notebook. I became curious about this and found research on the subject that indicates that roasting nuts at high temperature create a chemical change that affects their composition and health benefits while improving their taste and texture. The recommendation is to roast nuts at a medium temperature of 250°F - 265°F (120°C – 160°C).
A food processor is excellent for grinding nuts. Make sure the nuts are completely cold before grinding. How fine to grind/grate or crush the nuts and how to mix them into the batter varies according to the recipe. Some recipes ask for almonds with the skin or blanched or clean hazelnuts from most of their skin. My expert friend, Leora, insists that roasting and grinding the nuts yourself, as opposed to a store-bought nuts meal, has a big impact on the quality of the resulting cake. Also, you have control over how fine the ground nuts are – just crushed, only ground or finely ground.
Nuts are also used extensively for texture and decoration – slivered or sliced almonds, candied chestnuts, whole or crumbled hazelnuts or walnuts.