Eating Healthier in Today's World

Adding Nuts to Breads

Whether your style is Old-Fashioned or Health Food, Gourmet, or Homegrown, nuts probably rate pretty high on the list of goodies for making meals and treats more appealing.  They contain suibstantial amounts of unsaturated fat, and so become rancid before long, if they are exposed to air or warmth.  Keep nuts in the shell in a cool place, protected from damp, without shells, they need to be in the refrigerator, airtight: chopped--use them as soon as you can.  Freezing is the most efficient, though it does destroy their natural vitamin E.

Pecans:  In bread, so it seems to me, pecans rate the very highest marks for their unmistakable sweet sparkle,  They keep their individuality, don't become soggy, flavour the whole loaf, don't weigh it down, and are universally appreciated.  But who these days can afford them.  Mind you we get them here in bulk with our annual grain orders, which keeps the price down somewhat.  If you can afford them, just add 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped pecans to any plain or raisiny loaf.  Terrific!

Walnuts:  Walnuts are a pretty good second, but since rather than sweet they are pleasantly bitter, they require extra sweetener to balance their flavour.  (An unsweetened walnut loaf is vehemently nonsweet, but good in it's own way.)  The bitterness of walnuts can be reduced if the nuts are toasted slightly and cooled before using.  Toasting helps prevent them from getting soft in yeasted doughs as the raw ones will, when they are there from beginning to end;  but toasted or not they to tend to colour the dough a sort of lavender-gray, unless you add them just before shaping.  Walnuts provide a natural flavour balance to sweet fruits, particularly raisins, and they are outstanding with oatmeal. 

Almonds:  We have tried some tiny organic whole almonds that had three times the flavour of larger almonds from the store, and when toasted, made a terrifically flavourful addition to the bread.  Normal almonds, even if  they are toasted--and it helps--don't always have enough oomph to make much of a show in a loaf of bread.  If you think your almonds are pretty blah and don't consider it cheating, you can spike them with a teaspoon of almond extract--(but you can spike soy grits with almond extract and get nearly the same effect, with some other advantages)

Cashews, Brazils & Filberts:  Cashews are even subtler than almonds in yeasted breads, but not Brazil nuts.  If you add a half-cup of chopped brazils to any loaf, the flavour is unmistakable, and the nuts keep their crunch to the last--it is a crispy crunsh, almost like raw celery than a nut, but the flavour is there, singing out.  Filberts too keep their splendid pungent sweetness, and give a lot of flavour as well.  They are a fine choice to use along with fruits for really fancy fare.  Toast them lightly.

Peanuts:  If we can dignify peanuts by considering them in the nut catagory (they are of course really beans--nothing wrong with beans, mind you), we find them pretty awful in breads, quite rubbery even when toasted and added at the last, before shaping the loaf.  A very peanutty flavoured loaf can be achieved, however, by including 1/4 cup or more of peanut butter in the dough, and the bread's texture will be very good (that is a lot of fat).  Put the chopped peanuts on the crust. 

Pine Nuts:  Last, should you come into an independent fortune--or have your own piñon trees and lots of time---pine nuts are wonderful.  Try the pine nut pinewheels in "Laurel's Kitchen" cookbook. 

Try out this great Applesauce and Walnut bread on our website.

Next post we will look at adding different types of seeds to make your breads interesting and festive.