Nuts!

Walnuts are so common in France that they are just called Nuts (Noix).

Nuts (along with seeds) have been virtually been banned in this household since Sue became unable to digest them without suffering excruciating pain. This cuts out quite a chunk of the baking repertoire – His and Hers loaves would be a bit silly in a two person household.

At the back of my mind for some time had been the idea of pureeing nuts for bread. You wouldn’t get the crunch but you should get the flavour. And, like a lot of other ideas at the back of my head, that’s where it stayed.

But then along came a very interesting looking Italian All Saints Day bread, Pan Co’ Santi, from De Gustibus Itinera, that contained walnuts but was too tempting to pass over. So I pureed and sieved the nuts. Not only was the bread pretty fabulous but the nuts caused no side-effects (see my version here)

This brought to mind Dan Lepard’s Walnut Bread from his “The Handmade Loaf”. (Amazing to think it is 20 years since the book was published.)

In addition to walnut halves, Dan’s formula contains a paste of pureed walnuts, water, honey, browned butter, and a little salt, so the precedent had been set for me.

I omitted the walnut halves (and the unnecessary fresh yeast), and used my wheat starter in the absence of a rye levain.

My adapted formula:

My usual method – hand mixed, three short kneads.

Four hours bulk fermentation, shaped, proved another three and a half hours.

Baked in the Pico 250C top 220C bottom. 15 minutes steam. 50 minutes total bake.

Excellent flavour – next time I’ll decorate the crust with removable walnut halves.

And then? Move on to hazelnuts, pecans, almonds, pine nuts. Seeds! Nothing shall be safe from my blender …