I have memories of people constructing all manner of device in their garage or shed for cracking black walnuts.(Which kind of makes me sound 80 years old..."Back when I was a youngster...") An ice cream pail full of the shelled nuts was coveted because it took so much damn time to get that pail full. For this reason, black walnuts always seemed a bit mysterious, rare, and exciting to me. Until I tried one. Really? This is what all the fuss is about? Hmmmmm....
It had been many years since I'd tasted one, until my brother gifted me with a bag full-all nicely shelled and chopped. I am assuming that he had pie in mind when he gave them to me, as he likes to encourage the expansion of my pie repertoire. Indeed, it seemed that baking them up with a bunch of sugary goodness and spice and pie crust would certainly be the way to go.
Shortly after lunch, as the pie was cooling, hubby mentioned how excited he was to have pie and coffee that afternoon. I smirked and told him not to get too excited. You see, I had already snuck a sample bite, and judged it to be "just okay". When you try a lot of pie recipes, a few are bound to be "just okay", and I really thought this one would need some tweaking. Never one to turn down a slice of pie, hubby decided to judge for himself. And you know what? He quite liked it. Intrigued, I deemed it necessary to further the taste test. Three out of four neighbors gave it a big thumbs up! The fourth voted yes for the filling, but like me, did not particularly care for the taste of the black walnuts.
So, there you go.
This pie is a winner.
And I might be just a little nuts for thinking otherwise...
Black Walnut Pie
recipe by me
single 9" pie crust
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 T butter, melted
3 eggs
2 T light rum
1/2 t cointreau
1 medium orange
1 T flour
-prepare pie crust and fit in glass pie pan
-zest and juice the orange
-combine corn syrup, brown sugar, and eggs in large bowl
-beat until well combined-about 2-3 minutes
-add melted butter, rum, cointreau, orange zest and juice
-mix until well combined
-pour into prepared pie shell
-bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes
-lower oven temperature to 350 degrees
-bake an additional 30 minutes
Christine,
ReplyDeleteI love your take on Black Walnuts!
Here's my BW story...Gramma C had a
coveted tree on the Blvd. As kids,
we would race out to gather them as they
were "coveted" and then take them to the basement to crack them open with an assortment of the afore mentioned inventions.
I don't believe we ever saw them in any sort of baked good and Gramma C was the best baker around...do you think she was the neighborhood
nut junkie??? I think we must have been pawns in her scheme!
Years later, my Mom's sister came to visit and found BW's in the grocery-bought every bag and proceeded to make the most gawd awful cookies. I think they might still be in the freezer 35 years later.
I agree, I DO NOT see the value in them!! :)
Christine it looks divine!! I have never had black walnuts before, but this pie looks so good!! Yay, for it being a winner!! Hope you have a lovely weekend!! xo Heather
ReplyDeleteMy dad's best friend on Charles Avenue used to make the most wonderful refrigerator cookies with black walnuts...just slice and bake. They were so good! He used to crack them open in his screen porch and I remember one year the neighborhood squirrels broke in and stole them all! (the nuts, not the cookies)
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