Nut-Free Black Walnut Brownies

I know someone who tries to avoid eating nuts because of digestive issues.  While any brownie recipe can be made with or without nuts, brownies without black walnuts are a disappointment.  However, I have found what seems to be a reasonable workaround.

I saw some black walnut oil at Wal-Mart on a shopping trip last spring and decided to get it to see how it tasted.  The label hinted at flavor--some oils are very subtle, with olive oil being the most obvious exception.  It was also fairly pricey.

I put them into this recipe, adapted from tasteofhome.com:

2 1/2 sticks of butter (1 1/4 c), softened but not melted [note this is slightly reduced]

2 2/3 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups white flour

1 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

...and I normally add a cup of nuts.  I substituted 3/4 cup black walnut oil and 1 stick of butter for the fat instead of all butter.  And, since I'm an inveterate whole grain lover, I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of white flour.  I used dark chocolate cocoa powder and Whey Low as the sweetener. The result needs baking longer than the 30 minutes advertised on the site--especially since, I have recently learned, my oven runs about 10 degrees cool (I suppose I should just up the temperature I bake everything at, but I've grown accustomed to it).

The result (apologies for the bad picture below) was more cakey than fudgy, but there was a noticeable black walnut flavor.  Overall, it worked well.

Cornmeal Brownies

First, an apology:  the fonts on this may be messed up on your screen.  For whatever reason, I can't get them to save in anything other than micro type.  I tried a few things, but haven't found a fix.

Cornmeal brownies?  Seriously, yes.  Although the concept may sound a little gross, they are actually pretty good.  I found the recipe one day at Grit magazine's site. I adapted it a bit to make it a more conventional brownie recipe (black walnuts are okay for brownies; peanuts are not so much).  I ended up with this:

1/2 c cocoa powder (I used dark)
1 stick of butter
1/2 c flour (I used white flour)
1/2 c cornmeal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c nuts (black walnut, but almost any other nut would be fine--and 1 c will also work with the same baking time as described below)

I mixed it all up and found that I had to bake it longer than the recipe suggested: I left it in for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.


This shows a cutaway view of the first pan (I have now made two)--the flavor is nice.  There's definitely a texture of granularity because of the coarseness of the cornmeal, but what I tried tasted basically like brownies.  Of course, the black walnuts may impact that, too, since they are fairly strongly-flavored.  In the second batch, I used 1 cup of nuts and it worked well.


One other note is that I tried a new cooking fat to grease the dish beforehand: tallow.  I'd read about it and wanted to try some, so hunted down a jar online.  It's definitely pricier than the partially-hydrogenated lard I have been using.

When I opened the jar, I was greeted by a faint, unmistakable, and not necessarily welcome beefy aroma.  It had a slight flavor to it, too.  Crisco and processed lard are very neutral.  I may have more to say about tallow in the future.  It worked and it is no longer perceptible in the finished product.


Overall, this recipe has definite potential.