Dried fruit and nuts

pennysweet

Hi

I have a huge jar of dried fruit and mixed nuts leftover from Christmas and very little imagination!
Does anyone have any recipes or ideas that they could share with me to help use this lot up?:)
(I have never cooked using nuts before and am unsure about how to include them in baking).
Many thanks.

LameWolf

Are the nuts easily separated out? As a vegetarian, I often make nut loaf, which I slice into eight pieces and freeze for use in future dinners, in place of the meat element.

Basically:
One onion, diced and fried in a little butter, in a LARGE saucepan
Remove from heat.
Add a couple of dessertspoons of plain flour and enough milk to mix into a fairly sticky paste - don't be put off, it doesn't look appetising at this stage.
Leave this to cool.

Meanwhile, blitz 13 oz of nuts in the food processor - any nuts will do, I use a mix of brazils, cashews, almonds, walnuts, or hazelnuts - whatever's in my cupboard at the time.
Put these in a bowl.
Add 7 oz wholemeal breadcrumbs - I just blitz a few slices of bread in the food processor.
Add a handful of mixed herbs.
Add 2 to 4 oz of grated cheese.
Keep this bowl of dry ingredients to one side.

Return to your saucepan.
Add two large eggs to your now cool mixture.
Now mix in the contents of your dry ingredients bowl, mixing it all thoroughly (now you see why a LARGE saucepan was needed!)

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
Turn the nut loaf mixture into this, and press it down firmly; make sure the top is as even as you can make it.

Bake at 180 C for 40 minutes.
Leave it to cool in the tin, then turn it out onto a plate or board.

It freezes beautifully - as I say, I slice it up first, and I separate the slices with a little greaseproof paper for ease of use, and it can be heated through in the microwave for use.

It goes well either with rice and sweet'n'sour sauce, or with roast root veggies and Marmite gravy.

HTH:o

pennysweet

Hi LameWolf,
The nut loaf sounds lovely, I think I can seperate the larger nuts out without to much fuss so I will have a go at your recipe. Thank you

silly_moo

You could make a home-made muesli with nuts and dried fruit. It's what I have for breakfast every day.

pennysweet

Hi silly moo, what a great idea (told you I had no imagination:()...Many thanks.

kittycat204

You could use them in a tagine or curry as well. Don't discount savoury options.

Georgia_Pa

I would use them for muffins or a cake, make a lovely nutella frosting and eat it all up
If you are into nutrition there are also many protein cakes with nutes and fruits, not sure about the sugar content tho..

Meadows

pennysweet wrote: »

I have a huge jar of dried fruit and mixed nuts leftover from Christmas and very little imagination!
Does anyone have any recipes or ideas that they could share with me to help use this lot up?:)
(I have never cooked using nuts before and am unsure about how to include them in baking).
Many thanks.

Fruit loaf,
Panforte,
Cake,
Muffins,
Nibbles,
Muesli,
Honey Roasted Nuts
Fruit & Nut Flapjacks,
Chocolate coated fruits & Nuts,
Melt several bars of cheap chocolate, ad the fruit and nuts, chill as a big block in a lined tin, turn out & break or cut into squares,
Fruit & or Nut Stuffing,
Fruit & or Nut Biscuits
Nut Loaf,
etc. etc. etc

pennysweet

Thank you so much for your great ideas.:)
For the cakes, muffins etc should I blitz the nuts finer or will they cook in the mix OK as they are?
I had never heard of Panforte before, I just googled it and it sounds lovely. It seems simple to make so I'm definately going to have a go at that.

Meadows

pennysweet wrote: »

Thank you so much for your great ideas. For the cakes, muffins etc should I blitz the nuts finer or will they cook in the mix OK as they are?
I had never heard of Panforte before, I just googled it and it sounds lovely. It seems simple to make so I'm definately going to have a go at that.

In cakes etc. you can do them as whole, half or chopped depending on how coarse you want them.

Just made two of theses today but kept the nuts whole and added Candied Peel as well - Yummy

Panforte

Try this traditional Italian Christmas cake containingfruit, nuts and spices - it makes a quick, easy and elegant gift. Makes 1 large gift, or several smaller ones

100g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

120g blanched almonds, roughly chopped

120g pistachios, roughly chopped

75g dried figs, roughly chopped

120g dried dates, roughly chopped

70g plain flour

1 tsp cinnamon

Large pinch ground cloves

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ground allspice

½ tsp ground coriander

Pinch of salt

150g light soft brown sugar

100g honey

30g butter

Icing sugar, to dredge

Preheat the oven to 150°C/gas mark 2. Grease a 20cmsquare tin and line the bottom with non-stick baking parchment.

Heat a frying pan until hot then toast the nuts, tossingregularly until golden.

Tip into a large bowl with the fruit, flour, spices andsalt and mix well.

Melt the sugar, honey and butter in a saucepan and boilgently until the mixture reaches 120°C (see tip). This should take about 3-5minutes.

Pour the sugar mixture onto the dry ingredients and workingquickly, mix well. Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and press downevenly.

Bake for 35 minutes then allow to cool in the tin. Turnthe cake out and dredge generously with icing sugar. Cut into small squares andwrap as one gift, or divide into several smaller gifts and pack into small giftbags or boxes.

Tip: The temperature can be measured using a sugar thermometer, or by droppinga little mixture into cold water. If it forms a soft ball, remove from the heat& proceed with step 4.

pennysweet

Hi Meadows.
Thank you for the recipe, the picture looks scrummy, will definately try this. I think my sons (14 & 16) might like these too.