Whether living with a year-round hunger for rich, dark cake studded with nuts and colorful candied fruit or perhaps driven by resentment and remorse over sub-par fruitcakes of Christmases past, this updated version of our fruitcake recipe is a winner. Our “Mrs. Marino’s” recipe gets an infusion of black walnuts from the Missouri Ozarks, the epicenter of North American black walnut production.
Black walnuts’ strong flavor has prominent vegetal overtones and a grassy sweetness that is in contrast to the woody, tannic taste of common walnuts (also known as English or California walnuts). They’re made of stronger stuff too, in terms of shell and husk, making nutmeat extraction downright difficult. Stomp-and-smash, as done here, is a common method for small batches. Larger quantities are often treated to the run-over-them-in-the-driveway-with-the-truck technique. Seriously.
The near-obliteration required to get at the meats results in fragments, not the elegant halves one might expect. Be extra careful to pick out any shell bits; chewing gravel might be less damaging.
We have SpecD reader Mrs. S. Kirkpatrick of Gravois Mills, MO to thank for this generous batch. And for her kind foresight in sending a pound of shelled nuts without which this recipe would have been impossible.
CLICK HERE FOR THE BLACK WALNUT FRUITCAKE RECIPE.
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Whether living with a year-round hunger for rich, dark cake studded with nuts and colorful candied fruit or perhaps driven by resentment and remorse over sub-par fruitcakes of Christmases past, this updated version of our fruitcake recipe is a winner. Our “Mrs. Marino’s” recipe gets an infusion of black walnuts from the Missouri Ozarks, the epicenter of North American black walnut production.
