Editor’s note — Most of this column was written by Tim Colliver, a Times-Gazette reporter. The last paragraph was written by Sharon Hughes.
It’s that time of the year for my favorite recipes, and this one is easy to make and just plain tastes good. The secret ingredient for this, for those of you who have followed my ramblings the last couple of years, isn’t lard, but black walnuts.
I love black walnuts and this time of the year my wife and I love to take our “walnut weasels” and scour the countryside in search of those annoying baseball sized green things that litter the yard and dull your lawnmower blades when you run over them. It’s become a fall tradition for wifey and me to fill up the bed of the old Ranger pick-em up truck and travel to Adams County to visit Marvin Keim and his handy-dandy walnut huller.
For Apple-Walnut cake, you’ll need:
2 cups white sugar
½ pound (two sticks) of real butter, softened to room temperature
3 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour (if using self-rising, omit the salt and baking soda)
1 ½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon (hey, I like a lot of cinnamon when it comes to apples)
⅛ to ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (be careful, this stuff can overpower a recipe)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped black walnuts
3 cups sliced ‘n diced apples (I prefer yellow delicious, but most any good cooking apple will do)
Now, to make this amazing concoction, you need to:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and either butter and flour one 10-inch bundt cake pan, or use cooking spray.
Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, adding in the vanilla and then set aside.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg, then add to the wet ingredients and mix well.
Stir in the walnuts and apples. Mix well and pour into the bundt cake pan. The batter may be a little stiff, but don’t worry.
Bake at 350 degrees for about one hour or until a table knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool. Slide knife along the outer edges and the inner tube to release the cake from the Bundt pan, turn upside down over a large dinner plate and let it plop out.
For a simple glaze, take a ½ cup of powdered sugar and mix with cold water until it has the consistency of being drizzled over your cake. A cream cheese or butter rum icing drizzled on would be great, too.
In the kitchen with Sharon this week is Tim Colliver, our very own news reporter. He’s also known as head baker. Seriously, Tim is a great baker. And yes, we ate all the apple walnut cake. A good time was had by all or should I say it was all eaten. Have a great weekend and enjoy this beautiful fall weather. If you have any recipes that you want to share, please send them and I will put your recipe in my weekly column. Send them to [email protected] or call me at 937-393-3456.
Sharon Hughes is the advertising manager at The Times-Gazette. She is also a mother, grandmother and chef.
