Walnuts at heart of cookie recipe

It's all about the walnuts.

Whether it's cookies or salad or a planned cookbook, Debbe Nelson of Rio Oso plans a lot of her life around the healthful, and family-grown, nut.

On this day, it was ECNBoys Walnut Cookies.

"When I first thought of this recipe, it was during Christmas. I thought it sounded good, so I made it. There was something wrong with it, but I couldn't decide what, so I tweaked it," Debbe said.

"What I wanted was a cookie with a lot of walnuts, since we raise walnuts. So I decided that I'd use walnuts as the flour. There's no regular flour in these at all; it's just the walnuts that you put in the food processor so that it becomes a fine dust, just like flour."

The cookies – named after her husband and sons – are a healthy treat. Debbe explained that walnuts have been shown to be good for you, and they're also on the government's food pyramid. She also said that by exchanging half the regular sugar for one of the sugar substitutes, such as Splenda, it almost cuts the calories and carbs in half. "And if you use just the Splenda, you cut the calories down even more."

While Debbe encourages people to use Nelson-brand walnuts, she said the particular type of walnut used is up to the cook. She said she prefers Howards, but Blacks are good as well, as are Chandlers with their pale white meat.

Recipe-tweaking is something Debbe loves to do. For example, she uses a little brandy in her cookies, but she's also used tequila or even different liqueurs.

The same goes for the cinnamon and the cooking time. Debbe, who uses less than a teaspoon of cinnamon in her recipe, encourages people to use more or less of the spice depending on what they like. She added that if you like the cookies a little crispier, bake them a little longer, or if you like them a little chewier, cut the baking time a little.

However, with the chocolate she's more demanding. Debbe made it clear that the cookies taste best when made with 60 to 70 percent semi-sweet chocolate.

One of the things she especially likes about ECNBoys Walnut Cookies is how light they are. She attributes that to the eight egg whites.

"I think what makes the cookies a little different is they have egg whites in them, so it's like a meringue. This makes them quite airy, and they puff up when they're in the oven," Debbe said.

But this isn't a recipe that's quick to make, she explained.

"It takes time to grind the nuts in the food processor, because you can only put in a cup at each interval," she said. "And, of course, the chocolate needs to be pulverized, and the egg whites have to be fluffed up. Then it's another 20 minutes in the oven.

"It's well worth the time, but it's not something you can make right away. But one good thing is you can make the dough ahead of time and put it in your refrigerator," she said.

Debbe said her interest in walnuts has led her to collect recipes that use the tasty nut. When she has collected a sufficient number of recipes, she plans to publish a cookbook.

The Rio Oso resident passed on a few tips to make preparation easier:

• Don't get in a hurry; these are a "low slow"-type cookies (i.e., low temperature, slow cooking).

• Put about half the sugar into the egg whites, and then add the rest to the cookie dough.

• After baking, the cookies are really soft. Wait for them to cool. If you pick them up too soon, they'll fall apart.

• Use a big bowl because it's easier to mix the ingredients.

• Using a mixer's bread apparatus makes it easier to combine the ingredients.

• Cookies seem to lift off a little better from parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

• "You could do all this by hand, but it's a little too much work."

While she's happy with the present recipe, Debbe said she's had one problem with the ECNBoys Walnut Cookies: "They don't stay very long."

• ECNBoys Walnut Cookies

Yield: Makes about two dozen

5 cups Nelson brand walnuts

7 ounces 60 to 70 percent semisweet chocolate

4 cups sugar (or equivalent sugar substitute)

1⁄4 cup brandy

1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 egg whites

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a food processor, grind nuts until very fine, like flour. Add chocolate chunks to ground nuts and process again until mixture reaches a floury consistency.

Transfer nut-chocolate mixture to large mixing bowl; stir in sugar, brandy, vanilla and cinnamon.

In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff; add to mixture in large bowl. Stir well until mixture forms dough.

Place about 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for 20 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool five minutes on baking sheet; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

• • •

Debbe clearly enjoys her time in the kitchen. After baking two dozen cookies the night before and another couple dozen more during the interview, she threw together a tasty green salad with her own special honeyed walnuts, blueberries and feta cheese.

While tossing the salad, she talked about how she makes the walnuts even tastier. "I've found that you can take the bitterness out of walnuts by putting them into boiling water, then when it gets back to a boil, take them out, strain them, put them on a cooking sheet and into the oven to dry them out."

Debbe also shared her recipe for honey walnuts.

In a frying pan, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil, nuts and about 2 teaspoons of Spice Island's rosemary garlic blend. Sauté the walnuts until they're almost brown — you must watch them. Then, just before they're ready, Debbe adds a little bit of honey for sweetness and a teaspoon of cayenne for kick.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Hollis at 741-2400 or jhollis@appeal-democrat.com