Michelle Darmody: Baking with walnuts

I discovered a new refill shop near where I live. It is a great addition to the neighbourhood, you can bring jars or your own bags and purchase the amount of nuts, seeds, rice or toiletries that suits you. I filled a jar with a scoop of fresh and perky walnuts on my last visit and I have been using them in my baking and cooking ever since.

I am most often tempted to take the lazy option and pair walnuts with espresso to make a coffee and walnut cake. The two flavours work very well together even though they are both on the bitter end of the scale, when matched with sugar and dairy they mellow and blend. Do not get me wrong, a good coffee and walnut cake is delicious, but walnuts can be matched with other flavours just as graciously.