Every year, for as long as I can remember, my family stocks up on walnuts for the winter.
As soon as the new walnuts arrive, I make this first.
Walnut cookies. Simple, not too sweet, and crunchy, just the way I like them.
Family traditions
As punctual as the first autumn fog that blankets the Po Valley, my mom’s phone call comes.
She carries on a tradition that used to belong to my grandmother.
My maternal grandmother was born and raised in the Romagna countryside. When she was young, there were no supermarkets. And there weren’t yet the large refrigerators we have today, filled with fresh and frozen food.
The pantry was different.
In the cellar, people stored foods that needed to rest in a cool, dark place, such as cotechini, salami, potatoes, apples, walnuts, eggs (placed in lime water to last through the long winter months when the hens weren’t laying), and demijohns of wine. But there were also jars of jams, fruit in syrup, mixed pickles, and homemade liqueurs.
In the pantry inside the kitchen, there was bread, flour, and sugar, along with everyday ingredients. Finally, just outside the kitchen door, Nonna, like all the housewives /azdore of yesteryear, would gather wild herbs, vegetables from the garden, fruit from the trees, and milk from the barn, some of which was processed to make butter and cheese.
When my maternal Grandma came to live with us, she brought her habits and knowledge. Our cellar, as well as the vegetable garden behind the house and the kitchen shelves, told the story of her farming roots.
And although times have changed, and with them, our way of life, even though we buy fewer fresh walnuts now than we used to, my mom keeps this tradition alive out of habit, of course, because we all love walnuts in our family, and, ultimately, to honor Grandma, who was our Azdora.
She was my family’s loving matriarch. Of the clan of aunts, uncles, close and distant relatives, and old and new friends who crowded into her kitchen to consult her like an oracle while, on the surface, they rolled out pasta dough and cooked up delicious dishes.
Walnut Cookies of Nonna Sara
A few kilograms of the fresh walnuts Mom buys are for me. Not a huge amount, but enough to last twelve months. I store the walnuts in a woven wicker basket that I keep in the kitchen, within easy reach of the nutcracker.
That basket reminds me of one of the people dearest to my heart, my family’s roots, and it also says something about the woman I’ve become. But I’ll tell you about that another time.
Today, right here and now, I’d like to share Grandma Sara’s recipe for walnut cookies: crunchy, buttery, and absolutely delicious. She used to add a few tablespoons of nocino to bring out the walnuts’ aroma. Still, you can omit the liqueur or substitute it (you’ll find all the details in the recipe).
Also, Grandma would chop the walnuts very finely. For a more rustic look, you can chop a small portion by hand, more coarsely, and add them to the dough once the other ingredients are already well combined.
I mainly use walnuts to make desserts and cookies.
Recently, I also made a savory carrot and walnut pie that I really enjoyed.
Finally, I often grind them finely to make a flavorful flour for other recipes.
Walnut Cookies with Nocino
It is a dark, digestive liqueur made from walnuts, prepared using unripe walnut husks harvested around St. John’s Day.
Every family has its own recipe.
Some make a version that’s almost like chinato, while others add a secret aromatic ingredient. I’ve seen nocino recipes with so many ingredients that they look like ancient elixirs.
My family’s version is rich in aromas and flavors, and I often open the bottle to breathe in its aroma (you can find the recipe HERE).
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Walnut cookies
Equipment
- 1 cookie cutter, 4–5 cm in diameter
- 1 Rolling Pin
Ingredients
- 280 g of whole wheat flour or Type 0 flour, or you can use half spelt flour and half one of the flours listed here
- 150 g of finely chopped walnut kernels or set aside 50 g of walnuts and chop them coarsely with a knife
- 100 g of brown sugar
- 1 g of fine salt
- 1 egg, about 65 g
- 2 tablespoons of nocino liqueur or another liqueur. Or 30 g maple syrup
- 160 g of cold butter, straight from the refrigerator, cut into small pieces
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine and mix all the dry ingredients.
- Then add the egg (cracked into the bowl), the liqueur, and the butter.
- Start kneading in the bowl, then transfer the dough to a clean work surface. Continue kneading until the ingredients are well combined. If you’ve set them aside, add the walnuts (chopped with a knife) and mix them in.
- Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Toward the end of the resting time, preheat the oven to 180C /350F degrees (conventional).
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator, cut it in half, and roll it out with a rolling pin or shape it into cylinders. The cookies should be 1 cm thick.
- Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 12–15 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.
- Let them cool on a wire rack to harden, then store them in a metal tin for several days.
Tip
- I remember a guest from Tuscany at my B&B many years ago who ate these cookies with prosciutto and aged cheese. In fact, they also go well on a savory platter with grapes, figs, prosciutto, and cheese.
