Walnut Scones

This is a recipe for simple walnut scones.  The dough can be very quickly assembled, and is not too sweet, but rather rich.  The scones kind of look like biscuits, but I'd like to think that their taste and smell make up for that discrepancy.  If you wish to make them look more dessert-like, you could sprinkle the dough with large-grain sugar, like turbinado, or cover in an icing (such as a glaze made from a few spoons of milk and half a cup of confectioner's sugar, with some lemon zest).
These can be served warm or cold, and the given proportions yield about 16 medium sized pieces.

Ingredients:
♕2 cups / 290g white flour
♕4T / 50g white sugar
♕0.5 t / 3g baking soda
♕0.5T / 5g baking powder
♕Dash salt
♕6T / 85g cold butter, cubed
♕1.25 cups + 1T / 250mL cream
♕0.5T / 5mL vanilla extract
♕0.5 cup / 60g walnuts, crushed into pieces 1cm or smaller

Procedure
♕Preheat oven to 425˚F / 220˚C.
♕In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and combine well.
♕Add in butter cubes, and mix well either with a large wooden spoon or with very clean hands.
♕Gradually stir in cream and vanilla extract.  Stop mixing once dough becomes evenly moist.
♕Stir in walnut pieces.
♕Drop scones in circles on a parchment-covered baking sheet, or cut into triangle shapes.  Make scones approximately the size of a deck of cards.
♕Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the process if you have poor convection.
note: you will probably have two batches of scones.

Tahini Eggplant

This is not a very sweet recipe, but I enjoy it very much for how satiating it is, and its ability to be eaten hot or cold and still taste alright.  The proportions here will yield two to three large servings.  Sometimes, I top this with balsamic vinegar, or sunflower seeds.

Ingredients

♕1 large eggplant
♕At least 0.5 lb / 0.25 kg spinach
♕6 T / 180g tahini
♕1/4 cup / 20g raisins
♕1/2 cup / 50g walnuts
♕Grapeseed oil, for cooking

Procedure

♕Heat up a frying pan to medium heat, with oil
♕Dice the eggplant into 1' by 1' / 2cm by 2cm cubes.
♕Cook eggplant until browned and mostly translucent, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
♕Reduce heat to medium-low and stir in the spinach.
♕When the leaves are almost entirely wilted, take the frying pan off of the heat and stir in walnuts and raisins.
♕Stir in the tahini.
♕Serve.  

Orange and Walnut Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread cookies are rather simple to make.  This recipe has a subtle nutty aroma, and the sort of orange you select for zesting strongly influences the final result's smell.  If you have no turbinado sugar, you can easily substitute white sugar, but I also recommend adding a couple pinches of shaved dark chocolate to the batter.

Ingredients:

♕1/2 cup / 120g butter, unsalted, at room temperature.
♕190g / 1.5 cup white flour
♕1/4 cup / 55g turbinado sugar
♕10 walnut halves, ground
note: you want the largest pieces no larger than 3mm
♕zest of one small, aromatic orange
♕1 t / 3mL vanilla extract
♕Approximately 30 walnut halves
note: or more, depending on how thin and small you cut your cookies

Procedure:

♕Combine butter, zest, and sugar.
♕Mix in chopped walnuts flour, and vanilla and combine until dough is homogeneous.
♕Roll the dough into a tubelike shape and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
♕Preheat oven to 375˚F / 190˚C.
♕Cut the dough into thin cookie slices.
♕Top each cookie with a walnut half.
♕Bake for 20 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway if you have poor convection.
♕Allow to cool, and serve.

Dark Chocolate Strawberry Truffles

These truffles were surprisingly successful.  They have an interesting fruity aroma that can be attributed to the walnuts and strawberries working in tandem.  They are completely raw, vegan, and have about 20 minutes of hands-on time.

Ingredients:

♕ 1 cup/150g walnuts
♕ 4 strawberries
♕ 5T/45g cacao powder note: I used cacao powder without any sugar, but with vanillin added.  If you do want to add a vanilla aroma to your truffles, either use vanilla enriched cacao powder (if you have it), or add powdered vanillin.  the recipe will be too wet to accept liquid vanilla extract.
♕ 2t/6g molasses
♕ 2 T/20g agave
♕ 3T/45mL coconut oil

♕ pinch salt
♕ splash strong, unsweetened coffee
♕ 1 cup/100g cacao nibs or unsweetened coconut flakes note: with the cacao nibs these truffles become less sweet than if you just ate the batter.  If you are fond of a higher sweet:bitter ratio in chocolate treats, you can either add more sweetener or roll the truffles in both cane sugar and cacao nibs.



Procedure:

♕ Soak the walnuts overnight.
♕ In a food processor, combine all ingredients save for the cacao nibs or coconut flakes.  Process into a smooth paste.
♕ Scoop out teaspoon-sized balls of your paste and roll in the cacao nibs or coconut flakes.
♕ Refrigerate for at least two hours, or freeze for at least 10 minutes.
♕ Serve with coffee.