I consider myself something of a connoisseur when it comes to making basic desserts — meaning brownies and cookies. We’re not talking five-layer tiered cakes here! I use healthier ingredients and much less sugar than is considered the norm– and they’re still chock full of gooey goodness. I’ve had only positive feedback on my baking endeavors and have learned many ways of tweaking traditional recipes with little substitutions that yield big in the less sugar, less-horrible-for-you category without sacrificing taste or yumminess.

Occasionally, as with today’s post, I’ll talk about a certain grouping of common ingredient and detail which varieties I’ve found works best. (or is cheapest– hey, I have my priorities down straight)   Today we’re covering nuts. Future posts will cover sugar/sweeteners, flours and other baking staples.

When it comes to nuts, I typically keep several varieties on hand: walnuts, pecans, almonds, cashews and Brazil nuts. At times I’ve also had macadamia nuts in the fridge. Why the fridge? Because we buy our baking ingredients in bulk and I want everything to last. I always store my nuts in the freezer or fridge. Good thing Mr. Lyons’ didn’t type that last sentence.

My favorite nuts in baked goods are, by far, WALNUTS and PECANS. I also make a delicious (& fart-inducing!) granola using those two plus almonds and sometimes cashews, which I’ll share at a later date. For now, let’s talk about some of the more obscure nuts and then we’ll come back to these.

Macadamia nuts, while they’re great in cookies, aren’t my favorite thing to bake with; they’re just too darn hard to chop and I don’t like encountering them whole when I bite into a chewy cookie. Just too much resistance. But they’re supposed to be really good for us — the right kind of fat — so I occasionally munch on them as a snack. The same goes for Brazil nuts… although, to be honest, I’m just not a big fan of the taste of these. So while I occasionally eat 2-3 for a healthy dose of the goodness they contain (they’re really high in selenium), I never bake with Brazil nuts either.

Almonds and cashews — definitely my favorite snacking nuts. Raw or dry roasted (we roast them ourselves because I don’t like the oils contained in the ones you can buy pre-roasted) are great ways to enjoy either of these. Sprinkled on salads or straight out of the jar. Other than granola, and one recipe I used to make a lot in the 90s where I sprinkled chopped cashews on top of the frosting over brownies, don’t think I’ve really cooked much with these.

Now for my favorite part — walnuts and pecans. We buy these (and almonds — sliced whenever possible, slivered is also yummy; whole if that’s the only way we can get them) usually from Sam’s Club in the 2 pound bags, two or three at a time. Store them in the freezer always. Not saying that’s what you have to do, simply sharing that’s how we do it. I pull them out whenever I’m ready for them — or to snack. If I dry roast a good amount, we’ll keep those in the pantry until they’re gone.

So what’s the main difference when it comes to using pecans or walnuts in recipes? If you’ve ever done a head to head comparison, assuming our taste buds are similar , notice the individual pecan has a slightly sweeter taste than an individual walnut. I use this as my deciding factor when determining which to use for what, although in all of my recipes I consider these 100% interchangeable. Sometimes, say…on a crust, if I want to use walnuts because I have more (depending on how expensive they are does determine what we sometimes have on hand because the price definitely changes throughout the year) I may sprinkle in a teaspoon or so of sugar to slightly sweeten it.

But when we’re talking inside brownies or cookies or cheesecake…I simply use whichever one strikes my fancy because I think they both taste great and I don’t think there’s a significantly appreciable difference between them when surrounded by flour, sugar and spices. When making things that call for a substantial amount of nuts, such as the aforementioned pie crust, I sometimes do a mixture of the two.

What about the BHT they preserve those walnuts with? Good question, given how I avoid chemicals like the plague. At times we purchase organic walnuts, but much like buying organic milk (which I prefer to do, but don’t always find cost efficient) I sometimes have to weigh the pocketbook with how I’m feeling vs. what the going price is on the grocery store shelf and make the right decision, which may change from time to time. [Glory be, I can be wordy. Now you guys know why my books take so long to come out...I take the time to eliminate unnecessary words on those!]

This is gone on twice as long as I expected — but I hope it’s been helpful for you!

Larissa, who is…Currently Reading: New Moon by Stephanie Meyer