The First Attempt: Nuts and a Loaf Pan

The image above gives a good indication of the types of recipes I am working with. These are most certainly not taken from the Internet or the pages of Gourmet or Food & Wine, they were passed down or copied from friends. Most all of them on recipe or index cards, many typed on an actual typewriter (I can still see my Mom setting up her electric typewriter - she was a hold out for sure and put good use to the old school typewriter for many years after the appearance of a Commodore 64 in our house - the Commodore 64 and my Dad story would take up another whole blog for sure). So I am excited to start with the first recipe and love that it is a good example of the media I am working with and the way my Mom recorded her recipes. Practical, modest and brief - a list of ingredients with the most minimal directions you will likely ever see on a recipe. These are not for the novice cook. This is part of the reason I am doing this - to record these recipes and make them useful for the Widgen-Barnes clan and future cooks in our family.

So NUT LOAF - I remember this from early childhood - the smell of nuts starting to warm in the oven and the browned edges of the loaf stick with me. Although I am pretty sure I may have only had a small bite or two - perhaps my Mom made these to give away or perhaps, she had to hide them as my Dad would certainly have considered the nuts WAY too high fat for consumption in our household. Nonetheless, it feels familiar and I was excited to taste that nuttiness again. (note - this smell is also quite familiar as a Xmas memory as Nut Balls were a holiday staple of my Mom's, those will indeed appear in the future on this blog).

Okay, I just cant' seem to get to the point but here goes. I took a look at this recipe and although I want to stick as close to the original recipe in the first try and then adjust based on taste or uh-um health, I had to say it), I decided to adjust the sugar right from the beginning as it just felt like too much (and I'm attempting to cut back on sugar and salt in 2010 - Mom would understand). Instead of the 1 1/2 cups, I used 1 1/4 - just a minor adjustment that honestly didn't seem to be an issue in the end. It was still quite sweet and tasty.

The first issue I ran into was size of pan (back to the "brief" directions) - one assumes a loaf pan but what size? So I just went with the one I have (9 x 5 which is a tad large but worked out just fine - slightly smaller would work well).

The next question - how do I prepare the pans? I went with butter and flour to ensure it didn't stick but also was able to rise. I moved through the recipe very quickly - not much to it, the hardest part is chopping the nuts - I used pecans and walnuts to mix it up as the recipe just says nuts.

This was so easy, I want to make it all the time. Two bowls, no waiting (just a little to soften the butter), slap it together in the KitchenAid and voila it is in the pan and ready to back. Cooking time was right on - 1 hour and it looked perfect.

I could hardly wait to dig in. Those of you that know me, know that I was hovering over it until it was just cool enough to dig in. The nutty, sweet, nostalgic smell was heaven and made me so happy I was doing this! So I dug in after cooling the loaf in the pan for 15 minutes and then on the cutting board for another 10 - I was dying. The first bite was yummy - crunchy on the outside, warm on the inside. Cakey, not bready. Nutty, although I immediately thought - Wow, we could even put more nuts in here!

Then I started thinking of the "40 - 5" - this is what I have been calling the equivalent of the freshman 15. I managed to not appreciate the fact that I never experienced the freshman 15 (or any weight gain for that matter) and now I am being punished with the concerns of metabolism as I round 40. So I start thinking of how I can make this something that I might be able to eat. (I did eat a good 1/3 of this and took the rest into the office where i am volunteering the next day). It seems an unfortunate time for me to be starting this recipe project at the same time that I have become obsessed with calories. But it is what ti is, so I now move on to how to adjust a bit.

On this note, I think we can do 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour with the regular flour. I started thinking about adding oat bran or flax seed and first thought it would affect the integrity of the loaf but then realized with the nuts, the oat bran would be perfect. So I'm thinking we could push the nuts to 1 1/4 cups chopped (or add 1/4 cup oat bran). I think we need to add a tablespoon or two of butter for the oat bran so then you wonder - what is the point. It is just going to change it too much to go crazy healthy. So I'm going with adding 1/4 cup nuts extra and replacing 1/2 the flour with whole wheat pastry - done. But as Mom recorded it, it is yummy! But should be eaten within a couple of days as it doesn't have a lot of fat to keep it moist for long. Final note - toasted with butter is like heaven. So much for those calories. (For those of you in the know of my diet habits - yes, that is a bottle of Jillian in the background. Horrifying in a way).

And the recipe:

1/2 cup butter (no more margarine in our lives)
2 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts (I like pecans or walnuts, you can combine any)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 water
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan (average size?). Cream and butter sugar, then add eggs one at a time. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in dry ingredients alternating with wet. Mix in nuts and vanilla. Bake for 1 hour.