Crisp on the edges, chewy on the inside, these black walnut cookies aren't your average cookie. They're somewhere along the line of amaretti with a soft, chewy center, but are really they're own thing entirely. It took me nine pounds of walnuts to develop the recipe, but it was worth it. After your first bite you'll know why.
I wanted to make a small bite to serve after larger meals or groups of people that packed a big black walnut flavor. While I call them cookies, you could also get away calling them power bars, walnut bombs, or even amaretti. They're gluten free, rich as all get-out, and, as black walnuts have more protein than any nut, you can say they're a health food!
I've been testing versions of the recipe at a few different events. People have been begging for the recipe so I think it's been worth the time it took to perfect them. The best part is that you could use just about any nut, but fatty nuts like walnuts, butternuts and shagbark hickory nuts will be the best.
How to Make This Black Walnut Cookie Recipe
First the walnuts are ground as fine as possible in a spice grinder or coffee grinder. It's important to work in small batches around two tablespoons at a time. It's ok if there's some chunks.
Next the walnut flour is mixed with ground oats, cinnamon, one whole egg, salt, and lemon zest. Made as-is the color will be a light blonde. To enhance the color and be creative, you can add dried fruit powder like dried mulberries, serviceberries, aronia berries, cocoa powder or even buckwheat flour in a pinch.
All the ingredients are mixed into a thick, sticky dough. From here the dough can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen.
When it's time to cook, the dough is pressed into a brownie bite mold or small cookie mold. Although I don't often use recipes that call for specific equipment, I haven't had success baking the cookies without a mold as the fat content of the walnuts makes them spread out into a thin disk. I recommend using the exact mold pictured in this post that I've linked in the equipment section of the recipe.
Before baking, lightly toasted walnuts are pressed into the top of each cookie to give them an attractive look.
The cookies need to cool completely before unmolding in order to set. Once they're cool, they'll keep at room temperature for a week, but none of my batches have lasted that long.
Tips and Variations
- For a touch of caramel flavor you could use coarsely chopped salted candied black walnuts to garnish the top of the cookies.
- Dried chokecherries ground to a flour and sifted to remove shell fragments will add an almond flavor and color. Start with 2-3 tablespoons substituted for the oat flour. See my post on Bird Cherry Cake for more on cherry flour.
- This recipe can be made with just about any nut, or a combination.
- Dried spicebush berries (¼ teaspoon per batch) will add a white pepper and allspice flavor.
- Instead of fruit powder, you can color the cookies with 2 tablespoons of dark cocoa powder.
Related Posts
Rich and Chewy Black Walnut Cookies with Oatmeal (GF)
Equipment
- Spice grinder or coffee grinder
- Measuring cups and measuring spoons
- 2 quart mixing bowl
- Two clean soup spoons for portioning cookies (optional)
Ingredients
- 7 oz (200 grams) black walnuts for the dough roughly 2 cups of Hammonds recipe ready black walnuts plus an extra 20 grams or roughly two tablespoons to garnish.
- ½ cup (4oz) organic sugar or maple sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons (1.3 oz) rolled oats all purpose flour, or gluten free flour
- ½ teaspoon flaky salt such as Maldon or just diamond kosher
- Zest of half a lemon or a Meyer lemon
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- Lightly toast the ¼ cup of black walnuts for garnishing in a pan until golden and reserve.
- Pulse the sugar a few times in the spice grinder-it should still be coarse.
- Working in small batches around 2 tablespoons at a time, grind the black walnuts as fine as possible in a spice grinder. It’s fine if the flour is a little chunky.
- A great tip is to use chopsticks to clean the spice grinder between batches.
- If a spice grinder seems difficult you can mix the walnuts and sugar and grind in a food processor.
- Grind the oats to a fine flour in the spice grinder.
- Mix the oat flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
- Put the ground walnuts, oat flour mixture and egg in a bowl. Grate the lemon zest onto the mixture, then stir until thoroughly combined.
- Lightly oil the cookie mold.
- Pack 20 gram chunks of dough (generous tablespoons) into the cookie mold, top with a sprinkle of toasted black walnuts, pressing them down into the mold. The dough will be sticky, so you can use two spoons to form it if needed. Chill the mold for 10 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Put the cookie mold into the oven and cook for 22 minutes, rotating the mold half-way through cooking. Remove the cookies and allow to cool for 10 minutes before attempting to unmold.
- They should be light golden on the edges and slightly crisp, but still tender and chewy on the inside. Store the cookies in an air tight container at room temperature and they’ll last for a week.
LaRae
Spectacular chewy goodness!
Alan Bergo
You got to try some of the first few batches. I’m making more this week. 🙂
Lorenzo
These cookies are by far the best way I’ve had Black Walnuts prepared. I’ve had the pleasure of tasting these cooked by the man himself, and they are as good as they look. I’m thankful for Alan paving the way for wild food cookery 🤙
Alan Bergo
Thanks buddy. It was fun to bring them to our event.
Sheila
Fyi for anyone else like me with no mold and no patience to wait for one before trying these...I used mini paper baking cups that I already had on hand and these came out perfectly delicious. I just filled the cups, set them on a sheet tray to bake and pulled them about 2 minutes early.
They are so good and adaptable that now I'm gonna buy the mold...they'll definitely be a staple.
Thanks so much for another inspired recipe!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Sheila I’m glad they worked out. Thanks for sharing!
Lisa Lyle
I just made these last night and wow!!!! I also added some rum flavoring and topped them with dark chocolate and dehydrated wild blueberries. Making more now!!! Thank you for your wonderful site.
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Lisa. It was frustrating going through so many nuts to get them right, but hearing how much people are enjoying them makes it worth it. Thanks for commenting.
Linh
Did you happen to try baking them in a square pan and then cutting them into smaller pieces like brownies?
Alan Bergo
Hi Linh. It might work, but the edge-to-edge chewy texture is really good. I don’t think I’ve ever posted a recipe that requires a specific mold, but it’s been the most efficient way I’ve found to make them. The batter is tricky to deal with fresh.
Sandy
Delicious!
Alan Bergo
Hey thanks Sandy. You’ve tried a lot of them!
Danica
Your recipe calls for maple sugar, if I used just maple syrup would this make it a hard cookie and, why couldn't I use just maple syrup?
Alan Bergo
The additional water from maple syrup would make the cookies very hard. You can use white sugar too.
Ruth C
Do you have any tips for harvesting black walnuts? They are everywhere but I don’t know when to harvest, when to peel off outer shell and how to crack them open. I can never crack them open. Thanks.
Alan Bergo
Hi Ruth. I have an entire post dedicated to this. See my guide to black walnuts.
Brenna
This looks delicious! I have just dehydrated a bunch of spicebush berries and was wondering what other uses I could fund for them. Should I grind then with the seed or without in order to add them to the recipe? Would you add any other fruit or cocoa with them or just by themselves for this recipe?
(P S. I used your nocino recipe last year and it was a hit at Christmas! I missed collecting the young nuts this year and remembered only after they had gotten too firm.)
Alan Bergo
Hi Brenna. I grind my spicebush whole. They're very powerful so just use a tiny pinch, taste a tiny piece of the batter before cooking to test the seasoning.