Witchy Kitchen

Tag: walnuts

  • Walnut Brownie Altar Cakes

    Walnut Brownie Altar Cakes

    2018 supernatural horror film Hereditary, directed by Ari Aster and featuring Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro and Alex Wolfe, began by lulling me into the typical horror formula (I’ve seen a few ghost movies, ok?) and then took a gut-wrenching turn that shocked me to tears and left my body a twisted lump of tension for the rest of the film. The haunting performances, droning soundscape, unsettling dollhouse motif, and masterful building of absolute dread, all wrapped up in an uncomfortable family drama, is far and away the most horrific thing I’ve seen this year.

    Very light spoilers ahead…this recipe is tied into the plot of course but I won’t say too much…

    For most of this ghastly torture of a movie I was thinking there was no way I could do something as frivolous as a recipe, but then the third act turns so wacky and has an such an interesting thread of mythology that I was back in. The 13-year-old daughter Charlie, has a love of chocolate and a well-established nut allergy, so of course I wanted to include those in my recipe. It was the demon king Paimon though that inspired me to make these as altar cakes, smeared with ganache, a dark offering to his hellish excellency. His intricate sigil appears over and over in the film, so these are so marked with walnut buttercream. Hail Paimon! (Please accept these and stay away).

    Walnut Brownie Altar Cakes

    For the brownie cakes:
    Adapted from Taste of Home

    • 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
    • 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
    • 1 1/3 cups sugar
    • 4 eggs
    • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 1 cup flour
    • 1 cup chopped walnuts

    Heat oven to 350°

    Melt the chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave, stir until smooth and allow to cool. Meanwhile, beat together sugar and eggs and stir in vanilla and the chocolate mixture. Mix in flour until just combined and stir in walnuts.

    Pour into lined muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool, remove from liners, trim the tops flat if necessary and flip upside down to decorate.

    For the ganache

    • 1/2 cup heavy cream
    • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

    Bring heavy cream to a boil and pour over chocolate chips, stir until smooth. Cool to room temp. Smear over tops of the cakes.

    For the walnut buttercream

    • 1 cup powdered sugar
    • 1/2 stick softened butter
    • 1 ounce walnuts
    • 1+ teaspoon milk

    Combine well all ingredients in a food processor. Transfer to a piping bag and scribble hell king sigils on your altar cakes. Offer and wait.

    Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Episode 60: VOLTRON & HEREDITARY in which Diana and Carrie discuss discuss robots in space and terrifying family dramas! Food goo, garlic knots, cake roll pops, Checkov’s walnut allergy and uncomfortable family dinners.

  • Pumpkin Cider Bread

    Pumpkin Cider Bread

    Pumpkin bread is an autumn classic. From the many recipes out there, I chose the Pumpkin Cider Bread from the the October 1991 issue of Gourmet magazine (RIP); what drew me to this one was the lovely-sounding reduced cider as an ingredient. I love reducing liquids to syrupy sweetness, be it pomegranate molasses, tamarind chutney, red wine sauce, or balsamic reduction.

    In the comments someone said she made this with apple juice concentrate and got the same results, and she’s probably right, but I’m going to pretend I didn’t read that.

    This was adapted just slightly to use spices I already had in my kitchen, and to use melted butter instead of vegetable oil, which btw you can substitute at a 1:1 ratio. Also skipped the baking soda but only because I totally missed that on the list, heh (I did use the baking powder).

    This bread is fine as is, but becomes glorious when toasted right in the toaster, slathered with butter, and sprinkled with sea salt.

    Pumpkin Cider Bread

    Adapted from Epicurious

    • 1 cup apple cider
    • 1 cup pumpkin puree
    • 2 eggs
    • 1/4 cup butter, melted
    • 3/4 cup brown sugar
    • 2 tbsp orange zest
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
    • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
    • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
    • 2 cups flour
    • 2 tsp baking powder
    • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

    Preheat oven to 350° F and butter a loaf pan.

    In a small saucepan, boil cider until it is reduced to 1/4 up and let it cool. Whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, melted butter, brown sugar, orange zest, cider, and spices.

    Separately, whisk together flour and baking powder, then mix with wet ingredients until just combined. Stir in walnuts.

    Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean (start checking at 50 minutes, and if the top is getting too brown cover with foil. Didn’t need to with mine). Cool in the pan.

  • Persephone Salad

    I am often put in charge of salad. I guess salad is a girly thing to make so I get it by default, but maybe it’s also because I can be artful in diving into the depths of the produce drawer and pantry and emerging with interesting salad ingredients and the means for a homemade vinaigrette.

    As green salads are just as much about texture as they are about flavor, here is the formula: something fresh (possibly fruity!), something creamy, something crunchy. And this salad fits perfectly.

    This particular salad concept is based on this Arugula, Pear and Goat Cheese Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette. I made it a couple years ago for Thanksgiving, and I’ve made variations on it ever since – including for Thanksgiving this year, and now for my daughter Zoeya’s holiday potluck.

    The ingredients are very autumnal, but the pomegranate seeds like little ruby jewels look gorgeously Christmassy as well. This is not so much a recipe as a concept with lots of options (and I’m not going to be fussy with amounts). The only absolutely essential ingredient are the pomegranate seeds, which is what makes this so lovely and appropriate for the dark months.

    Persephone Salad

    For the salad:
    greens, such as arugula, mesclun, spinach
    a green apple or pear
    seeds from half a pomegranate
    blue cheese or goat cheese
    walnuts, almonds, pecans, or pumpkin seeds (I used pumpkin seeds in this latest rendition, it’s a great options if you’re serving to people with nut allergies)

    For the vinaigrette:
    pomegranate molasses (instructions below) – this is your best option, but if you don’t have it you can use honey or jam or jelly. Maybe like that yummy lingonberry stuff they have at IKEA.
    sherry or balsamic vinegar
    olive oil or walnut oil
    salt & pepper
    a thinly sliced shallot, pickled in the vinegar, is nice

    To make pomegranate molasses, take a small bottle of pomegranate juice and heat it slowly in a saucepan, stirring, until it is thick enough to coat a spoon. Be careful not to burn.

    To assemble everything, just toss the greens and the apple or pear with some of the vinaigrette (enough to lightly coat, not to drench). Sprinkle all the rest of the ingredients on top, along with another drizzle of vinaigrette.