Thursday, November 17, 2011

Canning Wet Walnuts


My husband was saying, not long ago, that he enjoyed sundaes with wet walnuts and pineapple topping... the wheels in my brain began turning... hmmm... I could can some... I have walnuts in the freezer left from last Christmas... wonder how one would go about doing that... Google to the rescue... I found lots of recipes and came up with my own version...

Here's what I did...

First I rough chopped my walnuts and toasted them a few minutes in the oven to bring out their aromatic, walnutty flavor.


Then I started making my syrup...

I mixed...

8 cups brown sugar


2/3 cup corn starch (for you non-rebel, non-rule-breakers out there, you can use clear-jel... I used corn starch because I HAD corn starch and it doesn't pose a danger, just has a chance of breaking down and "unthickening" whatever you have thickened... I've used it for years without break down, so I took a chance... use at your own risk and don't say I didn't warn you!)


3 tsp. vanilla extract (several recipes I read called for maple extract, I prefer vanilla and also I HAD vanilla on hand so I went with vanilla)


6 cups cold water



Whisk together and bring to a boil.  Boil gently for about 10 minutes... until syrup thickens nicely.


Meanwhile, I prepared my pint canning jars by boiling them in a pan of water set on two stove eyes; and sterilized my lids by simmering them in hot water, keeping everything hot until I was ready to use them.

I divided my walnuts evenly among the ten pint jars.


When the syrup was nice and thick, I ladled it over the walnuts, leaving an inch headspace.



I removed any air bubbles by running my plastic tool (or a butter knife) between the walnuts and the inside of the jar. I wiped the jar rims and tightened the lids on to fingertip tightness.

I then processed my jars in a boiling water bath (ensuring the jars were covered with water) for 10 minutes.

After processing, I removed the jars from the canner with my jar lifter and set them on a folded dish towel to cool... and to listen for the PING of each successfully sealed jar.

Ice cream sundae here we come!!!!

For a printable copy of this recipe, click here

7 comments:

  1. Do you think this would work with pecans? I like walnuts, but I LOVE pecans. patticake1@juno.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sure it would work with pecans... go for it! ~~Granny

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  2. This looks amazing. Found you via pinterest and super excited to test this out! Thank you

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  3. Oh boy--Anonymous who just found your site and reading all your recipes--can't wait to makes these. You know--living in NJ we had these all the time. Smuckers even makes them. When we moved to CA no one heard of them. The stores did not even carry Smuckers; we asked several people (other customers) & customer service people at stores. Several stores said it was not even on their list as possible items to order.
    One question--How many cups/pounds of walnuts did you use?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seems like I used about 5-6 pounds of walnuts. ~~Granny

      Delete
  4. hi granny ,i love this recipe but i have to ask you a question about the canning part of this. walnuts are low acid in canning ,how did you can this with a water bath canner?
    is it because the syrup that is the preservative or is it because the the canning process itself?

    i read a few books and they all say "pressure can low acid foods"

    how did you get away with this??

    PLUS -do you have any chocolate sauce or syrup recipes?

    with much love and a little bit of jealousy (LOL)

    androshi

    ReplyDelete
  5. I apparently need to study your website for other magnificent recipes. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

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