I received a few photographs in a text this afternoon and it reminded me of nut roll memories. Both my mother and Irene would make these delicious nut rolls every holiday season. If my mom did nothing else, she always made those holiday nut rolls which were great sliced or with a dab of cold butter on them.
We all looked forward to eating them, however, we never realized how much work went into making them. Today’s baker told me this was the first time she has made nut rolls, and it took her all day long.
Some of those nut rolls are so full that they have split open during the baking phase. But, in my opinion, this is a good sign.
The below photograph shows the nut rolls cooling on wire racks.
Baking All Day Long
In getting ready for making the nut roll filling, it is usually cheaper to buy a bag of whole walnuts and crack them yourself. A large bag of walnuts meats can be expensive.
As kids, one of our jobs for holiday baking was to crack open all the walnuts before making the breads. We also had to sort all the walnuts from the shells. You needed to be careful not to include any nut shells. Of course, being kids, we didn’t get every bit of nut meat out of the shells. Not to worry though, because mom would go through those discarded nut shells on a newspaper. She removed even the smallest bit of nut meat so as not to waste anything.
Grinding the Nut Meats
In the next step, my mom used an old rusty meat grinder. Not sure where it came from. I think she might have purchased it secondhand from the Goodwell or Turn-About Shop. But every year, she brought it out and screwed it on to the edge of the kitchen table to grind the nuts. In the below photograph, my mom’s meat grinder looked more like the one on the left except this one is in better shape.
Today’s baker used a time-saving food processor to make the nut roll paste that is spread on the rolled dough. If I recall correctly, a bit of sugar was added to the nut paste.
Making the Yeasted Bread Dough
Then mom made the yeasted bread dough which rose in a warm spot usually around the oven. When the bread dough had doubled in size, it was punched down and allowed to rise a second time.
The last steps were to roll the dough thin and spread it with the nut mixture. But that was not the end of things, because it still has a rise again in the loaf pans and be baked.
This was all done so when we arrived at Grandma’s house for the holiday, she had a sliced roll on a dish for us to nibble on. Everyone loved to eat them, and they were never wasted.
Ending Notes on Nut Roll Memories
As the holiday season rolls around again, the photograph of those nut rolls brought good memories of my mom and Irene.
Tolling away, making sure the kids got a few slices of those yummy nut rolls marking the holiday season. Moms were so unselfish in their desire to feed their children and then grandchildren to make the holidays certainly very special.
Thank you to Moms everywhere, we love and miss you.
A special Thank to C. for the photographs used in today’s blog and for the good holiday memories of not only delicious nut rolls but of also of Moms.