Who doesn’t love a good handful of dried fruits and nuts? Whether it’s during the holidays or as a delicious snack any time of year, these aren’t just tasty treats, they’re packed with essential nutrients and are incredibly healthy. You can eat them straight, use them in savory dishes, or incorporate them into desserts. So let’s dive into some great tips on how to store, prepare, and use dried fruits and nuts to get the most out of these nutritional powerhouses.
Like i said dried fruits and nuts are not only delicious in desserts but also create an interesting variety in all kinds of dishes. They’re extremely rich in nutrients even if normally also have a high fat or sugar content, making them an excellent substitute for other caloric ingredients in your recipes.
Storage and Preservation Tips
- Store in Airtight Containers – Since dried fruits and nuts tend to have a high fat content, they can go rancid. It’s important to keep them stored away from light in airtight containers, or even better, in the freezer.
- Shell-On Storage is Best – If you have nuts still in their shells (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, pine nuts, etc.), leave them in the shell for storage. There’s no better way to protect them. Shell them and toast when you’re ready to consume.
- Already Roasted Lasts Longer – If you want them to last longer, choose nuts that are already roasted, or even better, roasted with salt. Nuts that haven’t been roasted yet have a much shorter shelf life.
- Freezer Storage for Long-Term Freshness – Shelled nuts (walnuts, almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, pine nuts, etc.), even with long expiration dates, tend to lose their natural qualities, flavor, and texture over time. A good option is to store them in the freezer in hermetically sealed bags. This way they’ll maintain their flavor and freshness for up to one year. When you need to use them, just let them thaw naturally and then if you want extra crispness just a couple of minutes in the oven.
- Process Only When Needed – When you process nuts, you always decrease their shelf life. If you’re going to grind all your nuts or make peanut or cashew butter, it will have a shorter shelf life than the whole thing, unground cashews or peanuts. So only do it when you need to, it’s better to save the rest to grind later.
- Honey Preservation Method – A good alternative for preserving some types of dried fruits and nuts is to immerse them in honey. This is a traditional way to preserve shelled almonds or shelled hazelnuts.
Special Tricks for Raisins
- Steam to Soften – Place raisins (dried grapes) in a strainer over boiling water for about 5 minutes. The steam will make the raisins softer and more flavorful.
- Liquor Soak for Extra Flavour – Put raisins in liquor or port wine for 1 hour. The raisins will absorb the liquor, then you can use them in cakes and sweets, and they’ll have a much more interesting flavor.
- Flour Coating Prevents Sinking – Dust raisins with flour before adding them to a cake batter. This will prevent the raisins from all sinking to the bottom of the pan.
Preparation Techniques for Different Nuts
Almonds
- Removing the Skin – To remove the skin, put them in a pot of boiling water for a few seconds, then squeeze with your fingers and the skin will come off. To blanch after peeling, put the almonds in cold water and then rinse in a cloth.
- Grating Almonds – The best way to grate almonds is to chop them in a meat grinder, they come out much finer.
Peanuts
- Skin Removal – To remove the skin, toast them a little in the oven, then remove and rub with a cloth to take off the skin.
Hazelnuts
- Skin Removal – Just like peanuts, toast them a bit, then remove and rub with a cloth.
Walnuts
- Skin Removal – Leave them for 24 hours in sugared water to remove the skin.
- Preventing Sinking in Cakes – To use them in cakes and prevent them from all ending up at the bottom of the cake, heat them a little in the oven before adding to the batter that’s going in the oven.
- Sugar Water Trick – If you’re using walnuts in a cake the day before, you can soak the walnuts in water with sugar. You’ll see that the next day they’ll open up whole.
- Refrigerator Trick for Whole Kernels – Leave shelled walnuts in the refrigerator overnight. If you crack them right after taking them out of the refrigerator, you’ll see that most will come out whole from their shell.
Pistachios
- Restore Crispness – These tend to soften easily when in contact with air. If they get soft, the best thing to do is toast them a bit in the oven, they’ll get drier and crispier.
Creative Ways to Use Dried Fruits and Nuts
- Toast to Bring Out Flavor – Like i said with pistachios, toasting is a good way to refresh a dried fruit or nut, you can always put it in the oven for a few minutes until it toasts a bit more. Dried fruits and nuts, especially those from seeds, can take on another dimension if you toast them a little in the oven (or a pan) before using in other dishes or eating them, such as almonds, walnuts, peanuts or pistachios.
- Add to Salads – An excellent way to use dried fruits and nuts is in salads. They always add more texture and flavor to any salad.
- Makes Rustic Cakes – Adding some dried fruits and nuts will always help make a cake more interesting in flavour and give it a more rustic, homemade appearance. They’re ideal for decorating the top of cakes or inside the batter to create a different texture and contrast, especially in fluffy or one dimensional cakes.
- Boost Smoothies – Add dried fruits and nuts to smoothies. They don’t usually add much in flavor but they increase the fat content and minerals of a normal fruit smoothie.
- Mix into Yogurt and Oatmeal – They’ll help diversify the nutrition and always give another texture and flavor to ingredients that normally have only one specific taste.
- Use as Flour Substitute – Certain dried fruits and nuts like almonds or walnuts can be thinly diced and prepared as flours and used as an addition or even substitute for traditional flour.
Pro Tips & Hacks
- You should always store and preserve dried fruits and nuts in airtight packaging, such as jars or in the original packaging before they’re opened.
- Just as mentioned above with raisins, dust them with flour so they don’t sink to the bottom.
- Always remember to keep them in hermetically sealed containers or bags, whether in the pantry or freezer.
- When in doubt about freshness, a quick toast in the oven can revive flavor and texture.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed these tips and got some good ideas. Please note that these are my impressions and ideas, so hehehe take them with a grain of salt, these are not the end all so if you have more tips with dried fruits and nuts please share on the comments as well as if you think ive made a mistake, comment as well heheheh, i rather know im wrong than sharing a mistake! Until next time! ;D
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