Nutty but nice…

At this partcular time of year we are blessed with an abundance of fruit, nuts and vegetables to tingle our tastebuds – I’m always on the lookout for more unusual seasonal offerings and recently came across cobnuts or filberts as they are also known.  Cobnuts are a cousin of the delightful hazelnut and are just as versatile.

Cobnuts have been grown in Britain since at least the 16th century. Children played an early version of “conkers” with hazelnuts; the game was called cobnut, and the winning nut the cob.A Kentish cobnut is a type of hazelnut. Most of the hazelnuts grown in Britain are of the named variety Kentish Cob, which was introduced in the early 19th century, but growers are now beginning to plant other varieties too. However, they all taste relatively similar – more similar than different varieties of apple for example.

More cobnuts are grown in Kent than anywhere else, but there are commercial producers in several other countries too.

Cobnuts are marketed fresh, not dried like most other nuts such as walnuts and almonds. Consequently they can usually only be bought when in season, typically from about the middle of August through to October, although stored nuts may be kept until Christmas. At the beginning of the season the husks are green and the kernels particularly juicy. Nuts harvested later on have brown shells and husks, and the full flavour of the kernel has developed.

I wanted to create a recipe that was nutty but also had a sticky toffee element to it.  Enter the cobnut and caramel muffin!

  September is also the time when fresh figs become available – my favourite way to have figs? A fig and frangipane tart….yummy!

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