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.
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!
Sep 01, 2012 @ 20:32:22
Love it, Sarah!
Really fancy some cake now… especially the fig tart!
Sara
Sep 02, 2012 @ 08:16:59
Thanks Sara the cobnuts are fiddly blighters but well worth the effort!
Sep 03, 2012 @ 17:12:55
Wow Sarah you are amazing and very talented! I am swooning over the fig tart! Xxxxx
Sep 04, 2012 @ 10:44:43
It tastes as good as it looks!