Oh, Nuts!

Hickory nuts and black walnuts, that is.

How do you get this bag of black walnuts. . .

and, this box of hickory nuts. . .

to turn into this?

and this?

All you need are the nuts gathered from out in the woods, a hammer, a hard surface and nut picks. I always crack my walnuts out on our driveway.I put a clean rag underneath, for easier clean up. You will find that black walnut shells sometimes have a tendency to fly in all directions when you hit them with a hammer. You will  be picking up pieces of shell from here, there and everywhere when you are finished.

I have been sitting out on the concrete steps of our front porch and cracking the hickory nuts.

I have found that if you hold the hickory nut on it's side this way, you will get the best chance of getting the big butterfly pieces of the nuts. Don't hit it on the fat, flat side, but on the skinny side, if you know what I mean.

This is what you like to end up with. The big butterfly shaped pieces.

I have already cracked a quart of the hickory nuts. There are still lots left to crack, I should end up with at least another quart or more when I am finished. My son has been helping me with the hickory nuts.

I still have a lot of black walnuts to crack. I'm going to have to start cracking them in the garage, since our weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse.

I posted here on how to hull the black walnuts.

You can use these nuts in just about all your baking projects. They are delicious in your fudge, cookies, banana breads and cakes. I haven't did it yet, but they say you can use hickory nuts in place of pecans in your favorite pecan pie recipe. I think I am going to try that. My neighbor says her mom used to make the best hickory nut pie! She told me she thought she made it  like pecan pie and just used the hickory nuts instead.

Have any of you every made hickory nut pie? If so, tell us your recipe.