Itxaursaltsa with Walnuts: Easy Step-by-step Recipe

Ingredients

🌰 100 g. walnuts 
🥛 250 g. whole milk 
🍶 250 ml. of liquid cream 
🍬 100 g. of sugar 
🌿 A cinnamon stick 
🧂 Cinnamon powder

Intxaursaltsa or intxaur-saltsa is a traditional dessert eaten in the Basque Country. This sweet is commonly served as a dessert at special Christmas Eve and Christmas dinners , although it can be prepared at any time of the year. It is a semi-liquid cream made from nuts and milk with a texture similar to custard that can vary depending on the recipe and a very special and different flavour .

Although it is very easy to make this dessert at home, it is usually found on the menus of Gipuzkoa farmhouses where the cream originates. Curiously, in the first recipe books there are other ingredients that attract attention, such as crumbled dried cod . In some places the preparation is more liquid and in others it is thicker. You can also find versions with or without walnut pieces, something that depends on the grinding.

This is a dessert that will be especially popular with nut lovers and it is very original because few preparations have this dried fruit as the main ingredient. On the blog there are other desserts with nuts that you will love such as the white chocolate and walnut brownie , the sponge cake with walnuts or the apple sponge cake with walnuts . In addition, we will have it ready in very little time. It can be served warm, at room temperature or cold according to the diners’ taste and it can perfectly last a couple of days in the refrigerator.

Itxaursaltsa recipe with walnuts: Easy Step-by-step Recipe 🌰

Step by step preparation

1. Grind the walnuts with a blender or food processor. Set aside some to decorate at the end.
2. We chop the reserved walnuts with our hands. We can also leave some whole, it depends on taste.
3. We put the milk, cream and cinnamon stick in a saucepan .
4. We cook over medium heat until it boils.
5. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cover it with a plate or lid for 20 minutes to flavor the mixture.
6. We strain the contents of the saucepan and reheat the mixture over medium heat.
7. We add the sugar and the crushed walnuts.
8. We mix with a manual whisk to integrate all the ingredients well.
9. We continue stirring until we obtain a homogeneous mixture that begins to thicken.
10. We serve the cream in individual bowls and let it cool.
11. We decorate with the chopped walnuts that we had reserved and ground cinnamon. Optionally, we can also use some mint leaves to give some color to the dish.

Tips for a perfect itxaursalta with walnuts

• Use good quality nuts to make the dessert taste amazing.
• If you want to add some chunks to the cream, just add some chopped walnuts to the mixture.
• The cream can be served warm, at room temperature or cold, but it is important to keep it in the refrigerator.

Itxaursaltsa recipe with walnuts: Easy Step-by-step Recipe 🌰