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The Guardian
09-08-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Walnut and pear lollies and rhubarb sorbet: Jacob Kenedy's icy desserts
Nuts make wonderful milks, and therefore they also make great granitas, sorbets and lollies. There is no trick or trouble to getting them right, but there is a magic about nut ices that is as jaw-dropping as a magician's act – delicious and sophisticated, without adulterating the childlike joy that underpins every sort of ice-cream. Then, I like to celebrate rhubarb as a sorbet, which is great on its own, or with cold custard, or to accompany stodgier puddings. This can be adapted for any nuts – it works particularly well with pecans (lightly roasted before making the milk, and consider using maple syrup in place of the sugar), hazelnuts (roasted before making the milk), almonds (roasted or raw, skin on or skin off) or pistachios (skinless, if you can get them, roasted or raw). You can get inventive and seasonal with the fruit, too, but it is really only necessary to add a sweet dimension to walnuts – other nuts can fly solo. Prep 5 min Cook 1 hr 10 min Freeze 6 hr+ Makes about 6 x 100ml lollies 220g walnut halves or pieces100g white sugar 1 ripe pear First make a nut milk: put 140g of the walnuts in a blender with 350ml cold water, then blend , until they're a very fine texture, which will take several minutes. Strain the nut water through a very fine sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract the last bits of goodness. Measure out 450ml of the nut milk (if you don't have quite enough, top up with more water), then add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Roast the remaining 80g walnuts very gently in a 160C (140C fan)/325F/gas 3 oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until light golden brown, then remove and leave to cool. To make the lollies, divide the roast walnuts evenly between six lolly moulds. Peel, core and dice the pear, then divide this between the lolly moulds, too. Top with the sweet walnut milk to come 5mm below the rim, then put on the lid and lolly sticks, and freeze for about six hours, until solid. Rhubarb is such a camp monstrosity of a petiole. I always think a bunch of the glorious, pink ribbed stems look like candles destined for a drag queen's dressing table, or Brighton rock being pulled to perfection. Prep 5 min Cook 10 min, plus churning Freeze 30 min Makes About 1 litre 650g rhubarb 200g caster sugar 50g light runny honey, or glucose syrup Chop the rhubarb into 1-2cm pieces, then put in a saucepan with all the other ingredients and 100ml cold water. Bring to a simmer, then cook for five minutes, until the rhubarb is tender with just a little crunch (it will keep cooking as it cools). Leave to cool to room temperature, then blend finely. Churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine according to the maker's instructions until fully firm, then put into a suitable container, seal and put in the freezer for half an hour or so, to firm up. If it has been stored in the freezer for longer and is too firm, put it in the fridge to soften until scoopable. Jacob Kenedy is chef and owner of Gelupo, Bocca di Lupo and Plaquemine Lock, all in London
The Guardian
09-08-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Walnut and pear lollies and rhubarb sorbet: Jacob Kenedy's icy desserts
Nuts make wonderful milks, and therefore they also make great granitas, sorbets and lollies. There is no trick or trouble to getting them right, but there is a magic about nut ices that is as jaw-dropping as a magician's act – delicious and sophisticated, without adulterating the childlike joy that underpins every sort of ice-cream. Then, I like to celebrate rhubarb as a sorbet, which is great on its own, or with cold custard, or to accompany stodgier puddings. This can be adapted for any nuts – it works particularly well with pecans (lightly roasted before making the milk, and consider using maple syrup in place of the sugar), hazelnuts (roasted before making the milk), almonds (roasted or raw, skin on or skin off) or pistachios (skinless, if you can get them, roasted or raw). You can get inventive and seasonal with the fruit, too, but it is really only necessary to add a sweet dimension to walnuts – other nuts can fly solo. Prep 5 min Cook 1 hr 10 min Freeze 6 hr+ Makes about 6 x 100ml lollies 220g walnut halves or pieces100g white sugar 1 ripe pear First make a nut milk: put 140g of the walnuts in a blender with 350ml cold water, then blend , until they're a very fine texture, which will take several minutes. Strain the nut water through a very fine sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract the last bits of goodness. Measure out 450ml of the nut milk (if you don't have quite enough, top up with more water), then add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Roast the remaining 80g walnuts very gently in a 160C (140C fan)/325F/gas 3 oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until light golden brown, then remove and leave to cool. To make the lollies, divide the roast walnuts evenly between six lolly moulds. Peel, core and dice the pear, then divide this between the lolly moulds, too. Top with the sweet walnut milk to come 5mm below the rim, then put on the lid and lolly sticks, and freeze for about six hours, until solid. Rhubarb is such a camp monstrosity of a petiole. I always think a bunch of the glorious, pink ribbed stems look like candles destined for a drag queen's dressing table, or Brighton rock being pulled to perfection. Prep 5 min Cook 10 min, plus churning Freeze 30 min Makes About 1 litre 650g rhubarb 200g caster sugar 50g light runny honey, or glucose syrup Chop the rhubarb into 1-2cm pieces, then put in a saucepan with all the other ingredients and 100ml cold water. Bring to a simmer, then cook for five minutes, until the rhubarb is tender with just a little crunch (it will keep cooking as it cools). Leave to cool to room temperature, then blend finely. Churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine according to the maker's instructions until fully firm, then put into a suitable container, seal and put in the freezer for half an hour or so, to firm up. If it has been stored in the freezer for longer and is too firm, put it in the fridge to soften until scoopable. Jacob Kenedy is chef and owner of Gelupo, Bocca di Lupo and Plaquemine Lock, all in London
Fast Company
12-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Why pecan milk Is suddenly crushing it
At a conference in 2019, Laura Shenkar buttonholed Greg Steltenpohl—the founder of Odwalla and then-CEO of Califia Farms—to offer the juice and alt-milk pioneer a few sustainability tips. 'I was like, 'There are a lot of things you need to do to get Califia to be truly environmentally sensitive,'' recalls Shenkar, an environmental business strategist at the time, laughing now at the flex. 'And he said, 'Yes, that's true. This company can't do what you're describing. You'd need to start a company from the ground up.'' It was a gargantuan task, he warned—one that would require designing the business at every step with a team that 'thinks differently,' not the usual corporate CPG types. Viewing that as a challenge, Shenkar launched PKN, a pecan milk brand, two years later in an attempt to tap into the alternative milk market. Califia and others had been mostly focused on oats and almonds. Almonds are a notoriously thirsty nut, with the highest water footprint of all major California crops. Shenkar had become fixated on pecans, instead. Pecans are nutritious, packed with vitamins A, B, and E, omega-3s, and impressive amounts of manganese, zinc, and copper. They boast the highest antioxidant content of any tree nut. They're wind-pollinated, so they don't rely on bees trucked across the country like almonds do. And they're native to the United States—America's only major indigenous tree nut, growing naturally in places like Georgia, Texas, and New Mexico, where they've thrived without needing ecological intervention. The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
