Nottingham's sweetest nutty bakes and treats
Cheese gets the spotlight, but the nutty bits decide whether a festive board feels generous or gimmicky. We blind-tasted spiced nuts, brittle, candied walnuts, cobnut shortbread and honeyed pecans from Nottinghamshire makers and markets, then paired each with East Midlands cheese.
We bought a rucksack's worth of nutty bakes from across Nottingham, froze them, ignored them for a fortnight, then defrosted and judged every last crumb. Here is what comes back to life beautifully, what goes claggy, and how to reheat each one without ruining your evening.
We covered the labels, warmed the teapot and blind-tasted six independent Nottingham mince pies with frangipane lids, hazelnut crumbles and chestnut-spiked fillings. Here is the festive ranking, with scores for pastry, filling, nut flavour and value.
Untoasted nuts are the quiet letdown in too many otherwise lovely Nottingham bakes. Here is the side-by-side taste test, the local evidence and the kitchen rules that fix it in minutes.
A wintry crawl through Nottingham’s independent bakeries in search of the best nutty cinnamon buns. We judged dough, spice, glaze, nut topping and value — and found five swirls worth braving the cold for in 2026.
Treacle tart is usually a plain, golden affair — but Nottingham's bakers are folding nuts into the mix. We walked a sticky mile through Hockley, the Lace Market and Sherwood, blind-tasted six nutty treacle tarts and ranked them on pastry, wobble and value. Here's the 2026 verdict.
We covered the labels, sharpened the knives and put six independent Nottingham Christmas cakes through a blind tasting where nuts, not icing, had to do the talking. Here’s how they ranked on crumb, nut presence, icing restraint and value — and why the festive fruitcake might be the quiet winner after all.
We had four nut-forward bakery boxes posted to NG postcodes — and one to London — to see which survive the courier, keep their crunch and justify a monthly direct debit. Here’s the crumb-by-crumb verdict, including which boxes are worth a repeat order and which are strictly for gifting.
A five-stop almond tart trek across Nottingham, judging pastry, frangipane, jam balance and price against the Derbyshire benchmark. Here is the ranked shortlist for 2026, plus the tea to order at each stop.
Nottingham's independent bakeries have pushed flapjack well beyond the basic oat-and-syrup formula. We ranked the nuttiest squares on crumb, toastiness, value and whether they deserve a permanent spot in your sweet-tooth rotation.
We bought six salted caramel and nut tarts from across Nottingham, wrapped them in paper bags and gave them the full bus-ride home treatment. Here’s the ranking — pastry, bitterness, nut toastiness and all — plus a value pick that won’t punish your purse.
Six nutty panettone from Nottingham's independent delis, bakeries and Italian shops, stripped of their wrappers and judged blind. Here is what deserves a place on the Christmas 2026 table, what to pay and where to find it.
Twenty-four little doors, except the doors are pastries and the hinges are hazelnut praline. A practical, price-checked guide to building your own edible advent calendar in Nottingham this December — with market-stall finds, supermarket shortcuts, make-at-home jobs and proper nut-free alternatives.
Stir-Up Sunday lands on 22 November 2026, so we steamed three Nottingham-made Christmas puddings against a homemade version loaded with pecans, hazelnuts and local ale. Here is the verdict, plus a make-ahead timetable for anyone who wants a nutty pudding maturing in the cupboard.
We spent a fortnight working through Nottingham's nut-laden brownies — hazelnut praline, walnut fudge, pistachio squares — and scored every one on crackle, gooeyness and nut-to-cake ratio. Here's what's worth your £4 in 2026, and what's just an expensive slab of cocoa.
We cleared a shelf’s worth of supermarket nut roasts and put them through a proper Nottingham kitchen test: nuttiness, texture, gravy retention and value. Here is the 2026 league table, plus the tins and local extras that actually earn their place beside the sprouts.
A three-stop trail through Nottingham’s nuttiest afternoon teas, from walnut scones in the Lace Market to hazelnut praline éclairs in Hockley. With price notes, booking tips and a firm view on clotted cream.
Almond, chestnut and hazelnut flours go head to head in Nottingham’s gluten-free bakeries — and in a home oven. Texture notes, local stockists and a forgiving friand recipe for anyone ready to ditch the wheat-flour substitute.
Commercial hazelnut spread has quietly become the default shortcut in too many Nottingham bakes, and it's costing us flavour. An argument for whole nuts, homemade praline and small-batch pastes — plus a friendly challenge for the year ahead.
A wind-bitten tour of seven Nottingham independents doing hot chocolate with a proper nutty backbone — praline stirrers, almond-milk mochas and peanut butter marshmallows included. Each cup scored on flavour, value and how long you want to stay put.