A dessert called “The Robert Redford” sounds as though it should involve a professional pastry chef. Instead, Brie Larson’s favourite version starts with a humble walnut crust, gets layered with pistachio pudding and whipped topping, and comes together with almost no baking drama. Elsewhere, Akshay Kumar has reportedly been hooked on sugar-free cookies made with walnuts, oats, banana and dark chocolate, while Sonam Kapoor has baked her own gooey chocolate walnut cake at home.
The report said Kumar would order them in batches of 30 when leaving for shoots. Because “it’s so simple, larson called it her favourite dessert. Because it doesn’t ask the walnut to play a supporting role, the recipe is interesting.
A report on celebrity sweet cravings said Akshay Kumar was particularly fond of oats, banana, walnut and dark-chocolate protein cookies. These aren’t simply celebrity food sightings. Together, they reveal something interesting about walnuts: the same nut that gets tossed into a breakfast bowl can become the crunchy base, rich centre or chocolatey finishing touch of a dessert. Here are five celebrity-linked walnut treats worth discovering. Brie Larson’s walnut-crust pistachio pudding pie In an interview with EatingWell, Larson described her family’s favourite dessert as a version of Robert Redford pie. Its crust is made with walnuts or pecans pressed into a simple graham-cracker base. On top comes pistachio pudding, followed by whipped topping and crushed nuts. The nut helps form the crust itself, giving an otherwise soft, creamy pudding dessert a contrasting crunch. And there is room to improvise. Larson explained that her family sometimes switches the pudding flavour, including banana pudding, so the basic idea can become several different desserts without reinventing the recipe. Akshay Kumar’s walnut, oat and banana cookies These cookies sound like they were designed for someone who wants dessert without an enormous sugar hit. The cookies were described as sugar-free, with walnut and oatmeal flour and an overripe banana providing the sweetness. The ingredient combination is clever. An overripe banana becomes more useful as it gets sweeter, while walnuts bring texture and fat to an otherwise oat-heavy cookie. For a home version, the basic idea can be simplified further: mashed ripe banana, ground or finely chopped walnuts and oats can form the foundation, with a little dark chocolate for a richer finish. Sonam Kapoor’s gooey chocolate walnut cake
They contain polyunsaturated fats, plant-based omega-3 fatty acid ALA, fibre and protein, while their naturally rich texture can make a relatively small amount go a long way in a recipe. During the lockdown, Sonam Kapoor baked a gooey chocolate walnut cake at home. The published recipe used melted butter, flour, dark chocolate, cocoa, eggs, sugar, coffee and chopped walnuts. The walnuts were folded into the batter and also sprinkled over the top before baking. The interesting ingredient here is coffee. It isn’t there to make the cake taste like coffee; instead, it can intensify the chocolate character of the dessert. And walnuts make a natural partner for dark chocolate. Their slight bitterness and buttery texture prevent a rich chocolate cake from becoming one-note. Sonam’s walnut baking didn’t stop there. She also made a vegan, gluten-free banana loaf containing walnuts, showing how easily the nut can move between indulgent cakes and more health-conscious baking. Tara Sutaria’s walnut pie Sometimes the simplest celebrity food story is the most visually tempting. Tara Sutaria once shared a photograph of her dinner featuring slices of walnut pie alongside three vanilla meringues, captioning it, “Walnut pie and meringues for dinner. The combination highlights one of the walnut’s most useful qualities in dessert: texture. A pie can be soft, creamy or jammy. Walnuts interrupt all of that with a firm, nutty crunch. That contrast is part of what makes walnut pie so satisfying. Tara has also shared other pie creations, including a caramel hot pecan pie, showing how closely these tree nuts overlap in classic dessert recipes. Why do walnuts work so well in desserts? There is a reason walnuts keep appearing in everything from cakes and cookies to pie crusts. But there is an important distinction between a walnut-containing dessert and a health food. Walnuts are nutrient-dense, but cakes, cookies and pies can also contain considerable amounts of sugar, butter, chocolate or refined flour. Adding walnuts doesn’t cancel those ingredients out. What walnuts can do is bring more nutritional value and texture to a dessert that might otherwise rely almost entirely on refined carbohydrates and added sugar. The walnut’s secret is texture Perhaps that’s why the nut has survived so many dessert trends. In Brie Larson’s pudding pie, it becomes part of the crust. In Akshay Kumar’s cookies, it provides crunch alongside oats and banana. In Sonam Kapoor’s chocolate cake, it cuts through the gooey richness. In Tara Sutaria’s pie, it gives the filling a contrasting bite.
So the next time walnuts seem destined for a bowl of cereal or a handful of trail mix, there is another possibility: turn them into dessert. The celebrity connection may provide the inspiration, but the real discovery is how little the humble walnut needs to make a dessert feel special. Looking for trusted parenting advice? Follow TOI Parenting Circle on Instagram for expert guidance, relatable stories, and practical tips delivered every day.