Spiced Nuts

I experimented with Spiced Nuts this holiday season. I found that cooking them in the toaster oven is not a good idea (my squirrel friends are enjoying the burnt nuts), but that cooking them in a skillet with seasonings is easy and very flexible.

I was over-enthusiastic so I made both appetizer nuts and dessert nuts. (No one complained.) Both contain sugar, which as regular readers know is a no-no on this blog, but I used organic cane sugar and figured the holidays only come once a year so what the heck.

I used regular unblanched almonds for the Spicy Almonds and they held the spices well. For the Sugared Hazelnuts, I toasted them and rubbed off the skins in the time-honored manner, but I feel they would have held the seasonings just as well if I had left the skins on. I'll try that next year.

These nuts would be an excellent nibble at a New Year's celebration. Expect everyone to eat more of them than you could imagine.

Spicy Almonds

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp coarse salt

1 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds

1 tsp red pepper flakes

grated zest of 1 orange

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 cups almonds

Stir together the sugar, salt, cumin, pepper flakes and orange zest. Mash together with the back of a spoon.

In a large skillet, warm the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently, until sizzling - 1-2 minutes.

Stir in a tablespoon of the sugar mixture. Toss and stir the almonds until the sugar melts and starts to glaze the nuts. Add more sugar and repeat the process until you've used all the sugar, and it is all melted and coating the nuts.

Tip the nuts out onto a cookie sheet, spread them apart, and let them cool. When the almonds are cool to the touch, break them apart as needed and store in an airtight container. In theory they will last a couple of weeks at room temperature.

Sugared Hazelnuts

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup shelled hazelnuts

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/4 cup sugar

Warm the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the hazelnuts and cook until sizzling.

Stir together the cinnamon, cloves and sugar. Add to the skillet a tablespoon at a time, stirring to melt the sugar. Continue with all but a couple of teaspoons of the spice mixture. When the nuts are well glazed turn them onto a cookie sheet to cool.

When cool, break the nuts into a bowl. Stir in the remaining sugar mixture.