Everyone, it would seem, has a recipe for seasoned and candied nuts – I have about a dozen in my files, came across a few more this past week, and have a pretty decent recipe already posted – but, it is the season for stuff like this, and I kinda think I prefer this version of spiced and candied nuts to my earlier one – it’s pretty simple, requires no tedious blanching of the nuts, and (the best part, for me) the method almost INSURES that you won’t end up with a bunch of slightly burned nuts. I like that in a recipe!
INGREDIENTS
Hazelnuts:
•2 cups toasted, husked hazelnuts
•1/2 cup packed brown sugar
•1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
•1 tsp sea salt
•1/2 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Sauce
Mixed Nuts:
•1 cup raw cashews
•1 cup whole raw almonds
•1-1/4 cup raw pecans
•1/2 cup brown sugar
•1 tsp sea salt
•1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning
•1/2 tsp cinnamon
•1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1 tsp dried rosemary
Note: I split out the hazelnuts because they require an extra step before adding the brown sugar and seasonings. Feel free to use the same seasonings for all the nuts, I was just playing around with a couple of different recipes to see which I preferred. As it turns out, it’s all good.
Preheat the oven to 350º.
Arrange the hazelnuts in a single layer on a rimmed pan and bake for ten to fifteen minutes, just until the skins are blistered.
Turn the hazelnuts into a clean kitchen towel, fold it up and over them, then set aside to cool.
Once the hazelnuts are cool enough to handle, rub them – still wrapped in the kitchen towel – until most of the dark skin is removed. It’s no big deal if you don’t get all of the skin off.
Turn the nuts into a colander and sift a couple of times to remove all of those now loosed bits of skin, then combine with the other nuts.
With the oven still set at 350º add the nuts to a large rimmed baking pan (I like to use my anodized non-stick roaster) and drizzle with canola oil.
Combine the brown sugar with the seasonings, then stir into the nuts and oil in the baking pan and pop into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring every five minutes, just until the brown sugar is melted and has begun to nicely coat the nuts.
Note: Don’t remove the pan from the oven when you’re stirring, you want the nuts to stay as hot as possible while baking. Just pull the rack out and give ’em a nice stir, then, quicklikeabunny, back into the oven.
When done, turn the nuts out onto a parchment lined pan and set aside to cool.
Break any large clumps apart and store in a zipper bag until needed.
Nice nuts.