Holiday Dino-Chow: Spiced Nuts

Now that nuts are part of my everyday diet, I wondered if I would be less excited about my spiced nuts this year.

Lower the DefCon level – I'm still excited!

I have an entire cookbook devoted to various candied, spiced, roasted, and flavored nuts – but this recipe from Williams-Sonoma Gifts from the Kitchen is the best. We've stopped playing amateur hour with the others.

If you make these, do yourself a favor and make a double batch. Seriously.

And if you're concerned about the small amount of sugar in this recipe, think about it this way. Two and a half cups of nuts is 20 ounces, and you probably eat nuts about one ounce at a time, right? A tablespoon of sugar represents 12.6 grams of sugar, so there are 25.2 grams of sugar in the whole recipe... divided by 20 servings... equals 1.26 grams of sugar in an ounce of these babies. Seems like a fine way to celebrate the holidays, don'tcha think?! (You can also try cutting the sugar in half, if you're a sugar-phobe. If you're going to skip the sugar, skip the recipe all-together because it just won't have the magic.)

Also worth mentioning: This recipe takes about 5 minutes to get into the oven and then the baking time is just 20 minutes. Easy-peasy. Delicious, pretty, compliment-inspiring snacks, faster than Rudolph.

 Yep, these are the actual nuts I made this year. Beautiful, right?

Sweet  & Salty Spiced Nuts

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cup nuts – almonds, pecans, cashews, and macadamias taste best
2 tablespoons fat – I used coconut oil... yum!
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons white sugar (omit if you're aiming for 100% paleo)
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300F.

2. Heat oil over medium-low heat, then add cumin and cayenne. Cook 'til fragrant, about 15 seconds.

3. Pour oil over the nuts and toss well to coat. Add sugar and salt; toss to coat.

4. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for about 20 minutes, til they're lightly browned. I like to check them at 10 minutes, rotate the pans, give 'em a shake, say hello.

I think they taste best at room temperature 'cause they're crispy, but some people like them warm.

Here's a list of caveman-approved nuts, in case you care:
Almonds
Brazil nuts
Cashews
Chestnuts
Hazelnuts (filberts)
Macadamia nuts
Pecans
Pistachios
Walnuts

The pecans are particularly good because the spices get stuck in the little cracks.