DIRECTIONS
Dissolve
salt in water as much as possible and then pour onto raw nuts, stirring thoroughly. Spread
onto a lined baking sheet.
Bake at 375
for about 15 minutes, stirring at the halfway mark.
After
baking, coat the warm nuts with
a bit of olive oil and a couple shakes of sea salt and let them cool. They soak
up all that goodness and then look like the perfectly roasted almonds that they
are.
To
flavor or not?
I don’t
often add any flavoring because I usually want a basic nut I can then use to top
salads and in my favorite granola, as well as for snacking.
Any herb
can be added, though, and garlic powder or seasoned salt would probably make
them even harder to stop eating as a snack – if that’s possible – so flavor as
you’d like.
This basic
DIY roasted almonds recipe has changed our nut-eating life, though, so I just
had to share with you how easy and amazing it is to roast your own almonds at
home.
The one
thing you have to be careful of is burning – it’s literally a minute between
perfect and slightly burned nuts.
And, yes,
I’ve experienced it first hand – but you know what? Brian and I agree that even
the slightly “too-browned” almonds
are better than commercially roasted.
Instructions
1.
Heat oven to 375 degrees and line a large
baking sheet with silicone or parchment.* Place the raw almonds in a large metal or ceramic
mixing bowl (we'll be adding the hot nuts back into it, so don't use plastic).
2.
Stir 1½ teaspoon of salt into the hot water
until mostly dissolved (it hardly ever completely dissolves for me - it's okay
if it doesn't), pour over the nuts
in the bowl and mix until all are coated.
3.
Transfer to prepared baking sheet, spreading
the nuts in a single layer.
4.
Bake for about 8 minutes, stir well and spread
back into a single layer. Bake for 6-8 minutes more, depending on how your oven
cooks (Ours are usually perfect at about 15 minutes total, but your oven may
vary, so may take 5-10 minutes longer). To test doneness, the nuts should be nicely browned,
inside and out (you can cut one open to see if it's browned inside). Keep an
eye on them, this is when they can burn quickly - but you don't want them
undercooked either or they won't be crisp (once you've made them, the timing is
easier).
5.
When they are done baking, put the hot nuts back into the large bowl and
pour the olive oil over them. Toss well until all the nuts are coated, shaking on sea
salt as you go. You can taste one, but they're very hot, so be careful (I
usually just like to see a bit of salt on the outsides and that seems to be
enough with the original salt-water coating).
6.
Leave the nuts to cool in the bowl, or spread
out on the pan again if you need them to cool more quickly. The nuts will soak up the oil as they
cool.**
7.
Store in an airtight container at room
temperature.
Notes
*This amount
of almonds fits in a single
layer on a 18x13-inch baking pan - cut the recipe down if your largest pan is
smaller so that the nuts remain
in a single layer.
**You may
notice that they nuts are soft
in the first minutes out of the oven. Oil them and let them sit and they will
crisp up and be wonderful!
