Recipe: Dry Roasted Almonds
9 April 2019 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runpunkrun posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gluten_freeThese dry roasted almonds are delicious and so simple. You can add flavored oils or spices to make them more exciting, but even plain they taste way better than any roasted almond you can buy in a grocery store, and they're cheaper too.
Ingredients:
4 ½ cups raw, whole almonds (1 ½ pounds, or 680 grams)
1 ½ tablespoons water
1 ½ teaspoons fine salt
2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)
salt to taste
Time: Five minutes of prep, and about twenty of cooking.
0. Pre-heat your oven to 375°F and get out a 18 x 13 inch rimmed baking sheet, sometimes known as a "half size" sheet or jelly roll pan. If your baking sheet is smaller than this, only make as many nuts as will fit in a single layer on the sheet. I like to put down a piece of parchment paper to minimize clean up and so the almonds don't stick, but you can easily go without.
1. Throw your raw almonds in a big mixing bowl.
2. Get your water hot in the microwave or kettle, then, in a little bowl, add the salt and stir stir stir. Not all of the salt will dissolve, but give it a good try. Also here's a thing I learned: Don't microwave salt water; it spits and explodes and you won't have any water left once it's hot.
3. Pour the salty water on your almonds and stir them around until everybody's damp.
4. Spread the almonds out on the baking sheet in a single layer.
5. Into the oven! Middle rack.
6. This is the tricky part. Cook for 8 minutes, then stir all the nuts around and resettle them in a single layer. Cook 6-8 minutes more, staying close to the oven. And here's the most useless advice in all of cooking, but I'll repeat it here: Take them out before they burn. Sorry. It's hard to tell when these are done, but start out on the lower end of time, like 15 minutes total. You can always add more minutes the next time you make them. More on this in the notes section.
7. Remove from the oven and let nuts cool on the sheet. Eat a few while they're still warm and all soft and melty inside.
OR
7. Remove from the oven, pour the hot nuts back into the mixing bowl and drizzle them with oil. Stir them around. Taste one—carefully, they're hot!—add seasonings or more salt if desired. Eat a couple more.
8. After the nuts have completely cooled, store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for...honestly, these get eaten up so fast around here, I've never seen one go stale, but they'll last for weeks if not months.
Notes:
How do you know when your nuts are done? Experience, unfortunately. The difference between roasted and burnt is a minute, and you can't tell just by looking at them that they're burning at first, but you'll be able to taste it later. The good news is that even a slightly burnt homemade almond tastes better than one from the store. You can taste it, but it's not bad.
So err on the side of caution until you know exactly how long it'll take in your oven. You can tell the nuts haven't been cooked enough if they go a little soft the next day. If that happens, just give them an extra minute or two in the oven next time. You know you have the perfect time when they're not burnt and they stay crisp and crunchy until they're gone. Mine take twenty minutes total, and lately I've been cooking them at 370°F because they were getting a little too brown at 375°F. Experiment to find the right combo of time and heat for you. A lower temperature means a longer cooking time, but it'll give you more of a cushion between roasted and burnt.
When the nuts come out of the oven, I just let them cool on the pan without adding the additional oil. This means they need to be the right amount of salty when they start out because you can't add more salt after they're roasted. The extra salt only sticks if you oil them. The nuts absorb the oil and they're not greasy at all once they dry, but I've tried it both ways and just like them better without the oil.
Variations:
If you want to add additional flavors, like smoked paprika or garam masala or taco seasoning or whatever, then go ahead and dump the hot nuts back in the mixing bowl, drizzle them with the oil, and then sprinkle your flavors on and stir the nuts around until you like how they taste. Let them cool and absorb all the oil, then store them in an air-tight container at room temperature until they're gone.
This recipe appeared on my journal in a slightly different form.
Ingredients:
4 ½ cups raw, whole almonds (1 ½ pounds, or 680 grams)
1 ½ tablespoons water
1 ½ teaspoons fine salt
2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)
salt to taste
Time: Five minutes of prep, and about twenty of cooking.
0. Pre-heat your oven to 375°F and get out a 18 x 13 inch rimmed baking sheet, sometimes known as a "half size" sheet or jelly roll pan. If your baking sheet is smaller than this, only make as many nuts as will fit in a single layer on the sheet. I like to put down a piece of parchment paper to minimize clean up and so the almonds don't stick, but you can easily go without.
1. Throw your raw almonds in a big mixing bowl.
2. Get your water hot in the microwave or kettle, then, in a little bowl, add the salt and stir stir stir. Not all of the salt will dissolve, but give it a good try. Also here's a thing I learned: Don't microwave salt water; it spits and explodes and you won't have any water left once it's hot.
3. Pour the salty water on your almonds and stir them around until everybody's damp.
4. Spread the almonds out on the baking sheet in a single layer.
5. Into the oven! Middle rack.
6. This is the tricky part. Cook for 8 minutes, then stir all the nuts around and resettle them in a single layer. Cook 6-8 minutes more, staying close to the oven. And here's the most useless advice in all of cooking, but I'll repeat it here: Take them out before they burn. Sorry. It's hard to tell when these are done, but start out on the lower end of time, like 15 minutes total. You can always add more minutes the next time you make them. More on this in the notes section.
7. Remove from the oven and let nuts cool on the sheet. Eat a few while they're still warm and all soft and melty inside.
OR
7. Remove from the oven, pour the hot nuts back into the mixing bowl and drizzle them with oil. Stir them around. Taste one—carefully, they're hot!—add seasonings or more salt if desired. Eat a couple more.
8. After the nuts have completely cooled, store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for...honestly, these get eaten up so fast around here, I've never seen one go stale, but they'll last for weeks if not months.
Notes:
How do you know when your nuts are done? Experience, unfortunately. The difference between roasted and burnt is a minute, and you can't tell just by looking at them that they're burning at first, but you'll be able to taste it later. The good news is that even a slightly burnt homemade almond tastes better than one from the store. You can taste it, but it's not bad.
So err on the side of caution until you know exactly how long it'll take in your oven. You can tell the nuts haven't been cooked enough if they go a little soft the next day. If that happens, just give them an extra minute or two in the oven next time. You know you have the perfect time when they're not burnt and they stay crisp and crunchy until they're gone. Mine take twenty minutes total, and lately I've been cooking them at 370°F because they were getting a little too brown at 375°F. Experiment to find the right combo of time and heat for you. A lower temperature means a longer cooking time, but it'll give you more of a cushion between roasted and burnt.
When the nuts come out of the oven, I just let them cool on the pan without adding the additional oil. This means they need to be the right amount of salty when they start out because you can't add more salt after they're roasted. The extra salt only sticks if you oil them. The nuts absorb the oil and they're not greasy at all once they dry, but I've tried it both ways and just like them better without the oil.
Variations:
If you want to add additional flavors, like smoked paprika or garam masala or taco seasoning or whatever, then go ahead and dump the hot nuts back in the mixing bowl, drizzle them with the oil, and then sprinkle your flavors on and stir the nuts around until you like how they taste. Let them cool and absorb all the oil, then store them in an air-tight container at room temperature until they're gone.
This recipe appeared on my journal in a slightly different form.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-10 11:09 am (UTC)Hereabouts I can purchase “Tamari almonds” which add salt and umami with all the other wonders of these nuts (protein! Gratifying non-trans fat! Portability!)
Tamari (gf soy sauce) combines salt and water, so it seems a natural for this recipe. I’m going to try this. Do you think that tamari would substitute for water at the equivalent volume? Does the hot water aid in penetrating the almonds, or might room temp work?
I know, I know! experiment
Imagine finishing with peanut oil & a breeze of ginger powder. yum.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-10 04:59 pm (UTC)First, the water is hot to help aid the salt in dissolving. It doesn't sit on the nuts long enough for it to penetrate past the skin. Not like some roasted nut recipes that have you soak the nuts in salt water for several hours first. Those usually have a long cooking time at a low temperature in order to get all the liquid out. This recipe uses the salt water as a way to get the salt to stick to the outside of the nuts, though a lot of it still falls off during the cooking process.
Since tamari is already salty, I think you could skip the water/salt step entirely and just toss the raw nuts in the tamari. I don't know what happens if you roast tamari sauce, though--is it going to make the nuts burn faster? But if you add the tamari to the nuts after they're roasted, will it soak in? And if it does, will it make them soggy?
An experiment is definitely called for.
I'd start off with replacing the salt water with around a tablespoon of tamari, roasting the nuts, carefully tasting one, and then oiling them, giving them an extra hit of salt if necessary, and sprinkling on the ginger.
If it works, awesome! If it doesn't: Plan B. :D