sweet and spicy nuts
Roasting these sweet and spicy nuts on a chilly fall day will make your house smell so cozy! They are a great gift from the kitchen, a healthy snack or you can add them to a salad for crunch and spicy fall flavor.
Maple has been out for less than three weeks, and I am starting to feel physically a little out of whack. It feels a little bit like when we brought my oldest home from the hospital. I am hungry at strange times, I’ve been staying up later than normal, I’m a little more weepy than I would normally be. Don’t get me wrong, it is all good, my circadian rhythms are just a little confused.
I could use a bit of a chill-out with Allure magazine and a down comforter on this 37 degree gray day. There isn’t really time for that though. Onwards!
One of the fun things I got to do this past week was that I got to visit the third grade at my local elementary school to talk about writing (of all things.) Since I am more of a cook/artist I find it ironic that they wanted to hear what I had to say about writing.
After talking to the teacher about topics they are learning about, I realized that it may actually make sense for me to share a little about how I organized myself for the project. And about how much I struggled with writing the introduction. I read introduction aloud to them.
If you have a copy of the book already, and you’ve read the introduction yourself, then you can imagine that it was hard for me to read it to a room full of shining faced third graders and not start weeping. (Did I mention I am feeling emotional?)
But thankfully, I made it without actually crying. When I was finished. One of the scholars from the front row raised her hands and said, “There are a lot of metaphors.”
Well blow me down.
First of all, I know I didn’t know what a metaphor was when I was in third grade or how to pick one out. And secondly, she was totally right! The introduction is basically a list of metaphors.
So here I am today with a recipe to share with you and all I can think about are metaphors again.
Specifically the smell of my kitchen right now. These sweet and spicy nuts are a metaphor for cozyness on a fall day. The smell of these nuts is wrapping yourself up in a cozy fluffy sweater. There I go! Off onto the metaphors! When I smell the cinnamon and spice and roasted nuts I am snuggled into a cozy blanket with a warm mug of tea and a book. These sweet and spicy nuts are that feeling on a chilly blustery day, sitting in the window seat. So even though I am not able to actually do that right now, these nuts are exactly what I need right now.
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sweet and spicy nuts
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 1/2 cups 1x
- Category: Snack
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These roasted spiced nuts are very crispy on the outside due to the egg white coating. They are fantastic as an gluten-free snack or sweet and savory nibble before a meal or try tossing them into a salad for crunch and flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 egg white
- 2 cup walnuts or pecans
- 4 teaspoons granulated maple sugar, coconut sugar or white sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground chipotle chili or cayenne (or to taste)
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silpat baking mat or coat generously with cooking spray.
- Beat egg white in a medium bowl until foamy. Add nuts and stir to coat. Add sugar, cinnamon, salt, chili and allspice and toss to coat. Spread out on the prepared baking sheet and transfer to the oven.
- Roast, until the mixture starts to look dry, 7 to 8 minutes. Stir and continue roasting until the nuts are browned and fragrant, 3 to 6 minutes longer. Cool completely and store in a jar at room temperature up to 1 week.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 cup
- Calories: 168
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 118 mg
- Fat: 16 g
- Saturated Fat: 2 g
- Carbohydrates: 5 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 4 g
More Recipes You May Like:
Vermont Fall Salad with Cheddar and Bacon
Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Praline Mini Bundt
These nuts will not last a day in our house…..everyone will eat them too quickly. They look so good and so easy to make, cannot wait to try them!
They are majorly addictive. My daughters and their two friends ate almost a whole batch of them! Even with the chipotle.
i can’t imagine how good your house must smell after baking these! these nuts would be perfect in my pumpkin oatmeal 🙂
They would be so good on oatmeal.
These look delicious! I think that I would sit down and eat half of them before I realized it!
That is a clear and present danger. Lol!
GAH! How fun that you got to go talk about writing, that must have been a blast!
These nuts though. I LOVELOVELOVE the sweet and spicy and SNACKY goodness of them girl!
It was kinda surprising to learn that I did have something to say about writing after all. Ha ha.
How fun to be able to share with third graders…my daughter is in third grade and I can assure you she would have truly enjoyed hearing you talk about writing in her class. Such a great, impressionable age!! Love it.
And I love these nuts! They look incredible! I really think the egg white always makes spiced nuts better, have to remember to do that next time.
Third grade is the best. I loved how many hands went up for the question and answer part. They were the best audience!
Putting these beauties on my Halloween party to do list. Congrats on the book. Can’t wait to have a peek!
That’s a great idea. They are a crowd pleaser for sure.
The smell must be amazing! Ah!
And reading your own writing….so hard! Haha, ah!
It really is! OMG reading your own writing out loud IS so hard. Eek. I am so glad I survived.
These look comforting, and make the perfect snack for the season! I’m dying to put on a cozy sweat and enjoy the cooler temps (had to do that while traveling, as Phoenix is still pretty warm these days)!
It is really chilly here. Down to 37 this morning! Brr. These nuts do make the house seem cozy though.
My mom used to make roasted nuts using an egg white coating – such a clever idea.
I learned about it when I was cooking at a restaurant. We did it to hazelnuts for the cheese plates. Customers always raved about them.
Aw, that’s adorable that the girl raised her hand to tell you that there are metaphors in your intro! These nuts look like the perfect snack, and I bet they are just as delicious as the spiced maple pecans I made from your cookbook! (Seriously, my friends LOVED them!)
After writing this post, my third grader and I had a long discussion about metaphors. I think she is starting to get it. Ha ha. I am so glad you tried the maple spiced nuts from the book. They are fantastic aren’t they? Glad you had friends to share them with, because I know from experience that it is possible to eat the whole batch by oneself!
You are the cutest! That story is adorable! These nuts look fantastic, can’t wait to make them!
I’m thrilled! I’ve been making nuts just like these in my frying pan for years, always frustrated with the lack of coating and the precision required to keep them from burning and breaking my heart. Now I can make them even more amazing with your recipe!! Bless you!
I just made this recipe and want to say thank you so much! In the past, I have used coconut oil to coat the nuts with the spices. For some odd reason, I seem to have had an aversion to those recipes calling for the egg white method. I am so glad I decided to go with the egg white version this time. Great texture and flavor with no added calories. Perfect! Thanks again!
That’s so great to hear Carol. First, I have to say, what a coincidence, I just made these on Thursday for Thanksgiving for the first time in quite a while. We were reminded how much we love them. Thank you so much for coming back to say that you liked it. I really appreciate your taking the time to do so.
Made these for our family Christmas party this weekend. I was home alone with them for approx 4 hours, how I did not eat the entire lot is a miracle. These are so easy and so tasty! Thank you Katie for another great staple!
★★★★★
Haha! I love hearing that so much! My friend told me that she does indeed make this just to eat for herself. They’re addictive aren’t they?!