Spiced Nuts

With Father's Day just round the corner, I'm sure everyone's racking their brains to figure out just how to spoil dad. Well, if your dad loves flavoured nuts, I've got a really simple recipe here for you.




When I first had this idea, I went trawling through the net for spiced nuts recipes, but all of them seem to just dust roasted nuts with spices. But what about that gnarly crispy coating that you get with store bought nuts?

Well, the secret? Egg whites.



I learnt a recipe for almond biscuits that use just lightly whipped egg whites with icing sugar and slivered almonds, and it gave the exact texture that I wanted for my nuts.

Cayenne Spiced Nuts:

1 large egg white
350g raw cashews (or any nuts you like)
3 teaspoons of cayenne pepper
1 tsp of paprika
2 tsp salt (or smoked salt if you can get your hands on it)
2 tsp icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C. Simply whip up the egg whites to soft peaks, then stir in all the seasoning. Coat the nuts in the mixture, then spread onto a baking paper lined cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake till golden brown, then let cool. Break up the nuts - it would have baked into one single sheet - and if things aren't as crispy, you can dry it out a little in a low (150C) oven.

Then simply pop into a jar/airtight container/cellophane bags and serve it up to Dad with his favourite whisky on the rocks/beer/beverage of choice!

 

This super simple recipe means that you can make a whole ton of variations - anything from sweet vanilla almonds, to peri peri peanuts...the sky's the limit. As long as you can mix it into the egg white mixture, you're good to go. Just remember that the flavour can get a little muted, so if you find that it's not quite as strong as you'd like it, just scatter more flavouring over the top while its still warm, and just mix it in once it's cooled.