Roasted Almonds

Note: Be sure to leave space between the almonds, don't overcrowd the baking sheet. It helps make sure each almond gets enough heat to get a roasty taste. Greasing the foil adds just enough oil to the almonds, no need to add oil to the almonds themselves.

Fine grain salt sticks to the almonds better than table salt.

If you're having a difficult time getting your seasoning to stick, whip an egg white into a foam. Add a spoonful at a time and mix in, stop when most of your seasoning sticks. Whipping into a foam makes it easier to evenly coat the warm almonds without adding too much.

Jump to Herby Almonds

Jump to Smoky Almonds

Jump to Sweet Spiced Almonds

Jump to Tajín Almonds

Basic, Salted Almonds

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) whole Almonds, raw and skin-on

½ teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) with rack in middle position

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and grease the foil

Spread almonds in a single even layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes

Pour almonds into a heat proof bowl and add salt

Stir to try to evenly distribute the salt onto the almonds

Return the salted almonds to the baking sheet in a single even layer and bake for 10 more minutes

Let cool

---

Herby Almonds

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) whole Almonds, raw and skin-on

½ teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

¼ teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

½ teaspoon Powdered Sage

½ teaspoon dried Thyme Leaves

½ teaspoon dried Rosemary

½ teaspoon White Wine Vinegar

Whipped Egg White

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) with rack in middle position

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and grease the foil

Spread almonds in a single even layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together salt, black pepper, sage, thyme, and rosemary

Add almonds to a heat proof bowl, add vinegar*, and stir to try to distribute the liquid onto the almonds

Sprinkle herb mix over almonds and stir Add a little egg white at a time, stirring between each addition, stop when most of the herb mix is sticking to the almonds

Spread seasoned almonds in a single even layer on the baking sheet again and bake for 10 minutes

Let cool

Final Notes:

*Careful when adding the vinegar to the hot almonds, they kind of vaporized the vinegar and made my eyes water.

The egg whites seemed to be necessary to get the larger herbs stick to the almonds. Egg whites are optional for most of the other recipes because they use fine ground herbs and spices.

I was going to use lemon juice instead of vinegar, but I didn't have any lemons.

---

Smoky Almonds

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) whole Almonds, raw and skin-on

½ teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

½ teaspoon Smoked Paprika

½ teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

1 shake Cayenne Pepper (my spice shakers are low flow)

Liquid Smoke

MSG (optional) Whipped Egg White (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) with rack in middle position

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and grease the foil

Spread almonds in a single even layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together salt, paprika, black pepper, and cayenne

Add liquid smoke to a heat proof bowl and swirl around to coat the bowl [Tapping the bowl is really helpful to get it to spread more evenly], dump excess down the drain

Add almonds to the heat proof bowl and stir to try to distribute the liquid smoke onto the almonds

Sprinkle spice mix over almonds and stir

Spread seasoned almonds in a single even layer on the baking sheet again and bake for 10 minutes

Let cool

Final Notes:

Luke says they remind him of pit chicken fundraiser skin.... While I can't attest to that specifically, they do have some similarity to eating the seasoned, well-browned skin from a roasted chicken.

These had a hint of smoke to them, and they are good as is. But I wouldn't call them smoky. I think I poured about ⅛ teaspoon of liquid smoke into my bowl (halved recipe). I think I could have kept the excess to toss the almond in without the smoke being overpowering.

---

Sweet Spiced Almonds

Note: This recipe as-is is only slightly sweet

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) whole Almonds, raw and skin-on

¼ teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

½ teaspoon Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1 shake All Spice (my spice shakers are low flow)

1 shake Ground Cloves (my spice shakers are low flow)

½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 tablespoon Brown Sugar

Whipped Egg White (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) with rack in middle position

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and grease the foil

Spread almonds in a single even layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, all spice, and cloves

In a second small bowl, mix vanilla and brown sugar together to make a syrup

Add almonds and syrup to a heat proof bowl, stir to evenly coat

Sprinkle spice mix over almonds and stir

Spread seasoned almonds in a single even layer on the baking sheet again and bake for 10 minutes

Let cool

Final Notes:

Next time, I might try adding honey to the syrup or using it to replace the brown sugar completely.

---

Tajín Almonds

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) whole Almonds, raw and skin-on

½ Lime, juiced

1 teaspoon Chili Powder

1 tablespoon Tajín

Whipped Egg White (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C) with rack in middle position

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and grease the foil

Spread almonds in a single even layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together the chili powder and Tajín

Add almonds and lime juice to the heat proof bowl and stir to try to distribute the juice onto the almonds, pour out the excess juice

Sprinkle spice mix over almonds and stir

Spread seasoned almonds in a single even layer on the baking sheet again and bake for 10 minutes

Let cool

Final Notes:

They came out kind of dark, but don't taste overcooked. Darkness is probably from the acid.

The lime was overpowering when I tried an almond before the second bake, but that calmed down very nicely! They taste great!

This was an attempt to make something similar to Blue Diamond's Chile n' Lime almonds.

We kind of like these better. They're not at strong tasting (probably the lack of citric acid powder), so you feel like you could eat more in one sitting.