Going Nuts

This past week found me finally getting into the spirit of holiday “baking”. I’d been meaning to do this since I put up our artificial tree. The assembly of the tree occurred before Thanksgiving. I refuse to apologize or feel bad about breaking the unwritten rule of “no Christmas decorating before Thanksgiving Day”. Who doesn’t need to do whatever brings them joy in this wretched year?

I’ve made multiple batches of caramel popcorn using the recipe I’ve shared in the past that features large paper grocery bags and the microwave. (If you missed that, feel free to look me up via Facebook to ask for it. I’ll message the recipe to you.) A couple of those batches were mailed off to our distant daughters. The youngest daughter’s chow-hound beagles could smell it on the other gifts and tried to rip them open. Those gifts are now safely on a high shelf, not under her tree. A couple of those batches have been consumed by us, which was not an unexpected happening.

This week saw the digging out and use of several recipes for spiced nuts. I’ve listed those recipes below. If you don’t like scrubbing your jelly-roll pans, I’d suggest lining them with tin foil, parchment paper, or silicone baking sheets. It will save you some grief. I find that you can add at least one more cup of nuts to each recipe. The Italian nuts are easy to make but very salty. The citrus nuts are a new addition to my nutty repertoire that will stay in rotation.

Sweet and Spicy Pecans

1/2 C sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp chile powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of cayenne

1 egg white, whisked lightly

2 C pecans

Heat oven to 300°. Mix together the sugar and spices in a small bowl. Stir the nuts into the egg white, stirring to coat. Sprinkle with the sugar mixture, stirring again to coat. Place nuts on a rimmed baking sheet, separating the nuts. Bake 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to waxed paper to finish cooling. Break apart as needed. Store airtight.

Spiced Nuts

1/2 tsp EACH cumin, chile powder, curry powder, and garlic salt

1/4 tsp EACH cayenne powder, powdered ginger, cinnamon, and white pepper

2 Tbl extra virgin olive oil

2 C almonds OR pecans

1 Tbl kosher salt and/ or garlic salt

Heat oven to 325°. Combine first two sets of spices. Over low heat, using a non-stick pan, stir together the oil and spices for 3-4 minutes. Put nuts in a bowl and pour the spicy oil over them. Toss and stir to coat the nuts, then spread in a single layer on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with kosher and/or additional garlic salt. Cool for 2 hours. Store airtight.

Italian Nuts

4 C nuts (any kind)

2 Tbl butter

2 Tbl soy sauce

1 envelope dry Italian Salad Dressing mix

Saute nuts in melted butter for 2 minutes. Stir in soy sauce. Remove from heat, sprinkle dry mix over nuts, stirring to evenly distribute the mix. Cool in a single layer. Store airtight.

Citrus Nuts

1 C pecans

1 C walnuts

1 egg white

1 tsp grated lemon peel

1 tsp grated orange peel

1/2 C powdered sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Dash salt

Heat oven to 300°. Mix together nuts, unbeaten egg white, and peels until nuts are coated and sticky. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over the nuts. Stir until sugar is dissolved and nuts are evenly coated. Spread on ungreased jelly roll pan. Bake 25 minutes. Remove from sheet to cool on waxed paper. Store airtight.

I have also baked meltaway and candy cane cookies. They were less work than I remembered, probably because I’d psyched myself up to expect to have to expend a lot of effort to get decent looking cookies. Of course, both those recipes produce fragile cookies, so there’s some breakage during the baking process. Breakage requires hiding by consumption, at least in my mind. The next Whole Life Challenge that begins in mid-January will be needed!

The new-to-me recipe I’m about to share caused much swearing. I’d doubled it, using half almond flour (thinking it would be slightly healthier?) which may have contributed to my frustration. I highly recommend using silicone cupcake liners. Following the directions to leave the muffin pans ungreased resulted in major stickage problems. Getting them pried from the pans gave me lots of mistakes to consume. They’re ugly yet delicious. They do stick to paper liners - more oopses to hide by eating! Don’t press the crust layer too thin on the bottoms as the filling will seep through to stick.

Pecan Pie Cookies

Filling: 1/4 C butter, 1/2 C powdered sugar, 3 Tbl light corn syrup, and 3/4 C chopped pecans

Crust: 2 C flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 C brown sugar, 3/4 C soft butter, 1 egg, and 1 tsp vanilla

Filling: melt the butter over low heat in a small pan. Stir in the sugar and syrup until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil while stirring. Remove from heat, stir in the nuts until combined. Refrigerate 30 minutes to chill.

Crust: heat oven to 350°. Sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside. Beat the rest until well combined. Add in the flour gradually until well mixed. Roll into 1 Tbl balls. Press each into the bottom and up the sides of ungreased cupcake pans. Fill each with 1 tsp cooled filling. Bake 10-13 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

Again, use silicone muffin liners! It will save you from swearing and/or having to consume too many ugly results! This year has already been too hard on too many waistlines.