Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Nuts for Christmas

A few years ago I was browsing through a Cosmo or Glamour magazine when a photo caught my eye. It wasn't a photo of shoes or clothing, it was a photo of a yellow bowl overflowing with pecans and pumpkin seeds. On closer inspection, I saw it was a recipe for homemade bar nuts. 

Spiced Pepitas and Pecans recipe.

I was intrigued by the unique combination of spices-- cinnamon, allspice, cumin and cayenne pepper, and decided to give it a try. This will be my third year making this nut mixture for Christmas. I love making it! It fills our house with the most delicious smell, and the taste is even better. The recipe is very simple. Although it only calls for pumpkin seeds and pecans, I have modified the recipe to include almonds. I mean, really, you can't go wrong with almonds!

You may recall that I posted about this nut mix last year. But I love it so much, I decided to document my "making of" this year.

1) Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2) In a small bowl, combine sugar, salt and spices. Set aside.

Sugar, salt and spices.

Almonds, pumpkin seed and pecans.

3) In a large bowl, beat egg whites and water until frothy.


Nuts in the frothy egg and water mixture.

4) Stir in pepitas and nuts, then add sugar mixture. Toss until all are completely coated.

Nuts completely coated.

5) Evenly spread pepitas and nuts onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until crispy.

Nuts ready for baking.

The prep work for these nuts take less than 10 minutes, and you can clean up while they are baking. Afterwards, I like to portion them out into individual treat bags and give them as holiday gifts. So... Co-workers, if any of you are reading this, expect a bag coming your way in the near future.

Of course, there are always a few people out there who are allergic to nuts. So I will be making Mint Blizzard Chocolate Chip Cookies as a substitute.

Nut mix in our Christmas tree!

Only five days of work until the holidays begin! Hooray for Christmas!

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