Friday night and rather than hanging at my favorite watering hole, I’m at home cooking for the Yankee Swap party tomorrow night. I’m making spiced nuts and caramel corn as my swap gift. The nuts will go in a nice glass jar and the caramel corn in a festive tin.
The spiced nuts go like this:
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 lb unsalted nuts (I use almonds and pecans)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Set oven for 300 and line a jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Spray paper with cooking spray. Whisk the egg whites, salt and water together in a large bowl. Toss in nuts to coat and then drain in a colander for 4-5 minutes. Combine sugar, cinnamon, coriander and ginger in a large bowl, add nuts and toss to coat. Spread onto paper lined pan. Bake until nuts are crisp and dry about 40-45 minutes, rotating half way though cooking cycle. Let cool to room temperature. Break clumps of nuts apart.
They will get crisper as they cool and will keep up to 3-4 weeks.
The draining part allows the excess egg white mixture to drain away from the nuts so there’s just a thin binding coat on the nuts. If the nuts are not drained, the nuts could end up with clumps of cooked egg whites on them when they are baked.
