I've found great joy in snacking on healthy nuts such as almonds, walnuts and pistachios. Roasting nuts at home is probably the easiest thing to mess up!
What do I mean?
Well roasting nuts itself is as easy as 123:
1. Mix up nuts with your favorite seasoning and dump them in a baking sheet; 2. Stick them in the oven; 3. Roast them!
But boy oh boy, have I messed up nearly half of the time, either burned the nuts, or undercooked them!
Until I came upon this magic method of roasting nuts at a low temperature! Such a no-brainer, but took me a while to discover it! I learned it from Alice Waters on her MasterClass. Here are the notes from her workbook, and how I made mine. It's so simple and delicious that it'd be a crime not to try it at home!
"Roasted Almonds with Rosemary
adapted from My Pantry, page 30"
Ingredients:
3 cup almonds
½ cup loosely packed rosemary leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
Steps:
1. Preheat the oven to 275°F.
A little note on this: ovens vary in size and hence cooking temperature and time need adjustment. I've tried 275°F and the nuts came out a bit dark and overcooked. Since then I've been roasting mine at 265°F instead and the results have been consistently great.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix together the nuts and rosemary. Add the oil and salt and toss gently until the nuts and rosemary are evenly coated.
3. Spread the nuts and rosemary on the baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Stir the nuts and return them to the oven for 10 more minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and break a few nuts open. If their centers are golden brown they are done; if the nuts still need more time, stir them and return them to the oven, checking every 5 minutes or so. 35 to 40 minutes work well in my case.
4. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, allow the nuts to cool down completely, transfer them to an air tight container, enjoy!