Hot Honey Roasted Nuts
The best edible gift is one nobody expects. A jar of these turns up at a Christmas table, a housewarming or a thank-you, and disappears faster than anything you could have bought.
They take twenty minutes and they're better than they have any right to be.
Ingredients
Makes about 500g
500g mixed raw nuts — almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts
3 tbsp Coastal honey
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp chilli flakes, or more
1 tsp flaky sea salt, plus extra
1 sprig rosemary, leaves finely chopped
Optional: 1 tbsp Jarrah honey, for the end
Method
Heat the oven to 150°C fan. Low and slow. Nuts and honey both catch quickly, and at 180°C you'll have burnt patches before the centres have toasted.
Line a tray with baking paper. Not foil, because the honey welds to it.
Warm the Coastal honey, olive oil, paprika, chilli, salt and rosemary together in a small pan over low heat for thirty seconds, just enough to loosen the honey so it coats evenly.
Tip the nuts into a bowl, pour the mixture over and stir until every nut is glossy.
Spread them across the tray in a single layer. Piled up they steam and stay soft.
Roast for 15 to 18 minutes, stirring at the halfway point. They're ready when they smell properly toasted and look a shade darker.
Take them out while they still look slightly underdone. They crisp as they cool, and this is where most people go wrong.
Scatter over a little more flaky salt and leave them on the tray to cool completely. They'll be sticky and clustered at first, then set hard. Break them apart with your hands.
If you'd like, drizzle a little Jarrah over once they're cold. It won't soak in, it sits on the surface, and you get the toffee right at the front of the bite.
Getting the heat right
Half a teaspoon of chilli gives a gentle warmth that most people will enjoy. A full teaspoon makes them properly hot, which is better if they're going out with drinks.
If you've already made the hot honey from our other recipe, use two tablespoons of that in place of the chilli flakes and you can skip the flakes entirely.
Packing them as a gift
Let them cool completely, or they'll sweat in the jar and go soft.
A clip-top jar, a brown paper bag with a folded top, or a cellophane bag tied with string all work. Add a tag with the date and a note that they keep for two weeks.
If you're giving them to someone who'd appreciate it, a small jar of honey alongside makes it a proper present rather than a snack.
Which honey
Coastal does the roasting. It's mild and it's the one to cook with, and at $12.75 for 400g you can make several batches without thinking about it.
Jarrah is the optional finish, added cold once the nuts have cooled. Fifteen minutes in an oven would take everything out of it, which is exactly why it goes on afterwards.
Keeping them
Two weeks in an airtight container at room temperature, though they rarely last that long.
Don't refrigerate them. The cold draws moisture in and they lose their crunch.