Always wash your hands before, during & after cooking, pre-wipe worksurfaces with a bleachy water solution with an adult helping in the kitchen.
Sweet Oak Smoked Almonds "Luxury" Trail mix
Even without being smoked Almonds made this way are scrumptious, you can eat them on their own or add some of the other ingredients we included in part 1 of this blog piece.
In fact since several Olympians we talked to (Team GB's Medal winning Jenny Jones for snowboard slopestyle, & 3 times Canadian Olympian Mercedes Nicoll) BOTH poined out how usefyl nuts & almonds are as energy givers, so even if you don't mix up a recipe, if yo buy them freshly roasted then they make a superb after school snack, instead of bad for you biscuits, I can't resist them!
Get the freshest WHOLE almonds you can, not flaked as they are really dry & have lost their creamy nutty flavour.
(we bought ours loose along with some pistachios when passing Lidl for 59p per 100g which is the cheapest of all the supermarkets helping save group funds).
Recipe -
250g Almonds (with skins)
40g of Salted butter
4 x teaspoon of Granulated sugar
1x teaspoon of Table salt
IF your almonds are already salted, only add 1/2 (or less) the amount on this recipe.
Method.
- Melt the butter in a pan and remove from heat.
- Add the almonds coating them with the melted butter thoroughly.
- Spread the almonds on a baking tray and place in a pre-heated oven (180C / 350F Gas mark 4) for 12 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the almonds to a sealable container and add the salt and sugar mix.
- Seal the container and shake until mixed.
- Open the container and allow the contents to cool thoroughly. It may be necessary to mix everything together with a spoon as some of the mix can become stuck on the bottom of the container.
The almonds are now ready for smoking.
Transfer them onto a baking tray, or if you have one, use a fine wire mesh tray, and place in the cold smoker.
Cold smoke the almonds for 4 hours over oak or beech.
Transfer the smoked almonds back to the sealable container and give them another shake.
They are now ready to bag up or even eat. These make a posh treat for any occasion.
If you haven't got a cold smoker, don't worry, the sweet & savoury flavours of the sugar salt & butter make these yummy, adding a bit of smoke is just how we like it (Dad cold smokes everything these days).