Smokehouse Flavored Roasted Nuts

Cookbook Bites: Smokehouse Flavored Roasted Nuts

The other day I was on the elliptical at the gym watching Ina Garten roasting nuts with chipotle and rosemary. She was making roasted nuts for entertaining, but I was already connecting the dots thinking they'd make a good portable snack.

Neighborhood tree beginning to change colors before the leaves fall.

As I reviewed the recipe I found that I didn't know what chipotle was, which it turned out is smoke-dried jalapeño. The recipe also calls for smoked paprika, which is pretty amazing, so I decided to go all in with the smokehouse flavor and added liquid smoke.

The fresh rosemary was the scent I remember from the Herbal Essence shampoo from the 70's. (They said there were 17 herbal essences in the shampoo, and as it turns out, as per Truth in Aging: Did Vintage Shampoos Have the Right Idea?, some other unwanted ingredients like the carcinogen Tetrasodium EDTA. So it seems there's a solid reason as to why it's not on the market anymore. Bummer!)

Mixed nuts, Splenda brown sugar, rosemary

Smokehouse Flavored Roasted Nuts

2 1/2  C mixed nuts
1 C pecans
1/2 C almonds
1/2 C cashews
1/4 C brown sugar (Splenda brown sugar worked fine)
2 T fresh rosemary minced

1 1/2 T fresh squeezed orange juice

1 T vegetable oil
2 T butter
1/8 t liquid smoke

1/4 t chipotle powder

1/4 t smoked paprika
Sprinkle with kosher salt
Pam spray

Spray or oil your baking sheet. Set oven to 350. In a bowl add the nuts, brown sugar and rosemary. Stir to combine. In a separate small bowl add orange juice, oil, melted butter, liquid smoke, chipotle powder, smoked paprika and stir. Pour liquid over the nuts and stir to distribute. Pour the nuts out onto the pan and spread out into a thin layer. Roast the nuts for 20-25 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes. Pull from the oven and sprinkle with salt while warm.

They're very good and are a little understated, but flavorful. A nice change from the over-flavored seasoned nuts at the grocery store.

Recipe Sources/Inspiration:
Jamie Oliver: Festive Honey Roasted Nuts
Ina Garten: Chipotle and Rosemary Roasted Nuts
Sunset November 1997

Nutty Banana-Blueberry Muffins

Cookbook Bites: Nutty Banana-Blueberry Muffin still warm with melting butter.

I signed up for a 5k today. A walk/run in May (Goldilocks) as recommended by my doctor and have been researching recipes that provide more along the lines of the Low Glycemic Index.

My research led me to a popular recipe on AllRecipes: No Sugar Added Blueberry Banana Wheat Muffin, which had lots of good reviews. So I decided to give it a try, taking some of the recommendations from the reviewers and doing my own thing adding walnuts, almonds (and almond extract), chia seeds and some brown sugar Splenda. Full on sugar and syrup seem to make me sick at the moment so I'm trying out some alternatives.

The Nutty Banana-Blueberry Muffins turned out really good. The sweetness is light, but just enough. They're at their best fresh out of the oven, still warm with some butter (shown above). Since there's no salt in the recipe the taste of the butter pops. They've been a great make-ahead breakfast.

Dry ingredients

Nutty Banana-Blueberry Muffin

Nutty Banana-Blueberry Muffins

Wet Ingredients

1 C mashed bananas

1 egg

2/3 C water

1/4 C Splenda Brown Sugar

1/2 C applesauce

1 t vanilla extract

1/2 t almond extract

Dry Ingredients

2 1/4 C whole wheat flour

2 T chia seeds

1 1/2 t baking soda

2 1/2 t baking powder 

1 C walnuts (chopped)

1/4 C sliced almonds

1 1/2 C frozen blueberries

Topping

1 T Brown Sugar Splenda

1/8 C sliced almonds

Mix the wet ingredients, then the dry in separate bowls then stir to combine. Don't over stir, then add in the nuts and blueberries. Spray Pam into the muffin pan and spoon batter out into 12 muffins (silicone muffin pan works well). Mix the topping and sprinkle over the muffins and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. These are for high-altitude. If you are at a lower altitude use less flour. Toothpick test to make sure they're done.

Take care,

Suzanne
Cookbook Bites
Subscribe to Cookbook Bites (Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, AIM) 
Get posts right to your inbox (Subscribe right below my pic)

Original/Inspiration Recipe Source: AllRecipes: No Sugar Added Blueberry Banana Wheat Muffins