Salty Buttered Spiced Mixed Nuts

Source: Food Wishes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1 cup raw walnut halves
• 1 cup raw cashews
• 1 cup raw pecan halves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper (1/2 tsp is fine, just maybe a tad less)
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 tsp smoke paprika (I would add for more spice)
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1/4 C water

1. Pre-heat oven to 350
2. Add mixed nuts to a parchment lined baking sheet and roast for 7 minutes
3. Over medium heat, add the 2 Tbsp butter, 1/2 C sugar, and 1/4 C water in a small sauce pan and boil for 2 minutes
4. Add the nuts, spices and salt to the baking sheet bowl then add in the syrup. Stir with spatula until mixed and slightly thickened
5. Spread into 1 layer
6. Bake for 10 minutes in the oven.
7. Take out of the oven and toss the nuts with the spatula for 7 minutes until thickened and there is hardly any sauce on the bottom of the pan. Spread back out and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow to cool before serving.

Note: These are good. If you only cook for 6 minutes as the original recipe suggests, the nuts will not be very crunchy. You also want to measure the nuts and scale up the spices/syrup or it won't have enough spice.

I would experiment with cooking temperature and time because I really like these crunchy and you have to bake them till they almost burn to get it like that.

Update 2: pre-roasted plain nuts for 7 minutes at 350. Boiled the butter mixture for like 5 minutes and they came out crunchy!