Tag: nuts

Home-made herb & spice bar nuts

Home-made herb & spice bar nuts in a bowl | H is for Home

If we fancy a pre-dinner drink (or perhaps drinks if we’re ushering in the weekend), we love to accompany them with tasty snacks of some kind. This recipe for herb & spice bar nuts, which caught our eye online, looked absolutely perfect. We’ve just given it a go… and it turned out to be a very good decision. Great rewards for relatively little effort.

Nuts mixed in an aluminium bowl Melted butter, sugar, salt, chopped fresh rosemary and cayenne pepper

I used 100 grams each of hazelnuts, cashews, walnut halves, pecans and whole almonds. However, you can use whatever nuts you like or have in the store cupboard; peanuts, brazils and macadamias. If 500 grams is too large a portion for your needs, it’s really easy to just halve the recipe.

Home-made herb & spice bar nuts

They were gorgeous – and so moreish! In fact, they’re a great snack to include on a party buffet table; they really suit being eaten with beer, wine and whisky.

Click here or on the image below to save the recipe to Pinterest

Home-made herb & spice bar nuts recipe | H is for Home

Home-made herb & spice bar nuts
Serves 6
Ingredients
  1. 500g/18oz unsalted mixed nuts (e.g. peeled peanuts, cashews, brazils, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans or whole unpeeled almonds)
  2. 2tbsp coarsely chopped fresh rosemary (from two 8cm/3-inch sprigs)
  3. ½ tsp cayenne pepper
  4. 2tsp Muscovado sugar
  5. 2tsp salt
  6. 1tbsp unsalted butter, meltedBar nuts ingredients ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350ºF/Gas mark 4
  2. Toss the nuts in a large bowl to combine and spread them out on a baking sheet
  3. Toast them in the oven until they become light golden-brown, about 10 minutes
  4. In a large bowl, combine the rosemary, cayenne, muscovado sugar, salt and melted butter.
  5. Thoroughly toss the toasted nuts in the spiced butter and serve warm
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Adapted from Nigella Bites
Adapted from Nigella Bites
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Mixed nut toffee brittle

Home-made mixed nut toffee brittle

We’ve had a whirlwind week; we had visitors come to stay and are currently spending a couple of nights at Justin’s mum’s. I realised that the weekly Cakes & Bakes post would be due and I hadn’t yet made anything.

Sugar syrup using golden caster sugar | H is for Home

Seeing as Justin’s mum (aka Granny Glittens) regularly says how much she likes my peanut brittle, I took the hint and made some mixed nut toffee brittle.

Cooked brittle cooling on a tray | H is for Home

Rather than plain peanut, I found a bag of ‘Best’ mixed nuts in the supermarket and bulked them up with a bag of cashews that I already had in the store cupboard. In the mix were pecans, hazelnuts, Brazils and Carmel and Marcona almonds.

Apparently the latter are:

The ‘Queen of Almonds,’… imported from Spain. They are shorter, rounder, softer, and sweeter than the California variety.

Broken up brittle in a large glass jar | H is for Home

If you’re using large nuts like Brazils or whole walnuts, it’s a good idea to chop them into 3 or so pieces to make them a better size for gobbling up!

Click here to save my recipe to Pinterest

Home-made mixed nut toffee brittle recipe
Mixed nut toffee brittle
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
10 min
Total Time
15 min
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
10 min
Total Time
15 min
Ingredients
  1. 500g/17½oz caster sugar
  2. 3tbs water
  3. 50g/2oz butter
  4. 250g/9oz roasted mixed nuts
  5. 2tsp bicarbonate of sodaHome-made mixed nut toffee brittle ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Line a large, shallow baking tray with greaseproof/parchment paper. You can grease the tray lightly to make the paper stick to it
  2. Pour the sugar into a large, heavy-bottomed sauce or frying pan
  3. Turn the stove on to a medium-low heat, add the water and stir for about 30 seconds until the sugar has turned to a thick syrup
  4. Stop stirring!
  5. Bring to the boil (still without stirring) allowing it to simmer for 5 minutes or, if you're using a candy thermometer, bring up to the hard crack stage of 146-154°C/295-309°F. You'll see the consistency go from grainy to smooth and shiny.
  6. As soon as you get to this point, turn off the heat and stir in the butter quickly
  7. Add the nuts and stir those in quickly
  8. Add the bicarbonate of soda, again, stirring in quickly
  9. Pour the boiling mixture carefully on to the prepared baking tray and allow it to cool for about half an hour
  10. Break it up into pieces using a toffee hammer or the butt end of a kitchen knife
  11. Store in an airtight container lined with greaseproof paper
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H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Healthy nutty granola

Bowl of home-made healthy nutty granola

I have a guilty pleasure; almost every, single night I have a small bowl of granola! I go through so much of the stuff that I thought I should try making my own healthy nutty granola.

Small glass bowls of coconut oil and honey

Another reason that I wanted to prepare my own is that I know exactly what would be going into it. In general, shop-bought granola is full of sugar, palm oil and all sorts of additives and preservatives. It’s probably cheaper to make my own, as well; I usually have all the necessary ingredients in the cupboard anyway.

Sprinkling dessicated coconut on tray of granola

Using a base of oats, you can add any combo of nuts, seeds and/or dried fruit. For my first attempt, I used chopped cashews, chopped almonds, hemp seeds, chia seeds, poppy seeds and cacao nibs.

Healthy nutty granola in a large glass jar

Likewise, other great additions would be dried fruit such as raisins, sultanas, cranberries, goji berries, roughly chopped apricots, figs, mango and/or apple rings.

Bowl of healthy nutty granola and soya milk

For sweetness, I used honey and dessicated coconut; you could substitute maple syrup for the former to make it a vegan option. The coconut oil is added to help it clump together to form tasty clusters.

Click here to save my recipe to Pinterest

Home-made healthy nutty granola recipe | H is for Home #granola #cereal #breakfast #breakfastcereal #recipe #healthy #healthyeating
Healthy nutty granola
Cook Time
30 min
Cook Time
30 min
Ingredients
  1. 250g oats
  2. 75g chopped cashews
  3. 50g chopped almonds
  4. 25g hemp seeds
  5. 25g chia seeds
  6. 25g poppy seeds
  7. 25g cacao nibs
  8. ½tsp ground cinnamon
  9. 150g honey
  10. 75g coconut oil
  11. 25g dessicated coconutHome-made healthy nutty granola ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas mark 2
  2. Combine all the dry ingredients except for the dessicated coconut
  3. Warm/melt the honey and coconut oil (a couple of 10-second bursts in the microwave should do it) and stir together
  4. Pour the honey/coconut oil liquid over the dry mixture and combine
  5. Lay the mixture out evenly on to a large baking sheet or two smaller ones
  6. Cook for 20 minutes, mixing and tossing after 10 minutes to ensure even browning
  7. Sprinkle over the dessicated coconut and cook for a further 10 minutes
  8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet(s). If you like a chunky granola, press the mixture down using the back of a serving spoon - break it up after it has completely cooled
  9. Once completely cool, decant the granola into an airtight, lidded container
Vegan option
  1. Swap the honey for maple syrup
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H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Nutty treacle tart

Home-made nutty treacle tart | H is for Home

This week, I realised that we have lots of bags of nuts coming to their use by date. I think we were given most of them as Christmas presents last year – and, more than likely, we’ll be receiving even more in a few weeks time.

I needed to use them pronto and I’d seen a nut-filled Nigella recipe a week ago that looked tasty. She calls it pecan-plus pie; an Anglicised version of the American pecan pie. I didn’t have any pecans in my nut hoard, so I’ve rechristened mine, nutty treacle tart.

Nutty treacle tart pastry dough | H is for Home Nutty treacle tart pastry case | H is for Home

I wasn’t too sure about the pastry case when I was making it; plain flour, vegetable oil and a pinch of salt. It looked very oily when the dough came together and was being pressed into the flan dish. I needn’t have worried though, it turned out perfectly fine – crumbly and biscuity.

Ingredients to make treacle sauce | H is for Home Treacle sauce in a saucepan | H is for Home

The treacle sauce is sweet and unctuous but not sickly. One thing I’d do if making this nutty treacle tart again, however, is roughly chop the larger nuts. The Brazils were a bit large when trying to cut the tart into slices and also when spooning bits into my mouth!

Pouring treacle sauce over mixed nuts in a pastry case | H is for Home

Nigella’s instructions are to bake the tart for 40 minutes at 180ºC. After spending that length of time in the oven, my tart was still quite liquid and (thanks to my clear glass flan dish) I could see the pastry still had a ‘soggy bottom’. I’d suggest upping the oven temperature a bit or cooking it for a little longer… or both; just keep checking on in it as it bakes.

Home-made nutty treacle tart | H is for Home

Serve it (I prefer it cold) with a dollop of whipped cream or crème fraîche.

Click here to pin the recipe to Pinterest

Home-made nutty treacle tart
Nutty treacle tart
Serves 12
Cook Time
45 min
Cook Time
45 min
Ingredients
  1. 225g/8oz plain flour
  2. ½ teaspoon salt
  3. 125g/oz vegetable oil
  4. 60ml/2fl oz full fat milk
  5. 150g/5¼oz golden syrup
  6. 100g/3½oz soft butter
  7. 200g/7oz soft light brown sugar
  8. 1tsp vanilla extract
  9. 350g/12⅓oz mixed nuts
  10. 3 large eggsHome-made nutty treacle tart ingredients
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If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350ºF/gas mark 4
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, oil and milk to form a rough dough
  3. Tip it out into a 25cm /10" diameter flan dish, and press the dough evenly into the base and up the
  4. sides of the dish, slightly coming up over the top if possible. Put it into the freezer
  5. Melt the golden syrup, butter and brown sugar over a lowish heat in a saucepan
  6. Add the vanilla, stir, then take off the heat and allow it to stand and cool for 10 minutes
  7. Remove the pastry-lined flan dish from the freezer, and arrange the mixed nuts on it
  8. Whisk the eggs into the slightly cooled syrup until it looks like a caramel mixture, then pour it over the nuts
  9. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the filling has set and the pastry is golden brown
  10. Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving
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Adapted from Nigella Christmas
Adapted from Nigella Christmas
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/