Mexican Hot Chocolate Roasted Almonds

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Kelly

{I dare you to read this whole post without thinking “Thats what she said.” at least once. I thought it multiple times by writing it. I guess that’s what happens when you write the word ‘nuts’ multiple times in a post…..and apparently have the mind of a 13 year old.}

During the holidays, I tend to make a lot of different food items to give away. Whether it is work, friends, or family, I always like to give homemade food items – and honestly I think people are starting to expect it. And I’m ok with that. I like to cook and bake, and its even better when I don’t have the things leftover to eat all by myself.

When making food gifts, I tend to try things that are a little different than what people might make themselves. Sure, chocolate chip cookies might be delicious, but its probably more fun if you get something that you might not be willing/able to make yourself.

These roasted almonds (originally pecans) come from Savvy Julie and can be found here.

Confession: I’m not actually a fan of nuts. I’ll occasionally eat cashews or peanuts in a stirfry, but I’m not a fan of eating them raw. The husband, however, eats handfuls of nuts as a snack pretty much every day. He is also a huge fan of the roasted nuts that you get at theme parks and state fairs.

I’ve made roasted flavored nuts for him in the past, but none of them came close to the warm, fresh, nuts that he loves. Until I made these. Other nuts that I’ve made in the past seemed to either be too sticky, not flavorful, or everything ended up falling off of them, these solved all of those problems. They came out of the oven warm, and crunchy with a sweet flavor. (Even though I didn’t eat these nuts, they definitely made the house smell good!) He told me that they were the closest I’ve come to those fairground nuts so far. Success!

The only thing that I would say maybe went wrong is that people didn’t seem to taste the “Mexican” spiciness in them, so maybe I went too light with the cayenne. Even without it though, they loved them!

Ease: A-, These really are not hard at all. You do need to whip the egg quite a bit, until it is frothy, but after that it’s all just mixing things together, and baking time.
Taste: I can’t officially give these a grade for taste since I didn’t try them. However, the husband and people at work really loved them, and they smelled delicious, so I’d say thats a win!

Would I make them again? I have and will again. They make a great gift, or healthy snack to bring to a party!

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