Nuts at Christmastime is old school as can be. The Damsel guesses one reason might be that in the old days, when food preservation was trickier, nuts were a natural winter food. They sort of preserve themselves.
There are lots of recipes for doing stuff to nuts–you can make them spicy or sweet in a hundred different ways. Here’s just one. The Damsel likes this recipe because it calls for stuff you’re likely to have around the house.
Separate 3 eggs. Here’s your chance to practice that, discussed on the last Old School post. Save the yolks for another use–you’ll only need the whites for the nuts.
Add a cup of sugar and one teaspoon cinnamon.
Mix well in whatever way seemeth you best. Yes, it’s quite thick, but you can totally do this without electricity.
Line a pan with foil, while you are magically at the same time melting a cube of butter (1/2 cup)–perhaps in the microwave, if you like nuking things. The Damsel likes nuking things.
Pour the melted butter onto the foil, spreading it as necessary. The Damsel can’t explain why she used a fork for this. Some things are just too ridiculous to talk about.
Now measure 4 cups of nuts (pecans are wonderful) into a bowl, and pour the sugar mixture over them. Stir well. You’ll know when to stop.
Spread them out on the buttery foil. You’ll notice the sugar mixture seems liquidy, and mixes with the butter. Oh my.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, stirring after each ten minutes. The sugar mixture will get stickier as you go, and has an almost foamy look at first. After the 30 minutes of prolonged agony (the waiting! the waiting!) you must wait even more, until the nuts have cooled a bit. They’re still sticky when they’re hot. After they cool, they are crunchy and sweet and wonderful.
The sprog eyed these suspiciously, but after the Damsel forced them to try one, they fell under the sugared nuts spell. Crunch, crunch, gone.
This would make an excellent neighbor gift…perhaps in a cute cellophane bag or a little Christmas tin.
Thanks to my amazing friend T. L. (one of the best cooks on the planet) for this recipe.
