Sweet & Spicy Mixed Nuts

[FishTalesNC]

I made these on Christmas Eve Eve for gifts, and mom called last night saying how much she loved them (and had hidden them from dad, ha!) so I thought I’d share. I also made some for my vegetarian sister who can’t partake in a lot of what I grill, so she was pumped. It’s based on a Weber recipe that I’ve tweaked to my liking. I split this recipe up into 2 foil pans, trying to keep things on a single layer. I’ve also done just raw cashews which were great. Once I tried doubling the "topping" ingredients to see if it’d form more like a brittle. It did, but I didn’t think it was as good. The one thing I have to watch out for is the topping coming to a boil on the grill - it’ll burn (though I still happily chomp on those few bits). More topping meant too much burned taste.

• 4c raw mixed nuts
• 2c raw pumpkin seeds
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I like more myself)
• 3 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cayenne pepper (more or less depending on who it’s for)
• .75 teaspoon ground nutmeg

I did this on my 22” kettle with the charcoal baskets on either side and foil pans in the middle, grill temp ~300F. Grill the raw nuts and seeds for 20 min, stirring halfway thru. While that’s grilling, I mix the dry ingredients. Then melt the butter, add in the honey and mix those 2 well, then slowly stir in the dry stuff. Take the nuts off after 20 min and cover with the topping. Stir well until evenly coated. Then put them back on the grill for another 20 min. Watch your temp this round and stir 2-3 times at least, this will help the corners from burning. Remove nuts from the grill and let sit for an hour. Enjoy, or make gifts!

[FireMan]

Very, very cool!

[CandySueQ]

Sweet! I'm going to try this. Thanks for sharing.

[HawkerXP]

Very nice!

[DWCowles]

Beautiful!

[Brisket Syndicate]

Nice!!

[EdF]

They look great, and it's easy to imagine (remember?) what they taste like!

[RonB]

When I read the title I thought you were talking about Pit members...

[FishTalesNC]

I’ve made these a couple more times, today again for Christmas gifts - the family was asking for them at Thanksgiving! I think I have finally tweaked things to my satisfaction...

I used 7c raw mixed nuts (no peanuts sub macadamia) and 1c of the raw pumpkin seeds. This accomplishes 2 things for me: maxes out the usable space on my frog mat, and the topping coats everything perfectly without extra globs pooling into a bark. I also took the cayenne down to 1 tsp.

Got them on the preheated 26” with water filled SNS XL and a couple hickory chunks at ~275F.



Let them go 30 min.




I lift the frog mat off carefully and can pour everything into a foil pan, pretty easy. After pouring the topping on and mixing it well, I split it into 2 pans evenly and get them back on.



I let it go 20 more min, stirring a couple of times.



Then I remove them and let them cool for a couple hours on the stove.



Then wrapped up 3/4 into gift bags and kept 1/4 for us!

[HawkerXP]

If I've never told you, but I think you're nuts!




Look delicious!