The other day my wife brought home some sherry for a soup we were making. The kids could not stop laughing at the label – “Dry Sack”. When I told them I was making mixed nuts as well, they nearly blew a gasket. Oh, to be twelve again…

I first tried these when a co-worker brought them in – just a delicious mix of salty, sweet, and spicy. There are a bunch of recipes available, here is how I made this batch:

Take four pounds of nuts – I used cashews, almonds, pecans and walnuts. If you have a large non-stick roasting pan, I would use that as cleanup will be a lot easier. You can line a regular roasting pan with foil if you want, or just be prepared to soak a pan to remove the maple glaze.

For four pounds of nuts, I used the leaves from four sprigs of rosemary, four tablespoons of sea salt, one tablespoon of chipotle powder, and about a half cup of maple syrup. Definitely season to taste with these.

If you have a mortar and pestle, use that to combine the salt and chipotle powder, grind to a fine dust.

Mince the leaves from the rosemary and divide into two piles – one will be sprinkled on during cooking and the rest sprinkled on when the nuts are just removed from the oven.

All ingredients ready to go. I roasted the nuts at 350F – it took about 20 minutes for them to come up to temperature, I added two tablespoons of canola oil to help roast them. Not shown here is the part where I drizzle a half-cup of maple syrup over the hot nuts, sprinkle all the salt and half the rosemary, then stir occasionally to make sure everything is coated well. Pull out a small spoonful to check seasoning ( salt, chipotle ) – some like their nuts salty. Remove from the oven when it seems that the syrup has thickened and you don’t see liquid in the bottom of the pan. Immediately sprinkle with the remaining rosemary when they come out of the oven.

Four pounds of seasoned nuts poured onto two half-sheet pans lined with parchment paper.

Let the nuts cool, then break clusters into small pieces and store in an air-tight jar.

One half-sheet pan = about two pounds of nuts = three quart-sized mason jars. Great to give as gifts or just have around the house. These are amazing warm with cocktails – you can reheat them in a 300F oven for 5-10 min just before guests arrive.