7 Holiday Spiced Nuts Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What are the most popular nuts at Christmas? ›

We've got our festive favourites when it comes to nuts. Walnuts, with their rich, buttery flavour, are a must-have. Hazelnuts, too, are popular, bringing a sweet, mellow taste that's perfect for festive recipes.

Pistachio – Pistachios are the Christmas Nut. In my home growing up, the only time we ever saw the pistachio was at Christmas time. It was always exciting to see the special treat, and the many sweet and delightful combinations of treats made with them. They are said to bring good luck to the holiday.

Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to three weeks. These nuts will get sticky and clump together if they are left in areas that are too warm or humid. Can you freeze spiced nuts? Spiced nuts freeze well and thaw quickly, so keep some on hand for last minute gatherings.

To get the spices to stick to the nuts, use egg whites, butter, coconut oil, olive oil or blanch the nuts in boiling water. Some recipes call for nuts to be fried in oil prior to seasoning, but this adds unnecessary fat – you can make them just a delicious without all the extra calories.

Appearing on the list of popular Christmas nuts is walnuts, pecans, Macadamias, filberts, peanuts, Brazil nuts and cashews. As the holidays approach, buying Christmas nuts in bulk is a time-saving, budget-friendly task to add to your holiday preparation list.

Nutcracker dolls, also known as Christmas nutcrackers, are decorative nutcracker figurines most commonly made to resemble a toy soldier. In German tradition, the dolls are symbols of good luck, frightening away malevolent spirits.

Why are they called wooden toy soldier nutcrackers? Because the first nutcrackers were made as replicas of soldiers and other figures of authority. The common folk took great enjoyment in having the ruling people working for them, cracking their "hard nuts of life".

Apples, cranberries, pumpkins, and butternut squash have all been at the heart of the traditional holiday feast for countless generations.

If after they have cooled down, the pecans are still sticky, this means that the sugar mixture never reached a high enough temperature when on the stove. To fix them, place the nuts back into the skillet and cook a bit longer.

“If a nut is really oxidized, I guarantee you you're not going to get it past your mouth because it just tastes so awful,” says Schaich. But if you do, for some reason, eating the occasional spoiled nut is “no big deal,” because we have enzymes in our stomachs that can essentially incinerate the oxidation byproducts.

Can nuts go bad? ›

A: Nuts can't expire; however, they can change in taste or go rancid. Nuts contain much-unsaturated fat, an oil that makes nuts likely to go rancid. Nuts spoil faster when exposed to light, air, or heat. No fuss; cool, dark, and air-sealed are the three trifectas to storing nuts properly.

Tips: If you're making almond butter without oil (just roasting) and it seems dry and flaky and not turning into butter, there's likely two reasons: 1) the almonds needed to roast just a little bit longer (see temperature note above), 2) the brand of almonds.

It may seem counterintuitive to soak your nuts before you roast them, when the goal is a crunchy cashew. But some experts swear by this trick to give your cashews extra flavor, as well as helping them be more digestible.

Nutmeg is a spice derived from the genus Myristica plant native to both Africa and Eastern Indonesia. Myristica fragrans (fragrant nutmeg) comes from the Indonesian Banda Islands, also known as the Spice Islands, and is among the earliest spices traded in history.

Walnuts are one of the world's most popular nuts. The world is consuming more groundnuts and tree nuts than ever before due to the health benefits associated with these nuts. Peanuts are the most consumed groundnut while almond is the most consumed tree nut.

Peanuts, almonds, pecans, and walnuts top the list of the most consumed nut varieties in the United States, showing up most often in sweeter items.

These include common, widely known types of nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, and butternuts, among others. Some lesser-known nuts are also edible, such as saba nuts, paradise nuts, pili nuts, baru nuts, mongongo nuts, and more.