Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 448 kcal | 127 kcal |
| Protein | 7.7 g | 2.2 g |
| Fat | 18.2 g | 5.2 g |
| saturated | 1.4 g | 0.4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 64.7 g | 18.3 g |
| sugars | 57 g | 16.2 g |
| Fibre | 4.5 g | 1.3 g |
| Sodium | 11 mg | 3 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg raw almonds
- 12 cups maple syrup
- Sea salt
Instructions
- Salt the maple syrup first and taste it off a spoon. The syrup is the only seasoning here, and once the nuts are in there is no correcting it.
- Stir the almonds through until every nut is wet, wait ten minutes, then stir them again. Syrup slides off a dry nut on the first pass and only grips on the second.
- Lift the nuts out with a slotted spoon rather than tipping the bowl over the tray. The puddle at the bottom will not dry; it only welds nuts to the sheet.
- Spread them on a solid sheet in one layer with each nut clear of its neighbour. Nuts that touch glue together, and prising the lump apart takes the coating with it.
- Run the machine at 36 °C for 8 hours. That is a low setting for a nut and deliberately so — maple sugar scorches and turns bitter long before an almond is dry.
- They will feel tacky for as long as they are warm. That is the sugar rather than the drying, and pulling them off early because they seem wet is the usual mistake with this one.
- Slide them onto a cold plate and leave them half an hour. The coating sets into a thin shell as it cools and the nut underneath snaps.
- Keep them in a jar at room temperature for a month. If humid weather turns them sticky, twenty minutes back in the machine restores the shell.
