Lightly-Salted and Roasted Almonds (No Oil)

I was looking for a simple recipe for very lightly roasted almonds. One of my favourite almonds for snacking are the dry-roasted, salted almonds from Bulk Barn. What makes these almonds so great is that they are only lightly salted, unlike a lot of the canned almonds out there which can be overwhelmingly salty.

To recreate this recipe, I wanted something really quick and simple, with no oil or butter. I also didn't see the point of blanching almonds, because I feel like the skin holds a lot of flavour and texture for snacking.

What I came up with was a method simple enough that it can be done entirely to taste.

Almonds after roasting

The soaked almonds on the baking sheet

Ingredients

• Raw almonds - as many as you want, though 4 cups will cover a standard baking sheet
• Water
• Fine sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Take the almonds and place them in an appropriately-sized bowl.
3. Add water to the almonds until the almonds are nearly, but not quite, covered.
4. Add salt and mix with a soup spoon for about 45 seconds until all of the salt is absorbed and you have a fairly salty brine (I use roughly 1 tablespoon or more for 4 cups of almonds). Because most of the salt will drain away with the brine, don't worry about adding too much salt; it's better to err on the side of too much when you do this.
5. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the almonds from the bowl and spread them evenly over a standard baking sheet.
6. Roast the almonds in the oven for 18-22 minutes until the almonds turn from off white to a light golden colour (or however dark you like) stirring the almonds about halfway through.
7. Take the almonds out of the oven and allow them to cool completely.

Recipe Review: Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts

In this post I review a recipe for Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze from Averie Cooks (a.k.a. Loves Veggies and Yoga).

A few week ago I really had a craving for donuts and I was eager to try our recently-purchased Wilton Six Donut Pan. I recalled seeing a post on Averie Cooks for baked donuts, and I particularly liked the sounds of these ones, so I decided to give them a try. And the results were fantastic...

First off, they looked great. They took on an appealing golden colour on the outside, but keep in mind that the actual texture of the donuts are somewhat different from conventional fried donuts which have a crispier outside and a soft inside. These had a much more uniform texture throughout--not bad by any means, but just a noteworthy difference from fried donuts. Keep in mind these are substantially more healthy than the fried kind, especially in terms of fat content (see nutritional estimate further down).

They baked into very firm and dense, but also moist and cakey donuts that broke very nicely. 

Please ignore the horrible muffin top donut experiment in the background

The donuts had a decidedly subtle flavour. I used salt and I suggest using a touch more (3/4 teaspoon total) and I would also try a bit more cinnamon (3/4 teaspoon), as she suggested, for a bit more of a cinnamon spice punch. I would also consider adding nutmeg (about a 1/4 tsp) to give it a bit more of a familiar old-fashioned donut flavour.

The strong point for these donuts that really makes them outstanding is the icing. The icing is an amazingly smooth and sweet cream cheese icing with a fragrant cinnamon flavour and a hint of vanilla. The vanilla and cinnamon flavour and creamy texture of the icing compliments these donuts perfectly. If you're looking for something to do with any leftover icing, true using it in place of butter or cream cheese on a sweet cinnamon raisin bread or similar. Amazing!

I found that in making the icing you likely won't need both tablespoons of cream cheese (1.5 tbsps at most) and you'll need only a few drops of water/milk, if any. Try using a full teaspoon of vanilla instead of just 1/2 a teaspoon and you probably won't need to thin it anymore with water/milk or else it will be too runny. If the icing gets too runny, which it may, just add more icing sugar until you get the desired consistency.

Overall this is a great recipe for baked donuts. We also tried making the Baked Chocolate Peanut Butter Donuts with Vanilla Peanut Butter Glaze from Averie Cooks, which were good, but were trying to do a lot. Our preference is for the cinnamon version.

Nutrition and Calorie Breakdown

I was curious so I ran a quick estimate of the nutritional content of the donuts using Self Nutrition Data. All things considered, these are very healthy donuts. The donuts come in at slightly over 200 calories each with the icing, with only 3 grams of fat and 42 grams of carbs of which 26 are sugar. See nutrition facts below or click here to see the full nutritional profile. 

Using nutritional data from Tim Horton's, a comparable store-bought donut (I would use an old-fashioned glazed as a comparison) would be about 320 calories with 19 grams of fat. These "cake donuts" fall somewhere in the middle of the calorie range for donuts. The lowest calorie donuts are still the chocolate/maple/honey dip "yeast donuts" which each have 210 calories and only 8 grams of fat.

Nutrition Info for Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts

Ripening and serving pineapple

A good pineapple is truly amazing. In this post I'll explain what I consider to be the good and bad of pineapple, how to choose the best ones and how to ripen them. 

Living in Canada, I'm a bit geographically challenged when it comes to pineapples because they are typically shipped in from South and Central America (don't even get me started on the sustainability issues). So while I'll try to be general, I am speaking very much from a (northern) North American perspective.

To me, the ideal pineapple (see below) is one that is very ripe (but not overripened) with a very sweet scent and taste. A ripened pineapple typically looks a very deep bright golden yellow on the outside with a hint of orange or purple and a bit of green mixed in around the edges of the eyes. 

When buying a pineapple, I have found that the best ones are typically a little bit colourful, showing signs of ripening (orange and yellow) peaking through an otherwise green pineapple. It's important that the pineapple be as evenly coloured from one end to the other as possible. This is because the pineapple will ripen more evenly and consequently less of the pineapple will be pale, bland and acidic. The typical pineapple, when ripened, tends to be the most golden yellow in colour and sweetest in flavour near the base, gradually becoming more pale and bland towards the leaves. Don't worry if you don't have a perfectly even pineapple. They tend to be hard to come by and once you slice the pineapple into chunks and mix them all together, the sweet pineapples pieces and their juices will tend to balance out the less sweet ones.

Ripening a pineapple is fairly straightforward. I like to leave it on a countertop lying on its side to prevent mold and rot from developing around the base. Then you ripen it until it's a deep golden yellow like the one above. Some people say that the leaves should be dry and easily plucked out. Be careful not to overripen it as it can start to take on a fermented flavour or worse it can develop dark spots that might might need to be cut out or ruin the pineapple altogether. You can usually see the signs of overripening if you notice the uncut pineapple going from a golden yellow to an almost brownish maroon colour.

That's basically all there is to it. To slice a whole pineapple (see example below), lie it on its side and use a bread knife to cut off the top and the bottom. Then stand it upright and and cut the outer hull off from top to bottom in roughly eight even strips so as to not cut away too much of the pineapple meat. Cut the pineapple in half down the length of the pineapple. Take each of the halved pieces and cut them again in half lengthwise. With these quartered lengths of pineapple, carefully cut out the tough core by cutting down on a 45 degree angle from about an inch up the cut side of the pineapple. Finally, slice the pineapple to desired sized chunks and enjoy.

Some interesting ways to serve pineapple that I enjoy include with strawberries, plain yogourt, cinnamon, shredded coconut and even sea salt and cracked pepper (seriously, try it!).

How do you like to eat pineapple?