In a never ending quest to find reasonable sweets for this diabetic body of mine, I have turned to nuts. And specifically, this recipe that I have fixed and played with and have made a wonderful little sweet and salty crunchy bit of yummy love.
Yeah, I miss candy. Can you tell?
Well, this is a wonderful and SIMPLE little recipe. And by all accounts, it’s really not too bad for diabetics, because the cashews (or peanuts) are very acceptable in small quanities, and the sweet part is very small, really, considering it’s used over a whole pound of nuts and most seems to end up in the pan!
These honey roasted nuts are fantastic, provide the perfect little small portion of treat and I think that is very important when you spend the whole day eating super good and healthy. I find that if I take a teeny ramakin dish and put, oh, an ounce or two in it, and just nibble and nosh on them slowly, they are fantastic! I am sure to put them away, the whole batch for sure, because I think you could EASILY eat a pound without even a blink of an eye!!! They are that good…
Windhaven Honey Roasted Nuts
1 pound cashews (or really any nuts!)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie pan with foil.
Combine honey, syrup and butter and melt, either microwave or in a little saucepan. Just a few seconds will do.
Add the salt, vanilla and cinnamon… stir until all is mixed. Add the nuts and stir until all are coated.
Spread on the pan in a single layer. Drizzle any leftover sauce over the nuts. Bake for 6 minutes.
Remove, stir and flip them around some, and bake for another 6 minutes.
Remove, sprinkle with a pinch of sanding sugar and a pinch of sea salt if you wish… it will make them really pretty!
Let cool and EAT!!! Store in a glass jar when cool. Will not last long. (Because you will eat them all up!!!!!)
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As I see it… the carbs are…. 196 grams for the whole recipe including a tablespoon of sugar at the end to sprinkle. If you divide it by 16 ounces, you get 12 grams of carb per serving. Well under the 15 grams that equals one carb exchange. And since one ounce is about 20 nuts… if you can keep it down to 10 nuts, which is very filling, especially if you eat them very slowly and savor every single one… you are at a half a carb exchange!
Okay, sure, it’s not a hot fudge sundae and all, but these are very rich and savory at the same time, and just feel so, well, like you are cheating! The butter and roasting with the salt, and then the touch of sweet, oh, it’s delightful. Of course, I used our friend’s Crabby Hill Farm honey, so it was even so much better! And so much ends up in the pan, I think you could easily consider that in your plotting and planning. (Anything to justify something super tasty!)
Well, of course, you don’t want to go noshing a whole pound at a time, but as I am painfully learning, it’s portion control that is SUPER important… not so much what, but how much. So I count out my nuts and squirrel away the rest and do my darnest to practice control and constraint.
I wonder if peanuts have the same carb count as cashews….hmmmmmmmmm. Wow! Peanuts are half the carbs of cashews! Large peanuts are about 30 nuts to an ounce and smaller ones are about 50 to an ounce. So the carb grams for a batch with peanuts would be 133 grams, or 8 grams an ounce! Twice as many lovely nuts for your delight! See, cooking science can be fun!!!
So enjoy. And if you’re a lucky soul that doesn’t have to worry about carbs and sugars and all, they are wonderful snack for tv watching or packing in your lunch!!! Yum!
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