Smoked almonds with ancho chile

[jmagaram]

Success! This was the first time I was able to keep a low temperature - steady 250. Lit just a tiny amount of coal in the center. Closed the bottom damper to about thickness of dime. Top damper like a quarter revolution open. Took about an hour to reach temp.

Put on a chunk of hickory. Tossed two cups almonds with 2 tsp olive oil. Mixed in salt, black pepper, brown sugar, and ancho chile pepper. Put them on a cookie sheet on main grate for about an hour.

Texture pretty good. Maybe needed to go a bit longer since somewhat soft not crunchy enough. Or maybe they'll crunch up as they cool more. Not a whole lot of smokey flavor. Maybe better to cook on a perforated piece of metal. Got to find a great recipe for this.

[tony b]

I, too, just started smoking almonds (did my first batch for Xmas presents). Get 3lb bags of raw almonds @ CostCo for like $15. Here's what I've learned along the way, so far. But don't construe this as me being an expert at it, as I'm still learning.

 

I smoke at much lower temps - 150F for a couple of hours - indirect. I used hickory and apple woods. My first batch got plenty of smoke, (I kept tasting along the way, not having done it before), but my seasoning fell off when they cooled. I had sprayed the almonds with PAM and then tossed them in a bowl with my seasonings. 3#s takes 2 baking sheets (single layer), so I need both the main and upper grills. Swapped positions of the baking sheets after about an hour and stirred them about every 30 minutes. See pic below.  

 

Just did my second batch about a month ago (3# of nuts last a long time!) I read online that to get the seasoning to stick better, you do an egg white/water bath. Beat 2 egg whites with about a TB of water to a light foam. Tossed in nuts, then transferred to another bowl to season. The seasoning stuck better this time, but still not as well as I had hoped for. I might have gone too light on the amount of seasoning. After the initial smoking session, again at around 140-150F, the nuts were still a bit raw and needed to go back on the grill, but I had let the KK start ramping up temps for a dinner cook (around 225F at that point ), but I toss them back on anyway. Got better doneness and a touch more smoke. Actually almost burnt some, as I was distracted preping dinner.

 

Still more to learn, especially the seasoning part, but like I said, 3#s of almonds take a while to eat, so it will probably be another month or so before I try again.

[jmagaram]

Mine tasted better today. Actually the wife and I ate a lot of them. The spices stuck pretty well with just 1 tsp olive oil per cup of almonds. I think I should have raised the temp at the end for more crunch. Still think a perforated metal pan would get more smoke flavor but it had a decent amount of smoke flavor done on the cookie sheets.

[dstr8]

^ for easy and cheap try a pizza screen.  For whatever reason I overlooked smoking almonds on the KK but after reading this thread its just been moved onto my list of 'to-tries'.  Thanks!

[jmagaram]

I've also got a "splatter screen" that I put over pans on the stove to keep the oil from getting everywhere. That might work though it won't fit on the center of the grill because of the handle.

[tony b]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DVDRQ6O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You can get perforated baking sheets. Here's an example -