Finally getting back to normal after a stormy year. As I normally do near the holidays, I smoked some nuts. I purchased the products from Sam’s, as I have had good luck with the brands in the past. It was a decent day on Sunday so I smoked three batches of nuts. I did two rounds of Cashews, and one round of Almonds. To accomplish this, I use a weber pan that I purchased from Amazon. It is a decent pan that can be used for several things, but mainly I use it to smoke nuts. The slots in the pan allow for good smoke penetration .

For the cashews, I prefer the Planters brand. I have purchased Sam’s generic brand and some other brands from other locations, but really think the planters version is a consistently good product.

I do one canister at a time, I did two batches. I dump them into a large enough bowl, and they are delicious out of the container, but I jazz them up a bit.

As you can see that a bit dull out of the container. so I add some olive oil and stir, just enough to make them shine. The olive oil will work as a binder that will allow the seasoning applied to stick to the nuts.

Once they are shined up, I then add paprika and garlic powder and stir, add more and stir, and more and stir. I want a good covering on them.

I then add them to the lit smoker. My target temp is 225 on the smoker and for the cashews, I use hickory chunks for the smoked flavor.

I cook for about 90 minutes, and stir every 30 minutes, this important to ensure the nuts on the bottom of the pan do not burn during the process. When they are completed, I remove and let them cool, before placing them back in the container.

After completing two round of these, I moved on to do 3lbs of almonds. I followed the same processing, using olive oil as a binder, just enough to make them shine.

For these, I like the combination of cinnamon and chipotle powder. It gives it a nice, sweet spicy combination. I also switched to cherry wood for the smoke flavor being applied.

I went the same amount of time, 90 minutes, and stir every thirty. Both types turned out great, and will be appreciated by the people that I will be sharing them with.