I sometimes joke and say that as a southern cook, I use pecans like other chefs use salt and pepper.  That is to say, on just about everything.  I love pecans and every other nut because they add a crunchy texture and an earthy sweet—nuttier—flavor to food.  Most of the time, I lightly toast my nuts to enhance their flavor. Even seeds are so much better with a little heat to bring out their deeper more nuanced flavors.  Think sesame seeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.  The volatile oils are released, and the seeds are lightly browned making them taste so much more flavorful. I learned to toast nuts from my mother, and she learned from her mother.  You toast nuts on a cookie sheet [or sheet pan] in a preheated oven set on a low heat*.  The low heat is crucial because nuts burn both easily and quickly.  I toast nuts at 250 F. This is a low temperature, but I find that the higher I set the temperature, the higher the chances of burning the nuts.  You don’t need any oil because the nuts and seeds that you are toasting naturally have a lot of oil in them.

Nuts such as pecans, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, cashews or seeds such as pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, etc.,

Preheat the oven to 250 F

Place a sheet of parchment paper on a sheet pan and pour the nuts on top.  Spread them out so that they are in a single layer.

Check on them after 5 minutes because smaller nuts takes less time to toast than larger nuts and I don’t want them to burn. 

Most nuts take 8-10 minutes to toast, but often the smell of roasting nuts is a sign that they are done.  It’s important to check them as soon as you smell them because they can burn before you know it! 

For maximum crunch, let the nuts cool before using them in your recipe.

*Note: I am not a fan of toasting nuts in a skillet on the top of the stove. Even if you shake the pan, you will end up with some parts of the nuts still raw and some parts—the parts that touch the bottom of the pan—with burned edges.  And that means you will be adding burned acrid flavor to your dish.

 ALL RECIPES ©ELIZABETH KARMEL 2020