I had intended to hit publish on this last night, but after a hectic day at work, it completely slipped my mind. Fortunately, the timing of blog posts is not a life or death affair, and so we have this post today instead.
As for the recipe I'm sharing, I could have titled it "mocha" instead of the longer name you see above. However, I wanted to capture the semi-sweet, entirely adult nature of these almonds, and mocha just didn't do it. Dark chocolate and espresso, on the other hand, did.
These are different to any roast nuts I've bought from a store. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I find most commercial flavoured nuts to be too sweet or too salty, and sometimes both at once. I am a huge fan of chocolate coated nuts, but think they belong in a different category to the roasted variety, and dairy free varieties are often expensive to buy.
These dark chocolate and espresso roast almonds are just sweet enough, hardly salty, and give chocolate tones without an actual chocolate coating. The coffee part is also perfect for a mid-afternoon kick! You really do need to like coffee for these, but if you aren't a fan, I'm sure you could try leaving it out and testing a pure chocolate flavoured batch.
A final point - as with most roast nuts, I found these tasted better when allowed to cool. Straight out of the oven, they will not only burn your mouth (experienced first hand) but the flavours won't be easily discernible.
Dark chocolate and espresso roast almonds
An adult snack that is perfect for mid-morning or mid-afternoon
Makes 1-1/2 cups
Vegan
Author: Bite-Sized Thoughts
Ingredients
1/4 cup agave syrup
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp instant coffee powder
Pinch salt
1 tbsp water
1-1/2 cups raw whole almonds
Method
Preheat your oven to 125'C (250'F) and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Combine the agave, cocoa powder, coffee powder, salt and water in a bowl and stir to combine. Add in the almonds and stir through the chocolate-espresso mix to ensure all nuts are coated.
Transfer the almonds to your prepared baking trays, preferably spread in a single layer without large clumps of almonds. If needed, brush any remaining sauce over the nuts.
Roast for 10 to 15 minutes, monitoring carefully from the 10 minute mark. The almonds should be dark and fragrant and will continue to crisp up on cooling.
What is your favourite flavoured nut variety?
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This post is part of my participation in the 2014 Vegan Month of Food. This week I am focusing on vegan snacks. Next week I'll be shifting to main meal options.Previous 2014 Vegan MoFo posts:
Breakfasts-
#1 - Vegan French toast
#2 - Apple and strawberry muesli
#3 - Mango coconut buckwheat breakfast pudding
#4 - Tips for a vegan breakfast on the go
#5 - Chickpea pancakes with spicy kale and mango
Snacks-
#6 - Chocolate coated banana chips
#7 - Barbecue inspired nori snacks
#8 - Carob latte
#9 - Tide Tables Café
Gorgeous photos! And I bet they taste amazing, too. Love this recipe :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Liane :-)
DeleteOh yum, what a great combination! I almost wish I hadn't seen these, because almonds are my sensible snack, when I'm being good, but I know I'd just eat WAY too many of these!
ReplyDeleteThey are indeed dangerously easy to eat! It's one of the few downsides of the dish ;)
DeleteI've never seen chocolate almonds before (would take mine without the espresso) but am intrigued and tempted - great snack
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to test these out minus the espresso - I like the coffee part but think a straight chocolate one would be a nice variation on almonds coated in a layer of chocolate.
DeleteI sometimes use ground wattleseed to give a little bitterness that coffee gives to reduce the sweetness of chocolate - might work here?
DeleteI have never heard of that! What a lovely idea though. I think it would definitely work here.
DeleteThose look wonderful! Sounds like a great snack :)
ReplyDeleteI love all things coffee... but I've never had coffee roasted nuts before. They sound awesome! I'm really excited to try out your recipe. It could be the perfect 'pick me up' for my weekly 4 hour evening study class :o)
ReplyDeleteYou will definitely need a pick me up before that! I hope you enjoy these Sharon :-)
DeleteOh gosh Kari! I can just smell and taste the goodness off of the almonds with what you did! Mmmm...so flavourful!
ReplyDeleteJulie
Gourmet Getaways
The kitchen did smell pretty wonderful as these were roasting :-)
DeleteThose almonds are calling me! Loudly. :)
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling!
DeleteI bet these taste amazing. I love flavoured almonds.
ReplyDeleteI love almonds pretty much any way they come :P
DeleteI love flavoured almonds, though mainly I get the readymade smoked kind. You've got two of my favourite flavours though, so I can see me putting a jumbo size batch of these in the oven before too long!
ReplyDeleteI should look out for the smoked kind - that's a variety I really like too but I'll confess to not scouting many store options out since we moved to the UK.
DeleteI imagine these would be very moorish. What a shame you burnt your tongue! I've done that also. I had to go to the dentist last week and she said, 'Did you burn the roof of your mouth? That looks very painful'. And yes, like you I had been tasting something straight from the oven and I took the skin right off the roof of my mouth - occupational hazard xx
ReplyDeleteI am glad it isn't just me! Patience is definitely a kitchen virtue...sometimes one I lack ;) I am sorry about the roof of your mouth, too!
DeleteThese look fantastic! What a great idea :D
ReplyDeleteLuckily "the timing of blog posts is not a life or death affair" or I'll of been in my grave a long time ago with the number of drafts I have sitting in wait!!!!! lol