Honey, Orange and Ginger Cashews, Recipe!

These are a really quick treat to make with just a few days left before Christmas. Run out quickly and buy some cashews and an orange, and check you've got a spare egg in the fridge. Obviously you'll need ginger and honey too. But if you haven't got that, just use what spices you have, and give the recipe a different name.

The recipe is so simple, it’s (almost) one of everything.

1lb cashews

1 (large) egg white (or 1 ½ small egg whites)

zest of 1 orange

1 tablespoon of orange juice (just drink the rest)

1 heaped tablespoon of honey (I just used what we had, which was semi set. It’s probably easier to use a runnier type)

1 teaspoon of spices (I use ½ tsp ginger, ½ tsp mixed spice)*

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound of soft brown sugar – maybe less if you prefer a more subtle (sensible?) coating, at least 12oz.

* of course I had to cheat to get all my ingredients into units of 1. You could use 1 whole teaspoon of ginger if you like quite a kick though and that would keep everything nice and neat.

(Edited 5th December 2016: I've just made a huge batch of these for a craft fair, and decided to make them as crispy as possible, so I left out the honey, and used golden caster sugar rather than a moister brown sugar. And then I cooked them for about half an hour longer, still turning them, until I could see the cashews underneath the sugar coating starting to become a soft golden colour. They're beautifully crisp this way!)

Stir the dry ingredients thoroughly. Whip up the egg white into a thick froth, then quickly whip in the orange zest, honey and a good tablespoon of the juice – the froth will deflate and become thin and wet. Tip in the nuts and stir them through the egg white mixture so they are all completely coated. Then tip the whole lot into the sugar and spices. Again stir them through until the sugar has gone sticky and wet and all the nuts are thoroughly coated.

Lay the nuts out on a large cookie sheet (or two small ones) lined with parchment paper or silicon sheets (to spread them out I find it easier just to stick my hands in there and get messy). Bake them for an hour in a low oven, around 120c, making sure to stir them through every 15 minutes.  

Leave to cool until you can bear to touch them without burning your fingers off, then gently pull the nuts apart with your fingers. (If you leave them too long, they stick together and break when you try to pull them apart.)

There will be loads. You can package them in little cellophane bags with ribbon and give them to people you've forgotten to buy presents for and they will think you're ever so clever.

Merry Christmas