Make Toasted Nuts Taste Expensive With One Inexpensive Ingredient

Whether almonds tickle your fancy or you're partial to macadamia nuts, we can guarantee they are instantly more delicious when toasted. The extra step deepens their flavor, providing the nutty topping with a taste that stands out. To make your nut topping rival whatever they are paired with, though, you will need to toast them in brown butter. Truly, all you need is a little heat to activate the flavor your nuts have within. Putting them in a hot, dry skillet sets off the Maillard reaction, which gives them that earthy, toasty flavor we cannot get enough of. However, think of brown butter as an extra step that elevates the nuts, rather than just enhancing them. 

Brown butter has a sweet, caramelized taste and aroma that can make anything from a pistachio pork chop topping to a cashew, pecan, and Brazil nut snack mix more mouthwatering. The fat develops a nutty, toffee-like taste when heated, and what better use for brown butter is there than to make nuts even nuttier? To start, melt butter in a skillet over medium heat, then add in the nuts of your choosing. It does not take long for the golden flecks to blacken when making brown butter, so keep an eye on the pan. Stir the nuts constantly, and remove them from the pan once they are evenly toasted.

With a flavor that leans sweet, toasty, rich, and earthy, there's really no limit to what brown butter-infused nuts can go on. Additionally, whipping them up only takes a few minutes, so the treat can be easily incorporated into any meal of the day. Decadent French toast waffles taste delicious with the buttery, toasted nuts, especially when they are spruced up with a blend of warm spices. Bloom some nutmeg and cinnamon sticks in the melted butter, then remove the spices and proceed with toasting the nuts.

The method also works well when making herb-infused brown butter to give dinner an enticing spin. Pistachios are perfect for elevating salmon dishes, and toasting the sweet nuts with brown butter and some herbs takes things to the next level. Heat some sage, rosemary, and thyme in the butter before briefly browning the pistachios. Once they are done toasting, sprinkle some sea salt on top before pressing the nuts into your cooked salmon. When you are done with dinner, heat up some more nuts to use for dessert. From ice cream sundaes and creamy mousse to pound cake and coffee cake, toasted nuts make the perfect crunchy topping to pair with your treats. Toss brown butter almonds with brown sugar and sea salt for a sweet-and-salty banana bread topping, or add lemon zest and basil to brown butter when toasting pistachios for vanilla gelato.