Best Bar Nuts Ever

There is a wonderful restaurant in New York City called The Union Square Café and one of the things they feature are spiced nuts, which they serve at the bar in the late afternoon at cocktail time. I have been to the restaurant a few times and the food is terrific, as well as the atmosphere and service, but the bar nuts are over the top.

I was able to get the recipe for you from the Food Network website, since a few of their stars, (Giada and Nigella Lawson) have both spoken of the recipe on their shows.

The Union Square Café’s Bar Nuts

Ingredients:
2 ½ c. nuts, including mixed nuts, almonds, walnuts and pecans
2 tbs. chopped fresh rosemary
½ tsp. cayenne pepper (don’t substitute, this is the spice part)
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. kosher salt (I only used 1 teaspoon since my mixed nuts were already salted
1 tbs. butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss the nuts to combine in a large bowl and spread on a cookie sheet. Toast in the oven for 8 minutes. The original recipe says 10 minutes, but my pecans were too done, so I suggest only 8 minutes. This is an important step as roasting nuts really brings out their natural flavors.

When nuts are almost toasted, combine rosemary, cayenne, sugar, salt and melted butter in a bowl. Add the warm nuts and toss to coat. Serve at once. The spicy butter mix is really good.

**Becky Knows Everything: When I made these for Mike, (a true nut and nut lover) he said “they were great except mine had a lot of little twigs in them.” Of course he meant the rosemary, a really essential ingredient. Oh well, he still at them all up!