Roasting nuts

roasted almonds fresh from the oven

Today I am making a batch of sweet tart dough.  This batch is large enough that it will be divided into three portions and frozen, ready to be pulled out at a later date to be baked for three different tarts.  I will freeze two portions today and the third will be used to make a lemon tart that uses the entire lemon including the skin.  I know, I know, that sounds odd.  The first time I ever made it, several years ago, I thought there was no way it would work.  But it does, and it's incredible!  For anyone who loves citrus desserts, it's a winner.

The tart dough is lightly sweet and is made with flour, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, eggs, and most importantly ... almonds.  Before I grind up the almonds, I am roasting them.  The tart dough can be made with raw natural almonds or blanched almonds, but I prefer to take raw natural almonds and roast them myself.  It's an easy thing to do.  Any nut can be roasted the same way, although you might want to adjust cooking times if you have smaller nuts versus larger nuts.  For the most part, though, you can roast any nut at 350 F for about 10 minutes, give or take.  The roasting intensifies the flavor, and when you pull them out of the oven the aroma is amazing.  For a short bit your kitchen will bask in the aroma, but after a while it dissipates ... "sigh".

The nuts are ground up using a food processor after they are roasted, and they make a perfect additive for the tart dough, imparting flavor and texture.  The sweet tart dough can be used for a variety of different tarts.  And they are all great.