How To Toast Almonds and Other Nuts

Roasting nuts is a step that some cooks skip, which is unfortunate because this simple effort can really bump a dish (or a cookie!) from good to amazing. Roasting nuts deepens their flavor, making them even more nutty and complex. It also gives them a crisper texture, which is one of the reasons we add nuts to our food.

There are two basic ways to roast nuts in the oven: dry or with a small amount of oil. Read on for instructions for both methods and when you should use them.

This guide works for practically any kind of nut. If the recipe requires chopped nuts, do this after roasting.

• Almonds: Roasting almonds gives the otherwise bland nuts a bold, rich flavor.
• Pecans: Roasting pecans brings out their nutty aroma.
• Walnuts: Roasting walnuts removes their bitterness.
• Pine nuts: Smaller nuts such as pine nuts are notorious for burning quickly. Check them more frequently, usually every 2 minutes or so.

Roasting nuts can be a little tricky as they can go from almost done to overdone in less than a minute. You are also dealing with several discrete pieces, some which seem to be roasting faster than others. And they don’t spend a lot of time in the oven — usually not more than 15 minutes — so people often say “Why bother?” and skip this step, not wanting to preheat their oven for such a short procedure. But it bears repeating: if your recipe called for roasting the nuts (and sometimes even when it doesn’t) be sure to take this important step.

Roasting nuts with a touch of oil is a really nice way to add flavor and crispness. I especially like to match the nut with the oil and have small jars of almond and walnut oil in my refrigerator for that purpose. A neutral oil such as grapeseed oil is fine, too.

But it’s not always appropriate to roast nuts with oil, especially when they are being used in a baking as the oil does increase their oiliness and can throw off the recipe. I roast nuts in oil when I am adding them to a salad, for instance, when they will be used as a garnish, or when I want to serve them with an aperitif. In the photos above, I roasted the walnuts dry and the almonds with a little Roasted Walnut Oil from La Tourangelle.

Check and Stir. It is important to check the nuts frequently while they roast and to stir them often. Most ovens have hot spots, so you want to move the nuts around for even roasting. I often focus on moving the nuts from the edges, which can brown sooner than the nuts in the middle.