Our house seems to be constantly filled with the aroma of freshly toasted nuts this time of year! We just can't resist throwing a cup or two in just about everything we bake. Here's one tip we picked up over the years: it's best to chop toasted nuts when they're fresh out of the oven. Can you guess why?

When they're warm, nuts are relatively soft in texture and the oils inside are loose and liquidy. Nuts then gradually crisp up and become more brittle as they cool.

If we chop nuts while they're still soft and pliable, the slices will be clean and straight. This makes it a lot easier to get uniformly shaped pieces. Cutting nuts after they've cooled down means that they're more likely to break and flake, and we wind up with pieces of different sizes and a mess of crumbs.

Do you have any other tips for working with nuts?

Related: Top 5 Quick Uses for Pistachio Nuts

(Image: Flickr member Jules:stonesoup licensed under Creative Commons)