You're Not Toasting Your Nuts Enough

Egg whites and almonds. What do these two ingredients have in common, aside from reputations as healthy, high-protein stalwarts? Passover, of course. Chag sameach, everybody! (That’s “happy holiday” in Hebrew.)

The Passover table eschews leavened goods, so almost anything made with flour is a no-go. That’s why egg whites (to bind and lift) and almonds (a wheat-free flour stand-in) have been the backbone of Passover desserts for at least a century.

My family's go-to trio was almond cake with berries, meringue poofs and chewy coconut macaroons. The latter two never enticed me. I like my desserts with heft. The almond cake, though, was worth looking forward to.

So in honor of Passover almond cakes past and present, here is my hot nut tip: Toast! Them! More! Take them further than you ever have before, just until the edge of burnt. Please, get some color on those things.

If you're toasting whole almonds to grind into cakes, sauces or frangipane, or simply chopping them for a salad, keep going until the nuts' insides are a true golden brown. Pluck one off the sheet tray and slice it in half to take a peak if you're not sure. The difference in flavor between a nut whose center is nearly the color of a penny and one that's pale and creamy inside is shocking.

The same goes for sliced almonds and almond flour. Trust your eyes and nose: You need a discernible color change and a smell that's rich and toasty before you pull them.

I understand the impulse to call it too soon. Nuts can go from perfect to scorched in moments. But it’s well worth slowing down and paying close attention for that last minute or two. And if you overshoot once or twice in pursuit of a deeply golden, full-flavored nut, curse me, then try again. This is how we learn.

Here are a handful of simple vegetable dishes in which you can put your almond-toasting skills to the test:

• White Beans and Carrots with Roasted Orange Vinaigrette and Crunchy Almonds
• Harissa-Honey Lentil Salad with Almonds
• Oven-Charred Broccoli with Dates and Toasted Almonds
• Agrodolce Acorn Squash

And Passover-approved desserts:

• Caprese Chocolate and Almond Torte
• Malbec-Poached Pears with Ice Cream and Toasted Almonds
• Chocolate-Almond Spice Cookies

A parting thought on Passover: Matzo is an interesting exception seeing as it contains only two ingredients—flour and water. It’s mixed and baked within 18 minutes, which, according to Jewish law, means it’s not technically leavened. Leaves me wondering … If I prepare wheat-based crackers super fast, can I bring them to the Seder?

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Ari Smolin

Ari Smolin writes and edits for Milk Street’s magazine and cookbooks. Before joining the team, she baked her way from Brooklyn to Los Angeles—laminating croissants before dawn, shepherding sourdough loaves by the hundreds, and discovering that stone-milled flour plus seasonal fruit is her happy place. She writes about whole-grain baking as well, most recently co-authoring “Morning Baker: Recipes and Rituals for Breakfast and Beyond.” You can find her fruit-and-grain escapades on Instagram @Ari.Smolin. Want to talk flour? Drop her a line at ari.smolin@gmail.com.