Oh, hi there.

I’d like you to meet your new best friend, SALTY MAPLE ALMOND PRALINE! Or, as I like to call it, the unstoppable snack attack. This recipe is super quick, and really, almost offensively simple. Truth be told, I originally had planned for these to be a mere addition to a more spectacular recipe, but then it turned out that the milk in my fridge was sour 2 days before the expiry date, and so that plan went out the window. Stay tuned though – coffee ice-cream, I’m coming for ya!

Meanwhile, these were already mere seconds away from being finished. And when they were, I dejectedly pulled the tray from the oven, slammed it down on the stove-top and sulked away for half an hour. After I finished sulking I wandered back into the kitchen, cruisin’ for a snack, so I snapped up the praline and sampled a piece…

…and then before I knew what was happening, almost half of the praline was gone! It was so salty, smoky (I used smoked salt, regular would be fine), crunchy, nutty, mapley and sweet. I just couldn’t keep my hands off the stuff. EXACTLY then kind of thing to munch in front of the TV, or to put out after dinner with coffee. Or to eat by the handful standing up. It is the…

UNSTOPPABLE SNACK ATTACK!

So please, drop what you’re doing for 10 minutes and whip up a batch of these. You’ll thank me.

xx Sarah.

Salty Maple Almond Praline

An original recipe by Sarah Coates for The Sugar Hit.

Makes just over a cup.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup almonds, roughly chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp brown sugar

Salt, to taste. (Note: this is a great time to experiment with different kinds of fancy salt. I used this oak smoked salt and it was great!)

Preheat the oven to 180C. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir to coat. Taste and adjust the level of salt to your taste (I like it salty, so I used about 1/2 tsp of salt all up). Spread the mixture out on a lined baking sheet, and place into the oven for 8 minutes. Remove the tray and stir the praline around to coat and break up. Place back in the oven for a further 6 minutes. When the time is up, give the nuts a final stir and set aside to cool completely. When cool, break up into individual pieces and scoff it! Or stir it into ice cream, or decorate cakes with it, or make truffles, or put it in brownies, or….