Ina Garten blessed the world with her recipe for salted caramel nuts back in 2014, and we were obsessed then. But it's been a few years, and now she's back via Instagram to remind everyone that they need the sweet and salty treat in their lives for the fall season.
“Now that we’re all back to school—or back to work—we need a treat after a long day,” Garten wrote in her caption. “Who wouldn’t love salted caramel nuts? And they’re surprisingly easy to make!”
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The Instagram post features a video of Ina Garten showing a step-by-step tutorial on how to make the recipe. She uses four different kinds of nuts: whole salted cashews, whole large pecan halves, whole unsalted almonds, and whole walnut halves, roasting them on a sheet tray in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Garten then creates her caramel concoction on the stove by combining sugar and water and bringing it up to a simmer (making sure to stir constantly). Once it takes on that classic caramel color, she adds a splash of vanilla and the nuts, stirring until they're coated and satisfyingly sticky. Finally, she spreads them out on a platter to cool and harden before breaking them into bite-sized pieces and showing them off on a white rectangular plate.
The recipe itself requires little effort, but it may be a bit of a hassle to clean the caramel off your pan. One comment on Garten's post recommends filling it with enough soapy water to completely cover the residue and place it back on the hot stove.
“Once boiling, the caramel dissolved,” the user wrote. We’ve actually tried this tactic for other hard-to-remove, stuck-on food, and it really does work. After all the caramel is dissolved, scrape the pan with a spatula or wooden spoon—everything should slide right off. Once it cools, wash the pan as usual.
It's no surprise that the comment section was also filled with home chefs excited to give the salted caramel nuts a try. One suggested putting them in little tins and giving them away as gifts for the holidays. Make them with loved ones to celebrate fall and back to school season, for yourself after a long day, or serve them at a tailgate—you can't really go wrong.
Of course, Garten posted the full recipe on Barefoot Contessa, but if you own her cookbook, you can just flip to page 229.