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I've been smoking almonds for years using a combination of maple syrup and seasonings, but recently I've discovered cold smoking gives a much nicer and deeper smoke flavor.

I have a great soy wasabi almond recipe that I think is even better than Blue Diamond, but that's easy--just apply the wasabi paste after the nuts are smoked.

My traditional sweet and spicy recipe requires a good dose of maple syrup and other sugars, and I am not sure how to finish the cold smoked nuts without losing the crunchy texture. Is there a low heat way to do this? I normally use a Cookshack smoker for these. Thank you.

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  • How sensitive are the nuts after cold smoking? I know substantial heat is probably no good, but what about mixing with something hot and sugary and letting cool immediately?
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Dec 10, 2015 at 0:43
  • Not sure what you mean by sensitive, but appreciate the comment. The almonds are 75° external when done cold smoking. Since the OP I have tried again, this time applying the wasabi paste after smoking, then baking off the moisture in the oven for 15 minutes at 325°. Worked great drying out the nuts, and it also eradicated any wasabi/horseradish flavor. It's very frustrating--I just can't figure how to keep the nuts dry and crunchy while maintaining the nice wasabi pop on the first bite. Blue Diamond has it down :-)
    – BBQ4Dummies
    Commented Dec 11, 2015 at 3:10
  • Sorry! I have two challenges, going, the above with the wasabi and the syrup. I tried baking off the syrup at 325° for 15 minutes and it worked very well, however I did lose some of the savory spices that were evident after cold smoking and before applying the syrup.
    – BBQ4Dummies
    Commented Dec 11, 2015 at 3:19
  • By "how sensitive" I mean "how much heat can they tolerate", since you said "low heat". The obvious thing to do to keep things (including the sugar) crunchy is just mix with some sugar/syrup mixture that'll be crunchy once cooled, right? Would that be too much heat?
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Dec 11, 2015 at 3:20
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    Also note that you can edit your question to add additional information and make it easy for everyone to see it on the first read. Clarifying exactly what the problems are would help you get better answers.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Dec 11, 2015 at 3:26

2 Answers 2

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Have you considered using a maple syrup reduction. This should lower the amount of moisture you have been applying to your nuts.

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  • Ok thanks, slight misread earlier and have edited post.
    – Food Lover
    Commented Jul 2, 2016 at 12:40
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I know this is a very late answer but you could try, as mentioned in @FoodLover's answer, reducing the amount of maple syrup in the coating. You could then apply this and maybe use a hair dryer to dry the coating without heating the nuts much. Hair dryers output a relatively low temperature (usually not more than 140°F).

Regarding the wasabi paste, I would suppose that Blue Diamond uses a wasabi or horseradish powder and if you could reduce some of the liquid by using a powder you might again be able to use the hair dryer method to dry the paste without damaging the flavor.

No guarantees but good luck!

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