Ina’s 4-Ingredient After-School Snack Looks So Good You May Not Want to Share It with the Kids

Might have to double the recipe!

I’m pretty sure when my kids were young, they would have preferred Ina Garten over me to make their after-school treats. I would throw together cut apples, peanut butter, popcorn, and maybe a few juice pouches. Every. Single. Day.

Ina recently posted a four-ingredient snack that my kids would have loved after school (that's assuming I wouldn't have eaten it all before they got home). Not surprisingly, it’s simple to make too. Although Ina—often referred to as the Barefoot Contessa, the name of her former specialty food store in the Hamptons and her television cooking show—can make some involved recipes, she’s also not afraid to keep things simple.

She’s perfectly willing to serve her guests a dessert lovingly thrown together from store-bought ingredients, like this two-ingredient pound cake and ice cream dessert or this three-ingredient dessert made with ice cream, limoncello, and bakery-bought biscotti.

She introduced her latest recommended snack on Instagram with these words: “Now that we’re all back to school - or back to work - we need a treat after a long day. Who wouldn’t love Salted Caramel Nuts? And they’re surprisingly easy to make!”

You Had Me at Salted Caramel

There was a time, not so long ago, when the words salted and caramel didn’t automatically go together. But somewhere in the mid-2000s, Häagan-Dazs released a salted caramel ice cream and Starbucks wooed customers with its Salted Caramel Mocha, and we were hooked. They weren’t the first to put salt and caramel together, but they did help the winning combination become one of the most popular food trends of the past 25 years.

I’m so fond of both Ina Garten and salted caramel, that if Ina posted a recipe for salted caramel burgers, I may have to try them. But, salted caramel nuts make much more sense, and they make a much better after-school or after-work snack. It’s up to you whether you want to share them with your kids or anyone else.

How to Make Ina Garten’s Salted Caramel Nuts

There are just four ingredients (five if you count using two different types of salt) in this quick snack.

Ingredients

• 4 cups of nuts (1 cup each of whole roasted salted cashews, whole large pecan halves, whole unsalted almonds, and whole walnut halves)

• 1 1/2 cups sugar

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon fleur de sel (if you don’t have fleur de sel, you can substitute additional kosher salt or Himalayan salt)

Directions

There are more detailed instructions on the Barefoot Contessa website, should you need a little more detail on some of these steps.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C).

2. Put the nuts on a baking sheet and roast them for 7 minutes in the preheated oven.

3. On the stove add the sugar and 1/4 cup of water to a skillet or sauté pan.

4. Cook over medium-high heat, swirling the mixture (don’t stir) until the sugar dissolves completely.

5. Continue to swirl for another 5 to 10 minutes until the mixture is golden brown. (It’s super hot at this point—do not touch with fingers or any bare skin.)

6. When it’s done, remove from heat and swirl in the vanilla.

7. Add the nuts and kosher salt to the pan and quickly toss (2 large spoons should help) until the caramel totally coats the nuts.

8. Spread onto a sheet pan lined with parchment and sprinkle with the fleur de sel (or other salt).

9. Allow to cool and break into pieces.

I’ve volunteered to bring an appetizer-type dish to a party soon. I think this may be what I make. And I’ll just force myself to share.

Read the original article on All Recipes.