Snowdrift Vanilla Porter Beer Nuts

Adapted from Beer Magazine

Caramelized vanilla porter, maple syrup, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice combine to make these sweet salty peanuts more than a little addictive. Make sure to snack on these the next time you are drinking a deep, dark porter.

If you’re going to be sitting around drinking beer for the Superbowl, you need some good beer nuts, don’t you?

I made these nuts because I had a big tub of peanuts I bought at Christmas-time that I planned to do something with … really I had planned making them into beer nuts for a Christmas gift for my brother-in-law who loves beer, but I ran out of time. So finally in January I got around to scouring the web for a beer nuts recipe … but none of them were made with beer! How can they be beer nuts without beer? I decided to make mine with beer in place of the water … and not just any beer … a good DARK beer! I used Leinenkugel Snowdrift Vanilla Porter.  It made such a lovely sticky dark caramel crunch coating for the nuts. So much more flavorful than just sugar water, which is how most beer nuts are made.

Snowdrift Vanilla Porter Beer Nuts

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Ingredients

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• 5 cups dry roasted peanuts
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 cup Leinenkugel Snowdrift Vanilla Porter (or other vanilla porter)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• sea salt

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Instructions

1. Bring all ingredients except salt to a boil in a large sauce pan. Reduce heat to medium or medium-high and boil until almost all of the liquid is absorbed, stirring frequently (approximately 30 minutes). The beer and sugar will turn into a sweet sticky caramel mess. This is as it should be!
2. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Spread the sticky nuts on a rimmed baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. (Or if you have a nonstick silicone baking mat, I would recommend lining the pan with that!) Sprinkle the sticky brown nuts lightly with coarse sea salt.
3. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and sprinkle with a bit more salt. Bake for 20 more minutes. Remove baking sheet and let cool completely.
4. Once the nuts have cooled, break them into small chunks. If you have trouble with them sticking to the pan, use a pastry cutter to scrape them off the pan–it works! (Next time I’ll remember to use my silicone baking mat!) Store in an airtight container (a tin works great).

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(Confession: I don’t actually plan to watch the Superbowl, but I will drink a beer or two and have some good munchies … does that count?)

This recipe was shared at Scrumptious Sundays and Mop it Up Monday.