Spiced Cocoa Roasted Almonds

Christmas 2023. Sarah, Jim, Teddy, and Finn arrived Christmas Eve afternoon in a light snowfall that continued through the evening, accumulating to about four inches by midnight, which is the correct amount of Christmas Eve snow — enough to be beautiful but not enough to cause concern. Finn saw the snow from the back window and pressed his palms flat against the glass and said something I could not quite hear but understood from the posture alone. Carol drove down from Stowe the morning of Christmas Eve and stayed through the twenty-seventh, so the house had six people in it for three days and every room was in use.

Christmas morning was Finn's, as it should be. He was up before five-thirty — we heard him on the stairs and Jim went down to hold the perimeter until six, which is the negotiated family hour. By six-fifteen the living room was organized chaos and Finn was a blur of wrapping paper and exclamations and Teddy was watching his brother with the same expression I have seen him wear watching a good cook work — attentive, slightly amused, respectful of the commitment being displayed. The smoked salmon and scrambled eggs breakfast happened at nine, by which point Finn had assembled enough of his gifts to provide a running commentary on each one.

I cooked the Christmas dinner myself this year — a standing rib roast, the first one I had done since before Helen died, because it always felt like too much for one person and I had been defaulting to leg of lamb which is more manageable. But with six people at the table it was the right call. I dry-aged the roast in the refrigerator for three days, seasoned it simply with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and roasted it on a high-heat start and low-heat finish, exactly the same logic as the turkey. The result was exactly right — deeply browned outside, the interior graduating from well-done at the edges to pink-red at the center. I made the au jus from the pan drippings and a quick beef stock and that was all it needed.

Carol and I washed the dishes together after dinner while Jim put Finn to bed. She said, washing a pan, that it was the best Christmas we had had in years. I agreed. She said Helen would have liked this version of the family — Teddy cooking the Thanksgiving turkey, Finn learning the cooking look, the whole direction of things. I did not disagree with that either. There are years when the people you have lost seem close in a way that does not feel like grief so much as presence, and this was one of those years.

The standing rib roast was the centerpiece, and it earned its place — but what I kept reaching for the rest of the evening, while Carol and I talked and the house slowly quieted, were these Spiced Cocoa Roasted Almonds I had set out before dinner. There is something right about having a small, effortless thing alongside a meal that took three days of dry-aging and all the confidence you can muster. Finn had claimed a handful before anyone sat down, and that felt like a reasonable endorsement. If you are building a Christmas table and you want something that asks almost nothing of you but gives back warmth and a little sweetness, this is it.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups raw whole almonds
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil or melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 325°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix the spice coating. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt until evenly combined.
Coat the almonds. Add the almonds to the bowl and drizzle with the oil and vanilla extract. Toss thoroughly until every almond is coated with the spice mixture.
Spread and roast. Spread the coated almonds in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Roast for 18 to 20 minutes, stirring once halfway through, until the coating looks dry and set and the almonds are fragrant.
Cool completely. Remove from the oven and let the almonds cool on the baking sheet for at least 15 minutes — they will crisp up as they cool. Do not crowd them into a bowl while still warm or they may clump.
Serve or store. Transfer to a serving bowl or an airtight container. They keep well at room temperature for up to one week.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spiced Cocoa Roasted Almonds — The Little Treat That Kept the Kitchen Warm