- 1). Rinse the pinon nuts in a strainer or colander under running water. Remove any foreign objects and empty shells.
- 2). Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place a single layer of pinon nuts on a cookie sheet or shallow pan.
- 3). Place the pan of nuts on the top rack of your oven. Because pinon nuts are a wild-picked food, their moisture content (and therefore roasting times) can vary.
- 4). Check the nuts for doneness after ten minutes. The nutmeat will change from off-white to nearly translucent, then back to white and finally a golden color.
- 5). Remove the nuts from the oven as soon as they turn golden since pinon nuts burn easily. Transfer the nuts to a cool pan or a newspaper to let them cool. Perfectly roasted nuts will develop a dark mustard color.
- 6). Place the cool nuts between two terrycloth kitchen towels and firmly roll a rolling pin over the towels to crack the shells. The shells will stick to the terrycloth.
- 7). Discard the shells and season the nut meat with salt to taste.
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