Spicy Trail Mix

Although I recognize roasted nuts are incomparable, nutritionally speaking, to raw & soaked nuts, sometimes I crave to be a bad bad girl. These spicy glazed nuts & pretzels are perfect for the rebel in me. I used a mix of organic nuts - cashews, almonds, pecans & pistachios & Newman's spelt pretzels. Let's just say I ate most of it before I had a chance to take any halfway decent pictures. Yum, yum & some more yum.

~*~

Spicy-Sweet Trail Mix
1 cup mixed nuts, raw

1/2 tblspn butter, melted
1 1/2 tblspns dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tblspn maple syrup (little less)

1 cup small pretzels twists
1 tsp coarse salt

• Preheat oven 350F. Slightly roast nuts on a lined baking sheet, about 5 - 10 minutes.
• In a medium bowl, mix together melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, cayenne & maple syrup.
• Add nuts & pretzels to spicy mixture - thoroughly coat.
  
• Sprinkle on coarse salt.
• Spread mixture back on lined baking sheet & return to oven for additional 10 minutes, stirring once to allow even baking.
• Remove from oven & cool completely. There's no need to separate nuts from pretzels since they taste best eaten together! :)
• Once cooled, store in an airtight container for up to 4 days - if they even last that long!
• Makes about 2 cups.