I love cocoa almonds.  You know, those kind you buy for a snack at Target because you’re starving and they seem sort of healthy?  My husband always gets annoyed with me when I open food in the store to feed my ravenous kids (or myself!).  But I justify it by saying that I end up saving us so much money by not shopping while I’m hungry, right?!  I digress.  So those cocoa almonds are completely addicting.  I was looking in my cupboards today and realized that I have cocoa.  I have almonds.  I have honey.  I bet I could make some.  So, after searching Pinterest for way too long and pouring over everyone’s version of these crunchy treats, I decided to combine them all and here’s what I came up with!

Cocoa Almonds

3c. raw almonds

2-3T. honey

4T. cocoa powder, divided

2T. powdered sugar

Drizzle honey over almonds – actually I estimated 2-3T.  I didn’t measure.  So just use about this much.

Toss the almonds in the honey until they are evenly coated.

Sprinkle cocoa powder on top and stir until it coats the almonds. Just a disclaimer…I used black coca powder. I buy it through frontier co-op.  It’s awesome in chocolate cakes and brownies.  But I don’t know if I’d use it again for this.  It was a bit too black for my liking.

Spread nuts on a half sheet pan coated with cooking spray, a silicone baking mat or parchment paper (NOT wax paper.  Looks similar, but it’s not the same thing!)  Bake at 275 degrees for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Take them out of the oven and let them cool for 5-10 min, until you are able to handle them.  Toss in a paper bag with about 2T. cocoa powder.  I did mine in groups.  I added about a cup of almonds, tossed them in the bag, added another cup right on top, tossed and the put final cup.  So they end up all being in the bag together.  That way they didn’t stick together.  Make sense?

They were so beautiful and velvety and chocolatey!

These were really good, but they weren’t sweet like the ones I remember buying.  So to fix that, my hubby suggested that I toss them back in the bag with a little powdered sugar.  Brilliant!  They were perfect!