There are bound to be some unexpected assorted nuts at your holiday party. Maybe a crazy uncle with an eye patch or a dance troupe of Danish Marzipan Sheperdesses. Forgo the usual boxed crackers, skip the untouched bowl of whole nuts and make your very own nut crackers. You just never know when a dancing royal Nut Cracker might show up at your party. Wouldn’t that be nuts?

While you are in the Christmas Holiday mood, check out our festive Merry Kissmyass shirt.

The Nut cracker

1½ cup of almond flour, packed

¼ cup of nut oil (almond, hazelnut or walnut)

1 egg

1½ tsp salt

1 tsp mustard powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/3 cup filled with assorted unsalted nuts and seeds, chopped small

Here are some excellent examples of nuts and seeds

• pumpkin seeds, left whole

• sesame seeds, left whole

• chopped walnuts

• chopped hazelnuts

• sunflower seeds, left whole

Serve with assorted cheeses and cold cuts

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

To make your own almond flour, just blitz blanched slivered almonds in the food processor until they resemble fine sand, or buy it already ground.

Get a large bowl.

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until everything is thoroughly combined.

Get a large baking sheet ready.

Place a large sheet of parchment paper down on a counter.

Scoop out the ball of nut dough and place it in the center of the parchment. Use your hands to flatten it out into a large rectangle. Place another piece of parchment on top and grab a rolling pin (or a wine bottle).

Use just a little pressure to roll out the dough starting in the middle and rolling up, then starting back in the middle and rolling down. Rotate and repeat.

Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thick all over and try to keep the edges from getting to crumbly.

Now slide the flat dough onto the baking sheet.

Remove the top piece of parchment. Before you bake, cut out the crackers using a round cookie cutter or a pizza cutter. For the cookie cutter cut out rounds and leave them where they lie with all the filler dough left untouched too. Or you could use a pizza cutter to cut squarish shapes.

Blap the tray into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave them to cool. They will become more cracker-like as they cool.

When cool keep the crackers in an airtight container for up to 10 days.