I have a confession: I love salty snacks.

I know that will come as a shock to many of you but I just had to get that off of my chest. As Christmas approaches, there is no shortage of chocolate and cookies and candies but I am always searching the snack table for the lone salty snack. Thankfully, there’s usually some kind-hearted angel who has the foresight to make nuts and bolts and my Christmas snacking is complete.

Homemade nuts and bolts are a Christmas treasure – the butterier, the better – and we even tried our hand at making them a few times but they somehow fell out of our repertoire. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I was gifted a bag of fresh-out-the-oven nuts and bolts from a customer. After sharing the bag with Robyn, I was reminded why they had fallen out of our favour.

Over the last couple of years, Robyn has developed a sensitivity to onion and garlic. Unfortunately, pretty much all homemade nuts and bolts recipes rely on garlic powder and onion powder for a large part of their flavour profile. That pushed nuts and bolts to our naughty list. And I was ok with that…until this customer reminded me how delicious they were with this extra-buttery, fresh-out-of-the-oven bag that she gifted me.

Robyn and I put our heads together to devise a recipe that still provided a punch of buttery, salty, goodness but without the garlic and onion after-effects. I am happy to report that we came up with a nuts and bolts recipe that is dangerously snackable and entirely onion and garlic-free.

If you’re looking for an alternative to the classic recipe that everyone knows, give this a try and let me know what you think!