Hi DKF,

All I can find is almonds with the skins on also. But they have always worked fine for me. I soak them in the salt water and then dry them at 150* in my electric oven. Never any black spots. The only thing that comes to mind is that maybe they are reacting to the metal in your baking sheet. I've used both stainless steel and one with a non-stick coating with success. Is your baking sheet aluminum or some other reactive metal? Just a thought.

Good luck.

Do you live in the US? Perhaps you have a Trader Joes around? They carry raw almonds, as well as other raw nuts. Also, I know that I ran into a site, but unfortunetly, I can't remember where. I think from a prior posting on this forum, that carries nuts, presooked like Sally says. Since I can find them locally, I didn't make a note of it.

Good Luck in your endevore!

I've gotten black spots on my almonds and just assumed they were burn spots. Other kinds of nuts were getting black too. I don't think I've had as much a problem since I learned how to fine tune the temperature guage and get it lower.