In general, I have a hard time eating a small amount of nuts. Anyone with me on this one? And so I try not to do anything fancy with my nuts too often because, when I do, I find it even harder than normal to stop eating them.
However, I had purchased a package of raw almonds a while ago and I have to tell you that raw almonds do not excite me all that much. Raw nuts of any kind really. So when I came across a salad recipe that required candied almonds I thought it was a great opportunity to use up that bag of raw almonds taking up space on my kitchen table. I did a quick search for an easy candied almond recipe because I didn’t want to spend a night in the kitchen mixing egg whites with sugar and watching my oven. I was delighted to find a recipe I could easily adapt and was even more delighted at the results.
Just a warning that these nuts are seriously addicting. Like. Seriously. Only make them if you have extreme willpower or a bunch of people to share them with.
ingredients.
- ½ c. water
- 1 ½ c. brown sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon (or more to taste)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 lb almonds, with skins
- Flakey sea salt
directions.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease a baking sheet with some vegetable shortening or coconut oil. I put the pan in the oven as it was preheating, removed and then swirled some coconut oil around.
- Bring water, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to a boil, stirring constantly, boil for a few minutes (about 5). Add almonds and toss to coat.
- Remove almonds with slotted spoon and arrange on the baking sheet in one layer — you should have some space between the almonds.
- Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, basting twice with reserved syrup (I missed this step and they turned out fine. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with flakey sea salt.
- Cool completely. Store in an airtight container if you don’t eat them all in one sitting.
This is great alone as a snack or to pep up a salad. I made these specifically to go in the Spring Berry Salad.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 