Looking for a sweet treat to nibble away on? Or perhaps give as gifts to friends and neighbours? These delicious candied nuts take 6 ingredients and less than an hour to whip up.
Valentine’s tomorrow, and Super Bowl was yesterday – so I’m sneaking in with a quick Valentine’s Day treat you can make right now and no one will know you forgot Valentine’s Day. lol
This recipe for candied nuts can be used with any kind of nut you like. I tried it on blanched peanuts, roasted almonds and pecan halves and all three were delicious
Candied Nuts
You will need:
- 4 ½ cups of the nut of your choice
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
Bring all ingredients to a boil – adding in your sugar a bit at a time so that it absorbs and is no longer visible.
Continue to boil, stirring constantly, until all of the water is absorbed – approximately 20 minutes.
Your candied nuts should look like this for peanuts:
and this for pecans and/or almonds:
There will be no water left in the pan at all, and the candied nuts will look grainy with the sugar mixture.
Preheat the oven to 300°F / 150°C – convection is best.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and then lightly butter the paper.
Spread the boiled nuts out on the parchment paper and then bake for 20 minutes.
Flip the nuts over, salt again (to your taste) and return to the oven for another 15 – 20 minutes.
Allow to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container, or package the candied nuts up in these cute cello bags to give as a sweet treat to your Valentine’s. (Amazon affiliate links. For full affiliate disclosure please see bottom of the page.)
I made a full recipe of the peanuts and a half recipe of the almonds & pecan halves and I was left with a LOT of candied nuts:
There were another 3 bags of the candied peanuts that wouldn’t fit on this tray as well.
You can have LOTS of Valentine’s!
If you aren’t a fan of cinnamon, you can leave it out of the recipe and your candied nuts will still be delicious – but having made both, I can assure you that the cinnamon-vanilla version are MUCH better, and the cinnamon really is negligible.
These wouldn’t be appropriate for classroom treats – there are far too many nut allergies out there, but it would make a nice treat for teachers, coworkers, neighbours and friends.
These are the candied nuts I made a few years ago with cute Valentine’s tags:
If you want to add an extra sweet treat, sprinkle a few red and pink M&M’s
Ooooh, I love that idea! Next year for sure!
Mama’s gettin’ some lovin’ this year!! 😂
Have a great one!