If you like walnuts, you're gonna LOVE them candied! They make a perfect contrast of sweet and savory crunch, especially great for salads.
But most recipes ask you to whip egg and bake the nuts in the oven. This one is much simpler: Just mix a few ingredients in a skillet, heat up and add the walnuts. Stir to coat and slightly caramelize, then remove from heat and let them cool. The hardest part is saving them for the salads you're making instead of just munching on the sweetness right away - they're so tasty!
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Ingredients Needed
- Peanut oil - other neutral oil can be used
- Honey
- Sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
- Walnuts - I use "pieces and halves", found in the baking aisle
How to Make These Easy Candied Walnuts for Salads
To a medium skillet, add the peanut oil, sugar, honey, vanilla extract, and salt. Because the quantities are small I like to put them all the same spot so they combine more easily once they start heating. Turn the heat on to medium and warm the sugar mixture while stirring. The mixture will start to bubble and the sugar will dissolve.
Add the walnuts and stir constantly until the sugar starts to caramelize - you'll see a little smoke starting to rise from the pan. Immediately turn off the heat and continue stirring for a full minute with the heat off. This will ensure the walnuts are evenly coated and will not burn.
Pour the walnuts out onto a plate and spread them out to help them cool. Once cool, break them apart or chop lightly to make them the size you prefer.
How to Use These Candied Walnuts
I love to make these walnuts for salads, but I honestly have a hard time resisting them for snacking! They'd be a fabulous addition to a charcuterie board, with your yogurt bowl or added to a snack mix. Imaging cheese plates with these sweet walnuts on the side ~ you can never go wrong with a sweet and savory combination!
Variation Ideas
Once you've mastered this easy method, give it a try for other nuts: pecans, almonds, even hazelnuts can be given a sugar coating to make a delicious snack.
Instead of the oil and sugar, you could try a butter and brown sugar combination. This will give a different depth of flavor to the walnuts, but it might be tricky to keep it from burning, so be careful for that step!
Storage
In the rare cases that I have extras from this walnuts recipe, I store at room temperature in an airtight container, like a small jar. It only lasts a couple days because...you know....snacking.
📖 Recipe
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Best Candied Walnuts
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon peanut oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup walnuts - pieces and halves
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients except the walnuts in a medium skillet and begin heating and stirring over medium heat.1 teaspoon peanut oil, 1 teaspoon honey, 2 tablespoons sugar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- When the sugar has dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble, add the walnuts and stir to coat.1 cup walnuts - pieces and halves
- Stir constantly until the mixture starts to lightly smoke. Immediately turn off the heat and continue stirring for one minute. Then pour the nuts onto a plate and spread them out to cool.
- Once the nuts have cooled off, break them apart and lightly chop into smaller pieces as desired (I do this for salads so I don't have giant walnut clumps).
Nutrition
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data.
Mari
Delicious! My hubs wants these for every salad now - and if it gets him to eat salad, I'm all for it!
Sula
It works that way at my house too!