Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts

These are a favorite of mine, especially around the holidays. I made them this past weekend for our Canadian Thanksgiving, and I’ll be making them again in a couple of months for Christmas. You can use pretty much any kind of nut, but if I were you I’d stick to the traditional ones: pecans and almonds.

I started hunting for nuts like this after too many family vacations to Florida, more specifically Universal Studios. Those little carts inside the park, with the delicious spiced nuts sold in the polka dot paper cones. I may drive the 21 hours just for those nuts.

It took me a while, but this Thanksgiving, on a bit of a whim, I think I’ve finally got it. I specifically wanted to make the nuts to use as a topping for my pumpkin cheesecake with spiced crust. I wanted the nuts to more closely mimic the flavors of the classic pumpkin pie, so I took out the water, and added ginger-ale. That was it, the missing ingredient, and now I just can’t get enough of them!

In a small bowl, mix together your sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Put a couple of egg whites in a large bowl.

Beat them to stiff peaks.

Add ginger-ale and vanilla.

Beat together until well combined.

Add the nuts and toss with a spatula to coat.

Add the sugar, and toss again to coat.

Spread out of a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 75 minutes, stirring every 15.

The nuts are done with they look dry.

You can’t help but eat these by the handful. Sorry

Here’s the printable:

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Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts

Yield: 1 lb nuts

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 egg whites
• ¼ cup ginger ale
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1lb nuts (I use ½lb each of pecan pieces and whole almonds)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 250ºF with a rack in the middle position.
2. In a small bowl whisk together the sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Beat in the ginger ale and vanilla.
4. Toss the nuts in the egg mixture with a spatula until well coated. Add the sugar mixture and toss again.
5. Spray a rimmed baking sheet with Pam, then spread the nuts evenly on the sheet. Bake for 1 hour, 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. The nuts are done when the coating is dry looking and hardned.

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