Candied almonds are one of those staple fair foods you can buy and snack on while you wander around and enjoy a festival. To me, they were always a treat you got when going out somewhere special, so I never really thought about making them at home. Until now, anyway.
As with a lot of these little snacks, the difficulty isn’t in making them, it’s in not devouring all of them before the day is through. But hey, at least almonds are relatively healthy, right? Just ignore the sugar.
The recipe for these is pretty simple, and while it takes a while, it’s definitely easy. So, I figured I’d answer a few questions about it before we dive right in.
Do you have to use almonds? Not at all! Pretty much any nut can be candied in this manner. I like almonds a lot, but I fully intend to do the same thing with pecans some time soon, and I bet you’d have delicious results with peanuts, too. I don’t usually cook with other nuts, but you’re definitely free to try.
What does the egg white do? The traditional method for making Praline is to basically make a caramel out of sugar, cinnamon, and water, and then dip the nuts. You might get a thicker and more even coating that way, but you’ll also end up with more of a caramel flavor and harder, less toasted nuts.
Since the method I’m using doesn’t go all the way to making a caramel, you need some way for the sugar to stick to the nuts. That’s where the egg white comes in. It’s a binder, an edible glue that sticks the sugar mixture to the nuts while you bake them. It works great!
Can you use brown sugar too? Of course; in fact, that’s my next batch. You can do half-and-half white and brown sugar, or you can go all-in on just brown sugar. Just be aware that brown sugar is more moist than white sugar so it might take a bit longer to bake.
For that matter, you aren’t limited to just cinnamon, either! I think it would be delicious to try with a pie spice mix instead, for more complexity.
Simple Candied Almonds (Praline)
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Rubber Spatula
- Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
Ingredients
- 3 Cups Raw, Unsalted Whole Almonds
- 1 Egg White
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- ¾ Cup White Sugar Or brown sugar, or 50/50 both.
- 1 Tsp Sea Salt
- 2 Tsp Cinnamon Or pie spice mix.
Instructions
- Lightly grease your baking sheet and set it aside without a liner. Preheat your oven to 250℉.
- In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, salt, and cinnamon.¾ Cup White Sugar, 1 Tsp Sea Salt, 2 Tsp Cinnamon
- In a mixing bowl, beat the egg white and vanilla together until frothy.1 Egg White, 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
- Add the almonds to the egg and stir to coat them all well.3 Cups Raw, Unsalted Whole Almonds
- Add the sugar mixture and stir to coat the almonds. Use the spatula to scrape down the sides and coat as much as you can.
- Spread the almonds evenly across the baking sheet. Drizzle and scrape out any additional sugar mixture to add on top of the almonds.
- Bake for a full hour. Every 15 minutes, stir it all up to help evenly bake it all.
- When done, stir again and serve warm, or wait to cool to enjoy!