Candied Almonds

In the last post, I described a couple things I had made for holiday parties. Well, I also like to give food-based gifts! Most of the people I know don't NEED anything, but everyone likes some snacking food. And, if it's not to your taste, or you're ready to explode from Christmas chocolate/candy overload, you can re-gift or put it out at your next party. For the last two years I've made candied almonds, and now I'll share with you my secret recipe! I believe it came from the LCBO magazine years ago, but I'm not sure.

It's a two-step process. First, in a large pan, combine 1.5 Tbsp maple syrup (the real stuff, of course), 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp each cayenne and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over medium heat - this takes only a minute or two, then it gets kinda foamy. Throw in 1 cup raw almonds, and stir around for 2-3 minutes to coat the nuts. After a couple minutes it sort of dries out and isn't as syrupy, and that's when it's time for step two: the oven.

Set it to 325, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the almonds on, try and get them in a flat layer and bake 15-20 minutes, stirring at least once. They will be fairly sticky, but stirring isn't usually too hard. Once they've cooled, you can break them apart (I just do it by hand - but some of those sugar shards are sharp, so watch out) and put them in a nice gift bag (thanks Bulk Barn!).

These make great gifts - crunchy, sweet, spicy, easy to make large batches, and fairly foolproof as long as you don't burn them. Very easy to snack on while making them too... so make extra. The first batch I found a little too salty, so I only put in half as much in the second batch. They were better, and the spiciness from the cayenne was a little more pronounced. I don't really care for salted nuts, though, so I may just be too sensitive to the sodium. Another Christmas classic, though I suppose I may have to come up with something new for next year.