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These caramelized, candied walnuts are quite a treat. Toss them into your salad, over popcorn, or straight into your mouth. Crunch. Crunch.
I love this easy method of making the candied nuts where everything goes into the pan at once. Other methods I’ve tried left me with globs of candy on the nuts rather than a more even coating.
It also roasts the nuts at the same time so you don’t have to pre-toast them, then add them back to the pan to be coated, blah, blah. Who needs extra steps?
It seriously takes about 5 minutes on the stove and 5 minutes to cool. The finished product is delicious! My husband was sampling them right out of the pan. P.S. This recipe can easily be doubled.
Ingredients for Candied Walnuts:
1 cup walnut halves/pieces (you can also use this recipe for candied pecans)
1/4 cup white granulated sugar (not coarse sugar)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
How To Make 5 Minute Candied Walnuts:
1. Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat, add 1 cup walnuts, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp butter.
2. Heat over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently (with a heat proof non-plastic spatula) so your mixture doesn’t burn (especially towards the end). When the sugar mixture starts melting, stir constantly until all sugar is melted and nuts are coated.
3. Transfer immediately onto a sheet of parchment paper and separate the nuts right away. Using two spatulas will make this task go faster.
You don’t want to give the nuts a chance to turn into a wad of inseparable delicious goodness unless you are the only person who will be enjoying the wad ;). Seriously, move quickly from the time the nuts are coated until they are separated out on the parchment paper.
Once the coating hardens (5-7 minutes), you can transfer them to a bowl and either inhale them right then and there or save ’em for a salad or something.
Enjoy, {crunch} pin it to your “recipes to keep forever” board, {crunch. crunch} and let me know how you liked the candied walnuts! {Crunch. Cruuunch. Crunch}
5 minute Candied Walnuts
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnut halves/pieces, you can also use this recipe for candied pecans
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar, (not coarse sugar)
- 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat, add 1 cup walnuts, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp butter.
- Heat over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently so your mixture doesn't burn (especially towards the end). When the sugar mixture starts melting, stir constantly until all sugar is melted and nuts are coated.
- Transfer immediately onto a sheet of parchment paper and separate the nuts right away. Using two spatulas will make this task go faster. You don't want to give the nuts a chance to turn into a wad of inseparable delicious goodness unless you are the only person who will be enjoying the wad ;). Seriously, move quickly from the time the nuts are coated until they are separated out on the parchment paper.
- Once the coating hardens (5-7 minutes), you can transfer them to a bowl and enjoy!
P.S. If you haven’t allready, make sure to try our honey roasted almonds. They are also amazing
This recipe is wonderful. My only change is that I added 2 Tablespoons of Topper’s Banana Vanilla Cinnamon Rhum which added a beautiful flavor. I put them in mason jars added a ribbon and these made wonderful holiday gifts.
That’s so great, Melanie!! Thank you for that wonderful review and for sharing those changes with us!
Delicious. I just love this recipe, make them every year for Xmas presents and always a hit
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review, Elysia!
Thanks for the great recipe – quick and easy way to use up nuts in stock.
I used a mixture of granulated white sugar and brown sugar. Brown sugar didn’t caramelise as finely but made for some delicious caramelised clumps in the nut mix! Not terribly healthy but so yummy.
Worked well for walnuts, peanuts and also tried with hazelnuts. My hazelnuts happened to be a bit bitter so the caramelised bits made them more palatable.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m so happy you enjoyed that.
Thank you for making my HOLIDAYS so much better It is always the little things; or so we all think,that are so important. Thank you from all my company.
Awww thank you Janet! You are so thoughtful. I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
I needed something to give my home made pumpkin for today’s Thanksgiving an enhancement. I used your recipe as guideline and tweaked slightly by using Vermont Maple sugar, Pecans, butter, and 1/4 tsp of Pumpkin pie spice. I did have to add 1 TB of water at the end to help caramelize the Pecans. Baked pie half way, removed from oven and covered top with Pecans in concentric circle design, and replaced to oven until firm. Absolute perfection. Had some extra Pecans and everyone raved about them, and the pie was like a new creation that was such a hit. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving Eric! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
I don’t think the proportions of sugar to butter we’re correct. Additionally, she wrote the recipe as if I were supposed to just mix the butter, sugar and walnuts all at once, and that just created a batch of barely coated walnuts and giants chunks of caramelized sugar. I should have melted the butter and sugar first and then added the walnuts. She did not write this well.
Hi Karen, were you possibly using a coarse sugar (such as sugar in the raw or organic sugar with larger granules)? If using those, I would suggest adding those to the skillet first before adding the nuts. Using the proportions of ingredients as described above and also using a non-stick skillet, I haven’t had that experience before. Was anything changed in the process, tools or ingredients? Also, did you make sure to transfer to a parchment-lined surface and spread them out right away? This definitely helps to keep them from sticking and forming random chunks of sugar. I hope that helps!
I have a question.. i read through a lot of reviews just to make sure i wasn’t asking the same thing, but didn’t see anything about honey. Can i use honey instead?? I have a lot.. and prefer honey vs regular sugar.
Hello Inna, I haven’t tried honey yet to advise but it would probably work if it’s unflavored. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
Hey Karen. When I first made it I thought the same as you, not enough butter. But I followed her recipe verbatim and it came out excellent. I just had to add 2Tb water like someone else suggested because the mixture was turning brown too fast. That helped coat all my nuts. I stirred from start to finish. I also doubled the recipe. I hope you try it again because they taste amazing!
Thanks for the awesome recipe. I followed your instructions. The only thing I had to do was add about 1 Tbsp water. The butter and sugar were browning too fast. I also dropped the heat a bit. When they were done I sprinkled on some cinnamon,chili powder and salt. I’ve tried a couple recipes but this tops them all! Thank you very much. Do you have a recipe for candied bacon?
I’m so glad you enjoyed that Jim! I do not but thank you for that great suggestion.
Thank You! Being on a Keto diet I look for things for my sweet tooth. Walnuts and real butter are things I can eat so I swapped out the sugar for my Pyure /Stevia blend ( looks and tastes like sugar.) Shazam! Now I have a tastey treat !.. I just kept my heat lower and stirred like crazy! Lord,such Carmelized Goodness!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
I doubled the butter. Delish. Will use it again.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Easy and excellent and delicious, used for apple crostini recipe everyone LOVED them. thank you
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Great! Just made these to add to a salad. I had some random ingredients and needed something to bring them together-pear, tomato, blue cheese, and a mild vinaigrette. Topped with a sprinkle of these nuts and it was perfect! The best part is, they were super easy. My toddler helped me
Aww that’s the best, Brie! I love that you got the toddler involved! Thank you for sharing this awesome review with us!
I already love this recipe because it printed out so easily.
Thank you, Natasha! Excellent website.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Loved the 5 min candied walnuts.
They come out so toasted tasting! TOTALLY YUM!
Easy I need and it was.
THANK YOU Natasha!!!!!
You’re welcome! Thank you for that awesome feedback!
This is a keeper! I had a couple pounds of shelled walnuts, wanting to use them before they went south. I gave this one a go, went off and add 1/4 t cinnamon and a 1/8 of hot pepper . They turn out perfect. did a whole pound , don’t have to worry about going bad.
I’m so glad you enjoyed that, Jack! Aren’t they so easy to make? Thank you for that great feedback.
1-can you make this in an air fryer? and…
2-can you substitute a sugar-free granulated sweetener?
Hi Pam, I have not tested that in an air fryer to advise BUT, one of our readers wrote this about using a sugar-free option “I used Earth Balance, a non-dairy spread, and half and half Lakanto (non-caloric sweetener) and sugar. I melted Earth Balance first, mixed in sugar, then added walnuts. Set timer, stirred often, and they were ready in 5 minutes over medium high heat. Came out great, but took longer to harden, about an hour. Sprinkled a little sea salt after taking out of the pan, and the taste is great.” I hope that helps.
I’ve been trying for a while to find the perfect candied/toasted walnut to put on top of my homemade steel-cut oat and pancakes. Hallelujah, I have found it. I just finished a big bowl of steel-cut oats, blueberries, Ceylon cinnamon and agave nectar with these INCREDIBLE walnuts on top. It was so good I had to go back for a second bowl. I will definitely be using this recipe for all my breakfast endeavors moving forward. Thanks, Natasha!!!!!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Torrey!
Had 20 minutes to leave for a dinner party. While my chocolate sauce was cooking I made a double batch of these. They were perfect as a sundae topper! Huge hit! I can’t believe how easy and quick they were. Thank you!!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review, Sheri!
Recipe came out good as written.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I performed your recipe last night on walnuts and pecans separately. It pays to read comments because I had to add 2 Tbs of water. As a result, both batches were excellent. I used mine for Chocolate Walnut fudge and Butter Pecan fudge for our Church picnic. I wished you had a video for this recipe so I could see how you execute it without the use of water. I didn’t deviate from your direction but I kept the water handy as a precaution because I didn’t have extra nuts. As I was nearing 3 minutes of stirring, the sugar wasn’t melting, and I began to see brown forming so I added the water. Immediately the sugar melted and I was relieved!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Angela!
Natasha, your candied nuts recipe enhanced my Chocolate Walnut fudge and Butter Pecan fudge greatly! They ended up winning 1st place at the Canfield Ohio County Fair!
Wow! That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review and for sharing that with us, Angela!
Can this be made with peanuts?
Hi Rosemary, You’ll have to be quicker about separating them out since they are smaller unless you want it to be a peanut bark but I think it would work.