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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
Very nice! I make walnut scrimp and these are perfect.
Love your recipes!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying our recipes, Kate! Thank you for sharing that awesome review with me!
Only have margarine right now. Think it will work? Thanks
Hi Emila, I haven’t tested with that to advise. If you happen to experiment, I would love to know how you like that.
Can you add a variation for spiced nuts? I’m thinking throwing in some seasoning spice to the pan would be great for the holidays coming up.
Hmm! I haven’t tested that, but it sounds delicious! If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
These nuts are amazingly simple and delicious!!! Thank you so much!!!
You are most welcome, Brenda. Glad you loved it!
Have made these several times, following your easy directions as written. They come out great every time! Only problem is keeping my paws out of the bowl!
Lovely to hear that! Thank you for your good comments and feedback, Norma.
First time making these and they came out perfect and delicious! And it was so easy. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed that Stacey!
I am dealing with the tail end of last years walnuts. This years are dropping as I type here in SW France. The best way to store these please and how long will they keep. I have a LOT to deal with and would like to make them into gifts for Christmas if they will keep that long.
Hi Janis, I think it would be too early to make them now. I haven’t maxed out the lifespan of these because they always get eaten right away, but keep it at room temperature in low moisture environment and I would guess they’d keep at least a week, maybe longer.
Follow the recipe! At least the first time so you know how it’s supposed to turn out. The first time I made this I subbed in brown sugar because I had run out of granulated white sugar. It took forever to melt and ended up very goopy and hard to work with. Still tasted pretty good but with a thick candy coating and a little overdone due to increased melting time. The next time I used white sugar and it was much easier and coated evenly.
5 stars because it’s so simple and comes together fast. No whipping egg whites and baking for a long time. The nuts get toasted in the process so it’s just one step for amazing candied nuts. I used a mix of nuts and it’s delicious and addictive.
Note: if you double the recipe it takes more time so just watch it and keep stirring.
This recipe worked perfectly from the very first time I made it. Now I make a double batch every time, they are so good. I think the secret is to continually stir the mixture until the butter and sugar have turned golden brown. That way the nuts are well coated.
I love it! Thanks for sharing your good experience with this recipe, Debbie. Yes that is definitely a great observation!
Works perfectly! I didn’t have a nonstick pan so I just put parchment paper over my stainless steel one and cooked directly on that!
I’m so glad to know that, Stephen. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Delish!!
I also tried on almond slivers then sprinkled with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
Yum! Thank you so much for sharing that with me Terry!
Wow! I am so surprised at how much more simple this recipe is in comparison to others I had looked at and the taste is phenomenal!!!! Love that this requires no baking and only 3 ingredients; really 1 because I would consider sugar and butter as staples in the house. Dangerously delicious
Thank you for that wonderful review, Chelsea! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
I love hate this recipe ,
I’m a vegetarian that was perfectly happy with walnuts and pecans before I started making this. Now I double the batch with the intention of saving for recipes. HA! they are usually gone the same day. Then I have to ride my mtb or road bike an extra hundred miles that week.
Simple really really good
Sounds like you have a new favorite, William! Thank you for that wonderful review!
Omg. Your recipe is fantastic. I had to stop myself from eating too many! Thank you Natasha!!
You’re welcome! It sounds like you have a new favorite!
I made this, exactly as the recipe states. Fabulous and easy!
Yay! That’s so great Sherri! I’m so happy you enjoyed this!
I made these exactly according to the instructions and they came out perfect! I did watch it very closely because I’ve made a lot of flan and I know that once the sugar starts to melt it can go very quickly. Thanks for sharing this. Now I have something different to put in my salads!
You’re welcome Linda! We love adding this to our salad!
If you’re having problems with the sugar mix falling off the nuts, I propose that you shuffle the instructions a bit. I melt the butter/sugar together just until it caramelizes and then turn the heat off and dump the walnuts in. Keep stirring, stirring, stirring. The sugar mixture will initially not want to stick, but as it cools, it will get thicker. Eventually, it will get thick enough that it will stick to the nuts. I then spread my nuts in a one nut high layer, but they’re all still interlocked (I don’t bother with separating them). I let them cool fully then come back 5min later and break the mass up. This works great for me because I don’t care if the nuts look pretty or not. I just dump them in my salad anyway, so bits and pieces work fine.
Thank you for sharing the tweaks that you did with us, Ben. That is very helpful, we appreciate it!
I am diabetic and wanted to have sugared nuts for my salads. This recipe was perfect. I used Agave and Stevia for the sugar and followed the instructions. Turned the temperature down and stirred constantly. They turned out delicious and perfect coating. Thank you for this great recipe.
So happy to hear that you made a healthier version of this recipe. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Didn’t work for me. Nuts never went brown, sugar never dissolved. Looked like I’d made a butter/sugar mix for a cake and coated the nuts in it.
Hi, the nuts should not go brown in the skillet. You might try increasing the heat slightly and give it a little more time. Also, I always suggest to make sure to use the same proportions without substitutions on the first round.
You must use a good quality of sugar. If it is not it will not melt.
This recipe works better if you melt the butter and sugar first with a couple tablespoon of water to fully disolve the sugar making a simple Carmel pouring this over the nuts in a pan and tossing them worked like a charm for me
Thanks for your input and suggestions, Zac!
For me, medium is too high a temp. Switch to med low and the butter won’t burn. Or, I could have used unsalted butter. (That would have been a better idea.) You have to begin breaking the walnuts apart while in the pan. I was basically hammering the walnut mixture from the 2 minute mark. Love the idea and the flavor would be better had I not burned the butter, which, again, was in part due to the high temp.
Thank you for sharing those tips with us Edward!