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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
I really need help the caramel in some places just becomes glunky, even though I followed the recipe. Some nuts are coated but some also have rock hard pieces of caramel.
Hi Jessica, that could be due to too high of heat – also a good non-stick skillet works best for this recipe.
perfect! so easy and delicious
What a quick and delicious way to make nuts for a salad or sundae. We only cooked them for 4 minutes and it was perfect.
So great to hear that, Leslie. Thank you so much for your good comments and review!
My wife wants candied walnuts with our stay home New Years dinner salad. Couldn’t find them anywhere so low and behold I made them using your recipe. They came out great I won’t tell her how easy it was to make!
I’m so excited you discovered this recipe! It takes just 5 minutes to make the tastiest walnuts! I’m glad you enjoeyd it!
This was so easy! Thanks so much. It was another culinary first for me, but not my last! 🙂
It really is easy! Thank you for that great review, Lauren!
Super easy! Love your recipes! This one is sure to be a hit!
Thank you for that wonderful feedback, Mary! That’s so great!
Tried this recipe because I needed some last minute Christmas gifts and I am so glad I did! This is so easy and yummy! I ended up doing cashews, walnuts and pecans. SO GOOD!!! Thanks Natasha for perfecting this recipe–worked like a charm!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review!
For candied walnuts how does using brown sugar work out?
Hi Jeannie, I recall at least some readers mentioned using brown sugar with great results. I hope you love the candied walnuts!
You are super Natasha. I like all your receipe.
You’re so nice! Thank you!
Natasha, since your not boiling this, do you think you could substitute honey for the sugar?
Hi Carl, 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.
Can I do the same with pecans?
Hi Shari! This will work great with pecans!
Yay ! Always looking for a shortcut. I did this with pecans and walnuts (mmmmm) and put them in a large bowl with a lid and shook vigorously to separate them 🙂 Thanks Ever So
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
Very easy and tasty!!
Thank you!
Ok seriously!!! You are so much fun to watch.
So I just made these candies walnuts and added a splash of homemade vanilla and cayenne pepper. After laying them out on the sheet pan I sprinkled with sea salt. Oh my!!!!! Delicious!!!!
I also added some pumpkin pie spice as well.
Aren’t they so good!! I’m so glad you’re enjoying our recipes, and thank you so much for that wonderful compliment!
I’ve been a stalker for quite some time and this is the 2nd recipe I’ve tried. They were both wonderful. Just made these with walnuts that had been in the freezer for ages (Cave Man food as my sons calls it cause they were in the freezer a looong time)and Costco cashews. Everything was done in less than 10 minutes and I only burnt the roof of my mouth 3 times. Excellent quick recipe. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Edna. Thanks for sharing some good comments and feedback with us!
Would a cast iron pan work?
Hi, I haven’t tried this in a cast iron pan, but I suspect the sugar might get stuck to the pan.
It is very easy to remove caramel if you pour some boiling water in the pan. If it still really sticks you could repeat the process or stir the water or scratch the caramel with a wooden spatula.
(Sorry for any mistakes, I’m twelve years old and a German)
Thanks for your tips and keep up the great work, Mandi!
Can I use plant based butter instead of real butter for this candied nut recipe?
I haven’t tried that yet to advise but I imagine that should work fine too.
I have used plant based butter for this recipe, worked out just fine.
Thank you for sharing that with us Melanie!
Stunning! So easy. I was very cautious with the heat, and had to turn the element up above medium on my stove. When the sugar and butter finally melted, it all happened in a rush, and yes, all the nuts stuck together at that point. But using the two spatulas to separate them was the answer. Thanks Natasha for the excellent tip, and the great recipe.
Good job! I’m so glad you loved the end result, I sure hope it was all worth it. Thanks for your great feedback!
Holy moly. Have the parchment READY. These come out gooey and hot! So good. Thank you!
Hi, I’m so happy you loved the candied walnuts. I’d love to know how you plan to use them or serve them. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
I made 4 cups of walnuts and added two teaspoons of cinnamon. I made a second batch where I put the walnuts in my air fryer to roast and melted the butter and sugar + cinnamon then just mixed the nuts in the melted mixture. They both were very good snacks, am giving them to all my family for thanksgiving.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!