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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 is one way to get me to eat nuts! Great recipe, but I would reduce the sugar by 1/3 and add a pinch of salt.
Loved this! It was so easy to make. The only thing I changed was I cut the sugar by almost half and added a pinch of salt for better balance. Also, to easily break the walnuts into smaller pieces I gathered the walnuts into the middle of the parchment paper. I held the edges of the parchment paper and cupped the nuts so that the parchment forms a bag. I crushed the nuts inside with my hands so they can break into smaller pieces easily and with little mess. Hope this helps!
Sounds good, thanks for sharing and that’s alright. We’re glad you enjoyed this recipe!
These nuts are so easy and so amazing. Made them to top a baguette recipe that also calls for pears and blue cheese. Can’t wait to make these nuts as Christmas gifts. Thanks for a great recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Marie!
Wow, needed to candy. It’s for a salad recipe and so glad I found this recipe —- so simple and perfect! Easy to follow and delicious!
That’s great! I’m glad you found this recipe. They are great as a salad topping! 🙂
Yummy, but too much sugar. I added another half cup of walnuts so not to waste the carmelized goodness.
Hi Alexa, thanks for sharing and feel free to add more walnuts if you like that.
I like this recipe. Easy and quick. I added a sprinkle of cinnamon. Yummy
Yum! 🙂
So easy and delicious just made it now.. it’s not too sweet either
Thank you for the feedback, Edina! 🙂
Excited about making these for roasted beets and goat cheese salad. I don’t have any white sugar. Would cane sugar work?
Thank you very much!
Trish
Hi Trish! That should be fine. 🙂
Dear Natasha
How are you? Thank you so much for the candied walnuts!! They are delicious!!! I just might eat them all by myself crunch crunch Lol
Thank you again
❤️Mary
Hi Mary! THank you for your great comment & feedback! I’m so glad you loved these!
I just made the candied walnuts for my chicken salad and this recipe is so easy and fast to make. I put on Pam spray on parchment paper put nuts in single layer and after 5 minutes broke apart and tasted a few and they are delicious!!!
Hi Amy! These are so easy and delicious, love them. I’m glad you do as well. 🙂
Very good. If you turn down the heat or stir too much then the sugar won’t melt. Keep the heat at medium and stir intermittently so the sugar has a chance to heat up and melt. It’s a fine line between letting the sugar melt but not burn! So tasty though. Love putting these on a green salad with craisins, Gorgonzola cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.
Also I poured the hot nuts into an aluminum pie pan to cool then I break apart clumps with a spoon or my hands. If I need them to cool faster I put them in the freezer!
Yes, the sugar needs to melt entirely. Using a different kind of sugar may also take more time to melt. I agree these candied walnuts are so good over salads. Thank you for your feedback Lauren!
-thank you! I guess that’s my problem, stirred too much and the sugar just went into little balls.
I’ll get more walnuts and try again.
Hi Natasha
Love the simplicity. Right there is worth 5 stars. Half of my walnuts stuck to the parchment paper (I had to use wax paper because I was out of parchment). Thoughts? Thanks!
HI Ashton, it would be sticking more to wax paper which is why I definitely recommend parchment paper for this project.
I’m going to use black walnuts that I gathered from the neighborhood
Yum! I bet that would be great! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
Instead of walnuts, Can I substitute by using roasted almonds?
Hi Gee, I think you could make that work. My favorite almonds recipe is our Honey roasted almonds.
Can you make these with honey? I followed ALL directions to a tee and the sugar never melted enough , and only turned a little brown. Once cool , I will get rid of the sugar that didn’t adhere , but honey sounds like a better choice
Hi Lori, I haven’t tried honey yet to advise, but it would probably work if it’s unflavored. If you experiment, please share with us how it goes. Also, I’m curious if it was the kind of sugar used that didn’t adhere?
Made these. So delicious. Not overly sweet. Can they be stored
for awhile?
Hi Vivianne, I’m so glad you enjoyed them! You can store them at room temperature in Tupperware for 3-5 days. I wouldn’t refrigerate them since the caramel can become sticky in a moist environment.
Natasha Can you use these candied walnuts in cookies or are they too hard
Hi Sallie, I’ve seen cookies with plain walnuts or pecans on top, but not candied ones, but it also might work really well. If you do try it, do let me know how it turns out. 🙂
I ate the first batch before it did totally cooled down! Thank goodness it was so simple to make that I just made another batch. Next time gonna try it with pecans which I know will taste even better! Thank you for sharing!
You’re very welcome, Marcia! So glad you enjoyed them. Pecans sound delicious!
I’ve made this recipe a couple times, and while the walnuts come out alright, i get a lot of sugar clumps in the end and they are like tooth-grenades! What am i doing wrong?
Hi, It sounds like either the heat needs to be turned down slightly or the nuts need to be removed from the pan a little earlier.
This recipe was so easy and quick! I used a little less sugar. I also added a little salt at the end for the sweet/salty taste I crave. I made them as a snack. I couldn’t stop eating them.
Thank you for sharing your experience!