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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 had no idea it was this easy! This is all I’m going to eat all weekend. Forget about the salad I was going to *sprinkle* this on…
I’m so happy to hear you love this! Thank you for your awesome review!
Fantastic- easier and faster than the oven. Good ratios. Zero stick with parchment paper. Thanks!
I made two huge almonds for the oven on the paper I took them out and I get them. They’re so stuck on the paper. What are we fix?
Hi Becky! Did you use parchment paper or wax paper? They would be sticking more to wax paper which is why I definitely recommend parchment paper for this project.
Natasha, I want to try this recipe using agave nectar instead of sugar, do you think it will work?
Hi Carmen, I haven’t tried that yet to advise, but it would probably work if it’s unflavored. If you experiment, please share with us how it goes.
I’m on a low cholesterol diet. I’ve been buying the Diamond glazed walnuts for my salads, but think I will try this with Smart Butter instead of real butter. Hope it works, will save me a fortune!
Yum. Seemed a bit oily, but hey, butter…..I’ll try a little less, but maybe it was the walnuts.
I was spending $22/LB for candied walnuts. Never again. This is too easy ans tastes better. Ty!!!
Chef, does adding baking soda do anything?
It could be the walnuts indeed. It was never oily when I tried it. I havan’t tested baking soda to advise. Thanks for the review!
Can I add cinnamon To the walnuts? And can I double it? Do I need to add salt?
Hi Rosalie! Yes, you can double the recipe. I think the cinnamon would add a nice touch. Not sure about the salt, but you can experiment with it. I don’t see why not.
Good recipe. Made 3 batches, back to back, same pan. Added cinnamon to the second batch, and cayenne to the third and mixed all together at the end. Did they come out like they were supposed to? Don’t know, as I hadn’t made them before. Were just a bit crunchy, but mostly tender. In any case, tasty and will make again. I did follow suggestions from the comments.
That sounds wonderful. Thank you for sharing!
I finally accomplished making candied walnuts without burning them. Your recipe is the best, simple and quick. Thank you, joan McSpedon 👍
Hi Joan! I’m so glad you loved it. Thank you for the feedback.
This was a great recipe! For once, I actually enjoyed reading the blog section as well, you’re hilarious! I hope you write all your blogs like this.
Thank you for that wonderful compliment, Erika!
These are SO easy to make. I was afraid of crowding the skillet with the first batch, so just made two batches. I added a healthy pinch of kosher salt and about a half teaspoon of cinnamon to the mix. Perfect!!
Easy fix…I, too, did a double batch. I have an electric stove which is much less perfect for precise cooking temperature methods. I followed the recipe, but sugar wasn’t dissolving, so I added a Tbl of corn syrup, but no help, so I lowered the temp to low & dribbled in up to a total of 1 Tbl of water which dissolved the sugar and bingo! I used a bit of water at a time, stirring until I got a more fluid coating. Just a suggestion for those who had less than optimum results your first, third, fifth try…lol.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
Just made these, and turned out great! super simple and quick!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Holly!
I love the ease of this recipe. Perfect results and way less fuss and mess than many others I referenced for my dish. Your’s was the winner! I love that the toasting of the walnuts happens while the butter an sugar do their thing.Thank You.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us, Tara!
Turned out perfect! Thank you. I used to make candied pecans in a long oven process. I’ll try them next using this great recipe. The walnuts are a hit, thank you.
You’re welcome, Sammy!
Recipes like this that are simple, quick and delicious are fun to share and eat. Thank you!!
It’s my pleasure. Thanks for your awesome feedback!
Tried 3 different batch with ALMONDS. No more Almonds, The ones that DID coat, still werent sweet. Almonds dont coat as well as walnuts. All that down the drain. Even tried 1/2 white sugar AND 1/2 brn. sugar. Will do walnuts from now on. I used raw almonds. Threw them in trash can.
Thanks for sharing that with us.
Thank you for the simple recipe. Due to a plethora of walnuts I made a triple batch. I found there was a lot of butterfat left over that didn’t emulsify with the melted sugar, so I will probably reduce the amount of butter when scaling this recipe up. Otherwise very good with a punch of salt in the mix.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Eric!
As some others had said…my sugar also did not melt and I used the exact ingredients and followed the steps. Sounded like an easy recipe it didn’t work for me 🙁
Hi RB, sugar naturally melts over heat so here are a few things it could be – using coarse sugar (larger crystals take longer to melt so it’s not ideal), having the heat too low, or not letting it stay on the heat long enough. It looks like it won’t melt but once it reaches the right temperature, it does eventually melt.
Parchment paper drying tip was a lifesaver. I used Swerve brown sugar substitute which was moist in its zip-loc bag.Melted into liquid quickly and mixed. In fact it was so liquid I gave it three extra minutes (8 total) to thicken and foam. I stirred continuously until the last two minutes of desperation, hoping the liquid would get thick and sticky.. When I spatulaed them over the final time I was frightened by the black color on 25%of the walnuts. But I had made extra so I figured I would pick the burnt ones out. Turns out all 100% of them tasted delicious! Going on top of my honey walnut tempura chicken nuggets.
Thank you for sharing! 🙂