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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 tried your recipe 3 times. They looked nothing like yours. The sugar either didn’t melt or turned brown, none of which was a problem. I played one batch all together and made a brittle. With the other 2 batches the melted sugar turned brown but they were still delicious.
A walnut brittle sounds nice!! Thanks for sharing that with us 🙂
Thank you! I had 2 lbs of walnuts from a bogo…my daughter stopped at the store for salad…your recipe helped me to create a great snack to take on a trip. I added cinnamon and am going to crunch my way to Pittsburgh. Thank you!
Lucy, I love your idea of adding cinnamon. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe 😁.
Hi !just tonight i tried this recipe for a pack of walnuts sitting in the fridge. I love it…but sadly i think i overcooked the walnuts bit still tastes great! Thanks much!
I’m glad you still liked them! 🙂
Do these have to be used right away or can they be stored for a few days/week? If so, what would be best storage method?
Hi Laura, 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.
but they freeze well for me…and I add a bit of Cajun Sunshine hot sauce or your favorite vinegar based chili sauce
Thanks for sharing that Denise!
Im thinking next time I will try a little cinnamon with them and put them in my oatmeal. Endless ways to use these..just a few ideas that were a success with these, sliced bananas with peanut putter on top, then a couple CW’s..#2 put the cw’s thru the processor until crumbly..sprinkle on top of chocolate covered fruit like oranges, strawberry or cherries or pretzels! Love these!
Mmm thank you for sharing your creative and delicious ideas! 🙂
Recipe doesn’t work. Followed this recipe to the letter, and the sugar starts off coating the nuts but is still white and granulated. As the sugar melts, as the recipe says it should, and it begins to brown, it falls off the nuts and clumps together by itself. So you’re left with a sheet of parchment paper with toasted walnuts, clumps of sugar/Carmel type stuff, and a frantic trip to the store to get premade candied nuts to save your important family dinner.
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear it didn’t work for you. I’m happy to help troubleshoot. As soon as the sugar melts, you need to transfer it right away and separate the nuts right away. It sounds like you may have heated the sugar too long?
I had the same experience 🙁
Strange. I had very good luck following the recipe (and adding salt and cayenne pepper to it to give it a little kick). It could be that the sugar and butter needed to be melted together first before adding the walnuts?
I did it both ways…adding everything at once to the pan and then did a batch melting the butter and sugar together and then adding the walnuts…..liked it better melting the sugar and butter together and then adding the walnuts to it.
Hey Natasha! Great recipe! I just used it and added a little bit of vanilla too. Hubby and I have been snacking on them endlessly so I’ve had to hide them (mostly from myself) for the next 30 minutes at least! Time to go some more walnuts!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for sharing that with me :). I love your idea of adding vanilla!
Awesome recipe….and quick….for the indulgence lovers add them hot to vanilla ice cream, the cooling process is fixed and you get one yummy treat. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you for such a nice review Michael and you are welcome 😀.
The only part of this recipe that confused me was to let the coating harden. Does that mean I wasn’t supposed to eat them all while they were cooling? I did start mine with hot chili oil (my nonstick pans are not well seasoned) and threw on some cayenne pepper and plain old iodized salt. The only thing keeping me away from them right now is writing this review. Killer recipe!
You know I’m with you on that one! I can never wait either ;). Thanks for the awesome review! 🙂
Just made this as directed, except I used salted butter, and it worked perfectly.
The best way to stop them sticking at the end is to have the parchment sheet right by the stove. Leave the nuts in the pan over a low heat and transfer the nuts one by one to the paper.
I used them in a salad with halloumi and red apple…. Delicious. Thanks very much for the recipe.
Thank you so much for sharing that tip! That is a great idea for keeping them from sticking!
THANKS SO MUCH! I have to make mandarin salads for 40 people (w/ an old family recipe). I was candying (?) the walnuts in melted sugar, but they weren’t quite right. You reminded me I needed the butter. XOXO…Merry Christmas 🙂
That’s wonderful!! Now I want to know more about this salad of yours! 😉
I rated this recipe 5 out of 5 stars for the following reasons; Simple to do, a few ingredients and impossible to to make it wrong. Instead of adding all of the ingredients at once, I melted the sugar and the butter first and then added the walnuts. They came out perfect. I poured them out onto a silicon sheet and separated them with a spoon. I made them in batches of 8 oz each. Next time, I can add the flavorings for spicy and salty. Good basis for a recipe though.
Thank you Ted! I love your ideas for adding spices. Let me know if you try anything! 🙂
This is definitely quick and if you are looking to make a quick hostess gift (or an amazing Christmas-movie-watching snack), this is a good one. Yes, you have to move quickly when separating the walnuts onto parchment paper. I was semi-successful and ended up with some candied walnuts and some “walnut brittle” (which is pretty yummy, actually!!). I wanted a little bit of spice so added a dash of cayenne pepper and 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the sugar mixture. Then sprinkled Himalayan pink salt over the nuts to give them a nice sweet/salty flavor.
I absolutely love your seasoning ideas. That combination sounds delicious!
No problem at all, yummy, I use a medium/high heat BUT, stir stir stir, it will burn, I also lower heat once I saw sugar start to melt. Thank you.
Thanks again Dee! 🙂
Hi Natasha, I’ve made this twice and like Carol D, the sugar formed gobs so some nuts were coated and others weren’t. Both times, I started with everything in the pan before turning up the heat, and I stirred nonstop. The first time I used medium heat, and the second time I used low-medium hoping that the effect would be different, but the sugar gobs still formed. It’s definitely very delicious tho!! 🙂 Even so, I’ll be looking for another recipe that will allow the nuts to get evenly coated.
Does the sugar melt completely when you heat it? I wonder if you need to let it heat a little longer? Also, it helps to reduce the “gobs” if you move quickly to transfer it to parchment paper and separate the nuts.
I’ve learned from experience that a higher heat is needed to melt the sugar enough to evenly coat the walnuts.
Just made this recipe and they are delicious.
Thank you Scott 😀 . Have a nice Thanksgiving!
Add a little maple extract and sea salt to this… AWESOME!!
What a great idea, thanks for the tip Maryanne 😀 .
These are YUMMY! We have lots of fresh walnuts off our tree, so this is a perfect way to change them up. It took way longer to melt than 5 minutes… more like 15. I will be making these again for sure! Great holiday treat!
Thank you for the review :). We also have lots of fresh walnuts from our parent’s tree so I will be making these soon too.
😊
Wow!! Perfect result. I even used Proactive butter for those who are trying to watch their cholesterol😉
Thank you so much for sharing that in case someone is curious about that substitution 🙂