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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
The look and sound wonderful. Could this recipe be used for almonds as well? Also, I have a nut roaster . . . I guess I could use the same recipe and put in that?
Hi Emily, I haven’t tried this with almonds so I’m not sure if the coating would stick to the almonds smooth surface. Our go-to almond recipe is this one. Also, I’ve never used a nut roaster so I can’t really speak to that.
What can I cool the nuts on if I don’t have parchment paper?.
Hi Dawn, you could use wax paper or a silpat silicone liner for cooling the nuts 🙂
Or brown paper bag cut open
Can you use brown sugar instead of white?
I haven’t tried it with brown sugar so I’m not sure how the molasses would affect the nuts. I do think it’s worth a test! 🙂 If you try it out, do let me know how it goes.
Brown sugar is great that is how land
Perfect recipe! Thank you for sharing. I love the one step process, no oven required.
Carolynne, I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe. Thank you for sharing that with us 😁.
What is the shelf life for these candied walnuts? I want to make them early for Christmas gift bag stuffers. Would they freeze well?
Kathy, moisture will cause the sugar to liquify. It would be best to make this shortly before giving as a gift and keep it at room temperature in low moisture environment.
This is the easiest method I’ve tried for candied walnuts and they taste great! Thank you for sharing the recipe
Tammy, I’m so glad you like the recipe and you are welcome 😄.
Oh, my! Added cinnamon and they turned out delicious. Highly addictive.
I’m so glad you liked them Laura 😀.
The sugar is not melting?
Hi, I’m always happy to help troubleshoot :). Are you using a different kind of sugar? You may need to give it a little time to melt in the pan since not all stoves are created equal – some heat faster and stronger than others. I hope that helps!
Do you think I could use coconut sugar or raw sugar?
Hi Shannon, I’m not sure about coconut sugar since I’ve never tried baking or cooking with it. My concern about raw sugar is if it is larger sugar granules, it may not melt as readily.
Just made these: the first time, perfect, the second time, not….. (but still taste good, but sugar did not melt.) Maybe pan not hot enough when I started. I thought I did it exactly the same way, but evidently not!! Okay, I just made them a third time: perfect!! I took them out too soon on #2. The end is definitely tricky, you have to let them almost burn. BUT NOT.
Thank you for sharing the results of your 3 tests. You’re awesome!! 🙂
Super easy! Added a pinch of salt, and they were perfect! Made them for salads, but we ate the whole batch at once!
Mmm I’ll be adding a pinch of salt next time I make these! 🙂
Hi, Natasha,
Just wanted to give you an update on my Annual Market Adventure. This is held in a small French village in the middle of France and I had a small plate with a ‘taster’ heap on my table and everybody who tried them just love the taste, the crunch and the idea! I think for next year I will have to make tons more…lol! Thank you again and I am spreading your fame……:-)
That’s awesome!! 🙂
Could brown sugar be substituted for the granulated sugar?
I haven’t tested it that way so I can’t say for sure how the added molasses in brown sugar would affect the results. If you try it, let me know.
Hi, Natasha,
This was my second attempt in making Sugared Walnuts (our own walnuts) and your recipe was by far the best and easiest! Love them and I am actually selling them on our annual local market and they are going down a treat! Thank you so much…….
That’s so awesome! I’m so happy you found success with my recipe in more ways than one! 🙂 So cool!!
I melted the butter, then added the sugar and a splash of water before adding the walnuts – turned out delicious! Perfect and easy to do!
Thanks for the tip Rachelle and the nice review 😁.
Love this recipe! Natasha, can you make candied cashews this way as well?
Hi Jolene, I’m so happy you love it :). I haven’t tried it but one of my readers reported great results with mixed nuts including cashews so I imagine it would work with cashews only 🙂
I am thinking of using these to top a cheesecake for a wedding. Do you think an overnight stint in the refrigerator would render them too chewy?
Hi Bethany, I don’t think refrigeration would agree with these. I keep them at room temperature. Refrigerating can introduce too much moisture and cause the sugar to liquify.
yes less butter is more, i think i used too much butter and then the sugar slides off of the walnuts so next batch will be less butter
my first attempt was fantastic when I used exact measurements but this time wanted more buttery but this did not work, so next batch exact measurements and oooh soooo goood
love this recipe will be with me for my lifetime which will hopefully be long
could you use Coffee beans instead of walnuts????
Thank you for sharing your great review and tip! To be honest I haven’t tried this with coffee beans, but I’m so curious. If you try it, let me know how it works out! 🙂
I think I added too much butter. Also, I didn’t let the pan heat much so it took more like 10 minutes to melt the sugar. They look good, though. They taste like popcorn! Lacks something, maybe cinnamon! Tell me what I did wrong!
Hi Ada, adding extra butter will affect the outcome since you have more fat in the recipe which will take longer to melt the sugar. You can definitely add cinnamon if you like. I’ve had a couple of readers report good results with using cinnamon.
This is an awesome recipe…so glad I found it. Very easy and quick.
I am so happy you loved the recipe! Thanks for sharing your review 🙂
So easy!! Thank you. 5 minutes and I had beautiful caramel candied walnuts. I used salted butter. This was a great finishing touch to my brownies I was giving a friend. I am so pleased. Thank you.
Yum!! These would be aweosome over brownies. Thanks for sharing that idea!