Quick and easy maple candied nuts are a thing of beauty! These maple cinnamon walnuts are a simple snack and a great make ahead gift idea.
Easy Maple Candied Walnuts
Ingredients
To make these walnuts, you'll only need a few ingredients:
- Walnuts - these should be shelled and can either be left as halves or roughly chopped dependent on the size of pieces you'd like.
- Maple syrup - you should use good quality maple syrup for this recipe. I like to use a bourbon barrelled maple syrup, which has a nice strong rich flavour. The maple syrup also the sweetener for the recipe, so there are no extra refined sugars.
- Spices - the key spice is cinnamon, but I recommend using a touch of ginger, nutmeg and salt.
Quick Candied Nut Process
There are a couple of ways to make candied nuts. You can do this in the oven or on the stovetop. For the quickest method, I recommend the stovetop and using a shallow non-stick frying pan.
This is a one-pan recipe.
In a shallow non-stick frying pan, mix together your nuts, syrup and spices. Stir through to coat the nuts in the syrup and cook over a medium heat until the spices dissolve.
Bring the mixture to a boil. The nuts will become sticky and glossy with the maple syrup after about 10 minutes. They will then move to a stage where the syrup begins crystallising and candying the nuts.
Once the nuts appear coated in sugar crystals, remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl or piece of parchment paper to cool.
FAQs for Candied Cinnamon Walnuts
These cinnamon walnuts will keep well for a couple of weeks. Store in an airtight container for best results. If making them as a gift, they can easily be made several days in advance.
Yes, you can freeze candied walnuts. Be sure to allow them to cool completely first before transferring to a freezer safe container or bag. They can be frozen for a couple of months.
If your nuts are still sticky, then these haven't quite cooked long enough - you can return them to the pan and to heat until they begin to develop a grainy crust (crystallised texture).
Alternatively, the sticky nuts can be used as they are for topping ice cream or other desserts. They won't be crisp and they also won't keep quite as well for as long as the fully candied version. Dependent on what you're using them for, these may still work great!
If you like these cinnamon walnuts, you might also like:
- Chocolate Pecans
- Pumpkin Cheesecake with Maple Pecan Trim
- Candied Maple Pecan Eclairs
- Maple Praline Pound Cake
- Granny's Carrot Cake with Walnuts
Maple Cinnamon Walnuts
Ingredients
- 1½ cups roughly chopped walnuts
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a shallow frying pan and stir together.
- Heat over a medium heat until the spices have dissolved and the maple syrup begins to boil.
- Continue to heat and stir until the mixture becomes sticky. The maple syrup will begin to crystallise on the nuts. Once this happens, the candied cinnamon walnuts are ready to be removed from the heat.
- Tip these onto a piece of parchment of into a bowl to cool.
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