Crockpot Candied Almonds

After seeing a crockpot recipe for candied almonds on Pinterest, I knew it was only a matter of time before these were mine. One of my favorite things about winter in Europe is all of the Christmas markets with their delicious food (see here, here and here). The smell of roasting nuts with all of their cinnamon goodness just calls to me. There's no reason this has to be a winter-time treat though. Who says you can't have roasted almonds in the summer? Not this girl!

The original recipe looked easy enough. Not too many ingredients, not too many steps. I could handle this even at 40 weeks pregnant. Like most DIY adventures, there was a twist though. My almonds took more than double the time and I was left with way too much sugar. Nevertheless, this (modified) recipe is a keeper!

Cinnamon Candied Almonds

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg white
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 5 cups almonds
• 3 tablespoons water

Directions:

• In a medium-sized bowl, mix together sugars, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In large bowl, whisk the egg white and vanilla until frothy. Add almonds. Make sure almonds are fully coated. Add cinnamon mixture to almonds and toss to coat.
• Spray crockpot with nonstick oil. Add the almond mixture and turn crockpot to high. Cook with the lid on for several hours, until almonds are softer on the inside and crunchy on the outside (3-4 hours*). Stir every 20 or 30 minutes.
• In the last hour of cooking, add 3 tablespoons of water and stir well. Continue cooking for at least another hour.
• Line several baking sheets with parchment paper and spread almonds to cool.

*NOTE: original recipe called for 3 hours of cooking on low. Mine took 3 hours on low and 4 hours on high to make any progress. If your crockpot runs hot, cook on low. Otherwise, try it on high and just keep an eye on it.