12 Projects of Christmas: Sugared Vanilla-Cinnamon Almonds

My house smelled absolutely wonderful yesterday morning, and H was pleasantly surprised to wake up to sugared vanilla-cinnamon almonds cooking in the kitchen (although I think it had more to do with making homemade presents and the house smelling wonderful, and less to do with the fact that I used most of his bulk-bought almonds...oops...all in the name of crafting/gifting, I suppose!)

We've decided to do gift baskets for a lot of our family, full of homemade goodies. I love sugared nuts, but they are so pricey and I knew that I could easily make them for a lot less, so I started on my search for a good recipe.  Most of them were pretty simple, but I wanted to put my own twist on it.  So here's what I came up with.  The best part?  It took 15 minutes at most to make these!  So fast and so easy!

By the way, you will fall in love with how this recipe makes your house smell!
This is delicious and makes a wonderful gift, or even a treat to put out for company at your family party


Of course, start off with our ingredients:
1 cup sugar
4 cups almonds (or any nut that you want to use)
1/2 Tbl cinnamon
1/4 cup water
1 Tbl vanilla extract

Start with a large skillet and put all of your ingredients in.  Stir it up so that all of the almonds have some sugary goodness on them!

 Cook over medium heat.  Everything will cook down into a nice, bubbly brown syrup so make sure to stir it every couple minutes to keep things moving and keep the almonds covered.  I let it bubble and cook for about 10 minutes, but you can go a little longer as long as you're stirring---the syrup burning to the bottom of the pan would be bad news!

Once the almonds have simmered for at least 10 minutes, you can pour out the entire mixture onto a sheet of wax paper.  Let cool for 20-30 minutes, then break the nuts apart and store in a sealed plastic bag/container.  They should last in the fridge for about a month, but chances are they won't last that long!!

I made these yesterday morning, stored them in the fridge overnight, and they were so yummy on my oatmeal this morning!  (I know they are for gifts, but I had to taste them for myself!)  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did  :)

Pin It

xoxo, Melissa