Awww, nuts!

I am totally addicted to these:



Love, love, love them on a salad, but I have found myself dipping into the bag for an afternoon snack as well. And at $3.99 a bag, they're a little pricey considering the amount you get, so I am on a mission to recreate their yumminess at home.

First off, I bought an 8-lb bag of pecan halves at Costco for about $7.50. Already loving the cost savings! Then a quick internet search trying to find a decent sounding recipe for candy-coated nuts.

Found a recipe that seemed simple enough, so I decided to give it a go.

Basically, all it involved was combining a cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 teaspoon of milk and one teaspoon cinnamon in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then remove from heat and add in one teaspoon vanilla extract and two cups of pecans.

I followed the directions and layed the finished product out on a sheet of wax paper to cool. I sprinkled a little kosher salt on one half just to experiment, since I do love me some salty and sweet...



Once cooled, I did the taste test. No good, dang it! The flavor was good, but the nuts were still chewy. Trader Joe's nuts (hee, hee!) are crispy. So I decided to throw them in the oven for a few minutes to see if I could toast them. Bad idea!

Now I have a big block of nuts, all glued together by the sugar. And while they are a little crispier, they are still not what I was hoping for.



So back to the drawing board on this one. If anyone has a tried and true recipe for candied nuts, I'd sure love to hear it. In the meantime, I will continue to pay my $3.99 for a bag of tasty nuts!