do you need to add water to the sugar while cooking it? the ingredients don't have water in it but how else will the sugar melt?

What a wonderful idea! I have loads of fresh walnuts that someone gave me and now I know what will happen to at least some of them!

I havent had a chance to try this yet, but I have made similar recipes and candy recipes ... I would suggest to try and pour the sugar into the bowl of walnuts, while you have someone stirring, this may work out easier for some cooks and would make it easier to get the nuts more evenly coated without them all sticking together

Betsy

Oh wow, those look so good. And holiday parties are the perfect places for these nuts. I've tried them once before and was really not pleased with my recipe. I will have to give these a go. Thanks!

Looks yummy! Will this work with other nuts, like pecans or almonds? Thanks!

Hi Elise,
I tried this recipe with mixed nuts, and it works perfectly! Hope you don't mind that I link your recipe to my blog (sorry it's in Chinese, but you are very welcomed to take a look) and thank you for sharing such a great idea!

Er... we tried to use it last night, but on the first attempt the sugar left recrystalizing into bigger and browner crystals when it melted, and the second time we had to add like half a cup of corn syrup to get it to remain in a semi-liquid state. Any advice on that?

This recipe is by far the simplest, and I came across no complaints...thank you!!!

This was my first try with candied nuts, and they came out, ok. I think next time I will use one of the recipies with more "substance". I also used chopped walnuts, instead of halves, which I think gave it a nice cluster appearance, and made the fact that stuck together a bit not as noticible.

My favorite method for making these is with some maple syrup (the real stuff!) and a couple grinds of black pepper - the pepper really brings out the sweetness.

However you make them, they've awesome in Chicken salad, with granny smith apples, celery, and onion.

Aiden,
Did you use maple syrup in addition to the sugar? Or did you use only maple syrup and how much? I think this sounds delicious.

Hi there -

I just made these for the first time ever using your recipe and they came out great. Thanks! I'm going to retry at some point with some cayenne.

-- jen

I made these because they were the simplest recipe I found, but I added some nutmeg & cinnimon to the sugar before I melted it. I also used raw turbinado for the sugar and they turned out great. A little bit of salt was definately good advice. Also, Good tip about pulling the walnuts apart with 2 forks. Thanks for the recipe!

I just made these nuts and it took about 10 minutes total...I toasted the nuts for 7 minutes, while I danced in the livingroom. When the buzzer went off I started the sugar. Advice: don't stir it too much or it will never melt, but do watch it as it all happens pretty fast. Whatever you do: don't touch it once it's melted!!! It's burning hot (I blistered my finger ~ ouch!) I put the nuts in to the sauce, yes, pure sugar, no corn syrup. It took about 30 seconds to coat the nuts and I dumped them on a piece of wax paper and separated them with a fork just like it says...EASY and YUM!

Don't use waxed paper unless you don't mind consuming it with your nuts. Mine stuck to the paper, so we were eating paper and later picking it out of our mouths... mmmm...

Hi,

Observations from making this recipe:

-great directions. easy to follow.
-be patient waiting for the sugar to melt.
-the sugar formed little clumps no matter how quickly I stirred in the saucepan
-using a fork to separate the walnuts definitely helps. If the walnuts clump a bit, don't worry. you'll be able to break them apart.
-there's not enough syrup to coat the entire walnut. I kept double checking that I wasn't supposed to use 1.5 cups!

Overall:

Easy to follow but they don't look nearly as good as the photo above! they're barely coated. Am I missing something?

im sorry, this is the worst recipe ive ever used. the sugar did nothing but burn.

Hi Matt, sugar melts before it caramelizes (turns brown), and caramelizes before it burns. It's simple chemistry. If your sugar is burning straight off, I suggest that what you are cooking with is not actually pure sugar, but a sugar substitute or even powdered sugar, which will definitely not work in this recipe. ~Elise

This recipe didn't work for me at all, and I tried it twice tonight. I'm extremely disappointed. I followed the instructions to the letter, the best that I understand them. Maybe the part that isn't adequately explained is the part about stirring "as soon as the sugar starts to melt". I watched the sugar very carefully and "as soon as the sugar starts to melt" I started stirring. I ended up with sugar with the consistency of wet sand. Once the color was right, I added the walnuts and stirred. Once I dumped it all out, none of the sugar was sticking to any walnuts, and half my walnuts had turned into walnut dust from the dry stirring.

The second time I tried it, I added two tablespoons of butter to the sugar at the beginning. That helped a very little. Ultimately, I was finally able to get some sugar to stick to some walnuts, and I made do with that.

So what's the deal? Do I have to just wait until the sugar is all clear all the way across the pan? If that's the trick, then this recipe should be revised to make that clear, because it doesn't work at all as written today. I'm baffled how other commenters had such good results. Are we following the same recipe?

Hello Paul, Yes. The sugar must all melt. The directions say - "Keep stirring until all the sugar has melted and the color is a medium amber." Butter is not part of this recipe, so I don't advise adding it. ~Elise

Super easy and delicious! You just have to follow the directions carefully. The sugar really does melt on its own, people. You just need to keep stirring and stirring. First it forms larger clumps that stick together, and then the clumps melt.
You can sprinkle on whatever you want at the end... I used cinammon, coconut, and salt.
The other thing I did differently: I didn't have any wax or parchment paper on hand, so I liberally buttered the bottom of a pan instead. Worked perfectly, they didn't stick!

Easy and good! I used walnut pieces that were already toasted, which made it even quicker. They didn't stick to the pyrex dish I cooled them in at all. Adding salt, black and cayenne pepper made them better. Will be great on salads.

One important tip when doing this is DO NOT put the candied nuts on WAX paper. The sugar temp will be way in excess of what wax paper can handle. The nuts will become fused to the paper and there's no way to get them off, without the taste of crayons and the occasional bit of paper. Use parchment paper instead! It can handle the heat. Learned this the hard way!

I have been looking for a candied walnut recipe that uses liquor. I'm not sure if it is Rum or something else. I remember having them when I was a young child at Christmas time and they were awesome.
Does anyone have a recipe like that?

Thanx,
wanda

As usual, this recipe is still the simplest one around. For those who are having problems, I'll give you a few tips:

1) Use a big enough pan - 2-3qt. A little sauce pan won't cut it.
2) Stir, turn it on medium heat (medium high if you know what you are doing).
3) Keep stirring, do not add anything. You'll see the sugar start to look like clumpy sand.
4) You're close...you'll see part of it start to melt. Now is where it's important to bring the edges into the middle. Keep stirring, the lumps will go away.
5) It will look like a light pancake syrup. Add your toasted nuts and stir quickly, and completely.
6)Don't panic if they are all sticking together. Use a forks and break them apart.
7) DO NOT USE WAX PAPER -- It melts and is hard to work with. Parchment paper is the best.

Note: For the past 15 years, I have added a little nutmeg, cinnamon and chile powder. Great flavor. You can also zest a little orange peel.