Cinnamon Sugar Candied Almonds

Mila is a good eater about 70% of the time. The other 30% of the time, she exists on mac-n-cheese, bread, peanut butter and jelly, and chik-n nuggets. We're in one of those "Nutrition? I don't need nutrition!" phases right now, so I'm disrupting it by mixing actual nutrition with junk.

And that's why I've been making candied nuts left and right. First it was pecans, then almonds, and next will probably be cashews. Sure, they're covered in sugar, but there's protein in the middle, so it's a small step in the right direction. Look, we do what we need to do.

This recipe comes via Brown-Eyed Baker. She wins for posting simple staples, e.g. if I'm looking for a basic chocolate cake recipe, that's where I'm going. Her candied pecans take about 5 minutes to throw together and then an hour to roast, which puts them high on the simple list. If I'm not standing there stirring something forever, it's a win.

Mila has eaten about a pound of them in the past two weeks, so I'd call it a double win.

Cinnamon Sugar Candied Almonds

1 pound unsalted almonds (this also works with peanuts, pecans, cashews, etc)
1 large egg white
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 250° F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together the egg white, water, and vanilla.

3. Toss in the nuts and use a rubber spatula to mix things up until the nuts are well-coated with the egg mixture.

4. Toss the sugar and cinnamon in a large plastic zipper bag and shake them up. Toss the nuts in the bag and shake things up some more, right up until every little nut is happily coated in sugar. IF you need to add a little more cinnamon and sugar to feel right about how things look, go right ahead.

5. Spread the nuts out evenly acrss the parchment paper.

6. Bake at 250° for one hour, stirring about every 15-20 minutes. They will start up goopy and moist, but will dry out and turn very perfect as they bake.