Last year’s Sugar Rush was such a hit that I’ve spent approximately the last 364 days thinking about what to include in Sugar Rush II. Over the next two weeks you can expect to see more calories than you’ve ever seen in your lifetime. But with that will come both classic and unique treats for the holiday season. Some will be simple and easy, some will have a few more steps – but don’t worry! For the more involved recipes (and those using the almighty candy thermometer), I’ll include step-by-step photos and tips galore. Many of the desserts will be perfect for a holiday plate for the neighbors and there will be other recipes screaming to serve them at your holiday table for a classy, over-the-top delicious dessert.
It’s going to be fun! And messy! And sweet! And absolutely decadent! (The badge below will be included in my sidebar over there to the right so you can click on it at anytime to see the rundown of Sugar Rush treats.)
To usher in this year’s Sugar Rush, please welcome these absolutely terrific and easy cinnamon sugared almonds. You know, like the kind you pay an armload for at the mall. The almonds are coated in a silky cinnamon and sugar coating that turns crunchy and candy-like in the oven. These babies are positively addicting and packaged in a cute tin or box and wrapped in a ribbon they make a delightful, edible holiday gift. The real bonus? They are easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy (as my 6-year old likes to say) to make and I even included step-by-step photos. So what are you waiting for, make some!
One Year Ago: White Bean Turkey or Chicken Chili
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 egg white
- 1 teaspoon cold water
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups unsalted almonds
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Directions
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a large (11X17-inch) rimmed baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. Add the water and vanilla and beat again until stiff. Add the almonds to the mixture and stir gently to coat the almonds with the egg white mixture. In a small bowl, mix the brown sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add this mixture to the almonds and stir gently to mix well. Pour the almonds out onto the prepared baking sheet and carefully spread them out into a somewhat even layer. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about an hour, stirring/flipping every 15 minutes, until the almonds look and feel dry. To check to see if the almonds were done, I carefully picked one up in my fingers and when I pressed around it, I didn’t get any wet sugar on my hands. The coating on the almond felt hard and crunchy. Cool completely before serving or packaging.
Notes
See below the recipe for step-by-step photos
Recipe Source: from my sister, Cerissa!
Here’s the egg white after being beaten for about 30 seconds. It is starting to get foamy but has a while before stiff peaks form.
After a minute or so the egg white is even more foamy! Exciting stuff, eh?
Here we go, baby. This is how you want the stiff peaks to look…stiff! It usually takes me and my mixer about 4-5 minutes to get to this point. It will vary based on the temperature of your egg white, mixer speed, etc.
Add the vanilla and water and mix again until the egg white is stiff.
Add in the almonds and gently mix.
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. And mix it up.
Add the brown sugar mixture to the egg white/almond mixture.
Gently stir it all up.
Turn out the almonds onto the prepared baking sheet.
Spread ‘em.
When they are in the best even layer you can manage, pop them in the oven.
Flip and stir every 15 minutes or so. This will be messy and you’ll be questioning my sanity as it seems like all the coating is running off. Don’t worry, it works, I promise. This is me stirring the almonds after about 15 minutes. Not even close to being done as you can see.
This is after about 45 minutes. Close, but not quite done yet. You’ll have less mess on your baking sheet because I forgot to grease mine. Oops.
To test for doneness, I grab one of the toasty almonds in my fingers and gently press to see if the coating is hard and crunchy. If some of it stickily sticks to your fingers, they need more time in the oven. These look just about perfect.
Let the almonds cool completely before serving or packaging.
yay, I’m so glad you’re doing Sugar Rush again! I just posted my first recipe for the 12 days of Christmas Treats and immediately stopped over here to see if you were doing something similar!
I LOOVE to make sugared pecans!! I couldn’t believe how easy they are to make and gave these as Christmas gifts last year! YUM!
Oh, the humanity! My doctor just took me off sugar!
I too make sugared pecans and love those. And I couldn’t wait to try these – so I made them right away, using the raw almonds we keep in the refrigerator. They turned out great!
Yummo! Bring on the Sugar Rush!!!
These look yummy! I will definitely attempt to make them. Then, if any are left, we’ll give out as gifts.
I am attending several holiday parties in the upcoming weeks, and this looks like the perfect hostess gift! I love your step-by-step tutorial, Melanie. I love the packaging, too!
Yum! I make a similar nut mix during the holidays, but I add a bit of cayenne pepper to the sugar mix. These look great!
I just made some of these this morning!! The recipe I followed was a bit different. They were cooked in a saucepan on the stove. DELICIOUS!
I want to try and make all of the sugar rush items this year. We’ll see how it goes. My wife and I will probably gain 20 lbs. by Jan. 1.
What’s one thing I love more than nuts? Nuts with sugar. YUM. Can’t wait to see what’s coming!
Oh yes, Melanie! I’m getting a sugar rush just thinking about these sensational looking candied almonds. I only have pecans in the pantry right this minute — which would probably also be excellent prepared this way — but am otherwise I’m good to go on this recipe.
Janel – you win the award for the fastest person to ever try a recipe. Amazing! And I’m so glad they turned out well.
Helloooooo Sugar Rush!! My favorite time of year.
I can’t resist these almonds. My daughter and I went to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular the other night. We were running late so we hurried past the cinnamon almonds to get in our seats. I couldn’t get that smell or those little suckers out of my mind all evening! I have a bag of raw almonds in the pantry. Help, I need willpower to not eat the whole batch!
Yes!! I always make my mother-in-law some sort of treat for her birthday, and this is definitely something she will love! Thank you!
Yum, will definitely make these!!
I love you just because of the caption that has the phrase “stickily sticks to your fingers”
I can’t wait to make some of these! I might need a test batch or 4 before I decide if I want to package them up for gift giving…
yay, yay, YAY!!! I’m so excited about your Sugar Rush posts!! I missed it last year but read all of the Sugar Rush posts since finding your blog and I am excited about this years treats!! These almonds look delicious!
Yum! My husband and father-in-law love these. They’d be great stocking stuffers! Have you tried them with other nuts?
Tessa – I haven’t tried them with other nuts but from the other comments, it seems like pecans would be a good substitution!
Yum.. I make similar nut mix as well, instead of brown sugar and eggs whites. First, I’ll just fried the nuts until it turns golden brown. Sauteed them with caramel made with sugar. Your almonds turned out so well, looks delish!!!
Good thing I made a double batch or there would not have been any left to send in my daughter’s Christmas package! She is just across the way from you in Rochester, MN-serving a mission for our church. She will be so excited to get these yummy almonds. Thanks Melanie for another great recipe. : )
There is nothing better than cinnamon roasted almonds, yummm. I bought some yesterday in bulk, must have known there was a recipe posted
This looks like one of the better recipes I have seen. Making it!
These look so good! I want to make these, but I don’t want to use egg whites. Do you know of a substitute?
Christine – you could try using meringue powder (Wilton sells a brand at most craft/baking stores). I can’t guarantee the results but it’s the only thing that I can think of to sub for the egg whites.
Lani – what a great idea to package these up to send. I wouldn’t have thought of that but they would probably fare really well. I hope she loves them!
bring. it. on. i thank you for easing into it with this somewhat mild (by comparison) recipe. delicious!
Made these today and LOVE them. These have always been my guilty pleasure whenever I go to a health food store. However they are about 7 dollars a pound…yikes! Now I can MAKE THEM!!!!!!
How long do these stay fresh if I have them in a baggie? I want to make some before I travel home for Christmas and I want them to still taste good.
Joy B. – if these are stored in an airtight container, they should stay fresh for up to a week (especially in a dry climate).
This is the first time I made sugared almonds. They came looking gorgeous! So easy to make too! I banged out a batch last night. I will be adding them to the candy trays I am making for my husband’s best clients. Thanks for posting!
Dena – I’m so glad they turned out so well for you!
Roasted or raw almonds? Does it matter?
Rebecca – I used raw but I don’t think it will really matter one way or the other.
I just made these! They are delicious. I used pecans instead, and they are fabulous. Thanks for the recipe.
Thanks, Annie – I can’t wait to try these with pecans. I’m glad they worked out so well!
I actually bought a little package of the cinnamon pecans at the mall just this morning and it reminded me that I had seen a post on your site somewhere with this recipe. I am so making these this weekend!
I have to be honest and tell you that I have often made candied nuts to package as a gift but a taste of one soon becomes two, three, a handful and before I know it we’ve eaten all but a few. This brings me to the next part of my comment, part of me hopes these don’t taste THAT good, so perhaps they make it into the candy bags.
~ingrid
I made a triple batch of these last night, and they are awesome!! I gave my husband a small handful and bagged the rest up for gifts. I later noticed one of the bags was torn…my husband finally confessed that he accidentally tore it while trying to swipe more almonds! We will definitely be making more of these! Thank you!!
These are delicious! Thanks for sharing. We’ll be making these again next year for sure!
Thanks, Jenny!
Whitney – that’s hilarious about your husband, the little sneak. Glad the almonds were a hit!
I made these last night, and they are incredible!! Thank you so much for this delicious recipe. I ate more nuts last night than I think I have in my entire life. I cannot wait to make this again!
Anne – so glad you loved this! And hey, nuts have protein, so eat up, right??
Hi Mel…stumbled upon ur recipe and looks too good not to try.one q tho,should my oven b preheated to 250 degrees celcius/farenheit?? Thnx
Ayesha – it is 250 degrees F.
[...] Utah, absolutely loves that awesome sugar n’ savory flavor combination! She stumbled upon a recipe for Sugared Cinnamon Almonds as she was cruising through Pinterest a few weeks before Thanksgiving. When she saw this almond [...]
[...] Utah, absolutely loves that awesome sugar n’ savory flavor combination! She stumbled upon a recipe for Sugared Cinnamon Almonds as she was cruising through Pinterest a few weeks before Thanksgiving. When she saw this almond [...]
Hi! This recipe is fantastic! My husband and I couldn’t stop eating them! I put it on my blog with a link to yours, thank you very much for sharing it
) Bye Sabrina from Rome, Italy.
[...] Recipe via Mel’s Kitchen Cafe [...]
Loved your step-by-step photos! I made your recipe and wrote a post about it on my blog. Here it is!
http://netflixandnutella.com/2012/08/07/candied-cinnamon-sugar-almonds/
Wow, superb blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your web site is fantastic,
let alone the content!
[...] John Smith vibe, I thought that the hyped up sugared cinnamon almonds I found on this site through Pinterest would be absolutely perfect! Guess what? They were a hit! And the best part? They [...]
Oh I just made these this evening! they. were. so. DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! Its already been requested by my family to make lots lots more! Thanks for the recipe!
We also did this with pecans as well. Turned out perfect!
Just made the Candied Cinnamon & Sugar Almonds….absolutely delicious!!! Thanks again for a great recipe!
I just made these, they’re wicked easy and are so good! Thank you for the recipe!!
Just finished making a batch of these & they’re so good! Only difference is I used a toaster oven instead and it took about 20mins. Much faster than an oven but had to stir every 2-3mins to prevent it from getting burnt. Thanks for a great & simple recipe!