Sweet and savory almonds are toasted with cinnamon sugar, sea salt, and thyme for a great flavor combination.
Do you love candied almonds, even candied nuts of all kinds? I do. I especially love to toss them into salads. These sweet and savory almonds were the perfect nut to toss into a salad, especially my favorite kind of salad – one full of fruit, cheese, greens, and of course, nuts. I love the crunch and flavor burst the nuts bring. Usually I am a bit on the lazy side and top my salads with whatever nut I happen to have on hand. But today I wanted something more and something a little different and something a little brave. It took some courage and adventure on my part to make sweet and savory almonds because I don’t often experiment with food, it is the tried and true for me. But today, I took a small step on the road of adventure – experimenting with flavors – and I am really glad I did. I hope you will too.
My adventure – mixing cinnamon sugar with sea salt and thyme. That’s right, a few sprigs of thyme are thrown in and leave an every so subtle but complementary flavor with the cinnamon sugar and sea salt. So good, that I kept snacking on these sweet and savory almonds and I almost didn’t have enough for my salad. Almost.
Sweet and Savory Almonds
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole almonds
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 TBS cinnamon
- 2 to 4 sprigs thyme (use the leaves only)
- 2 pinches sea salt
Instructions
- Mix sugars and cinnamon together
- Heat on your stovetop a medium saucepan on medium low to low heat
- Spread your cinnamon sugar all over the inside of your saucepan
- Toss in your almonds and stir in the cinnamon sugar
- Over medium low heat, continue to stir the almonds and sugar together for several minutes
- Constantly stirring to ensure no burning of the sugars or the almonds
- Sprinkle over the almonds and cinnamon sugar the sea salt
- Stir to coat the almonds
- Sprinkle your thyme leaves over the almonds
- Continue to stir and cinnamon sugar will start to crystallize/melt and coat your almonds
- Once sugar appears to melt completely and coated the almonds remove from heat
- Lay parchment paper on your counter and spread nuts/sugar all over the parchment paper to cool
- (you will have some crystallized sugar not attached to the nuts, just mix it all together to enjoy)
Enjoy your nuts as a delightful snack or chop them and toss into your favorite salad.
Caitlin says
Barbara’s theme is so great this week – I love nuts! And flavored almonds are the best. The thyme seems like a great idea! Can’t wait to try this one.