The Christmas Nuts

I have an unnatural and quite recent addiction to Christmas.  I blame our Wedding, We decided to get married on Dec. 27, not because of the holiday but because it meant that all of Dan’s brother’s would be able to attend while also not conflicting with the very long triathlon season.  We moved to Colorado three months before the wedding and I spent those months rushing to finish all of the wedding details from afar.  This meant a lot of long days in front of the computer and on the phone.  After Thanksgiving came and went, I realized that there were millions of different Christmas movies. Dan helped me out by Tivoing all of the Christmas movies that we could find and I was a happy camper all December.


Some are heartwarming family tales and some were romantic comedies about how the season is the one to fall in love.  What can I say, I’m a romantic.  One of the major theme for Christmas movie titles is that everything is The Christmas ____ (shoes/dress/tree/in handcuffs/wish)or A _____ (boyfriend/grandpa/wish) for Christmas.  Christmas wishes are quite popular it would seem!

Sugar-and-Spice Candied Nuts

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients
1/3 cup dark-brown sugar
2/3 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp kosher salt (I might up this by a 1/2 tsp. next time for more of a sweet/salty balance)
Generous pinch of cayenne pepper (I swapped this with 1/4 teaspoon of hot smoked paprika)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pound almonds or walnuts or pecan halves or whole peeled hazelnuts
1 egg white, room temperature
1 Tbsp water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

2. In a small bowl, combine the 1/3 c brown sugar and 2/3 c granulated sugar, 1 t salt, pinch of cayenne, 1 t cinnamon and stir to make sure there are no lumps.

3.  In a separate small bowl, beat the egg white and water until frothy.

4.  Add the nuts to the egg mixture and then add the sugar mixture and stir to combine well.

5. Spread out the nuts on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.

6. Bake the nuts for 30 minutes, stir occasionally.

7. Let the nuts cool and separate them as they cool enough to touch. 

Nutritionals (20 Servings) Cals: 175, Fat: 12, Carb: 17, Fiber: 3, Protein: 5