Toss these caramelized walnuts into your salad, over popcorn, or straight into your mouth. Crunch. Crunch. I love this easy method of making the candied nuts where everything goes into the pan at once. Other methods I've tried left me with globs of candy on the nuts rather than a more even coating. It also roasts the nuts at the same time so you don't have to pre-toast them, then add them back to the pan to be coated, blah, blah. Who needs extra steps? It seriously takes about 5 minutes on the stove and 5 minutes to cool. P.S. This recipe can easily be doubled.
Prep time: PT5M
Cook time: PT5M
Total time: PT10M
Rating
4.88 stars (680 reviews)
Keywords
Candied Walnuts
Ingredients
1 cup walnut halves (you can also use this recipe for candied pecans)
1/4 cup white granulated sugar ((not coarse sugar))
1 Tbsp water (*optiona)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
pinch of salt
Categories
Appetizer
snack
Cuisine
American
Steps
Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat, add 1 cup walnuts, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 Tbsp water, 1 Tbsp butter and a pinch of salt.
Heat over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently so your mixture doesn't burn (especially towards the end). When the sugar mixture starts melting, stir constantly until all sugar is melted and nuts are coated. The caramelized sugar will be amber in color.
Transfer immediately onto a sheet of parchment paper and separate the nuts right away. Using two spatulas will make this task go faster. You don't want to give the nuts a chance to turn into a wad of inseparable delicious goodness unless you are the only person who will be enjoying the wad ;). Seriously, move quickly from the time the nuts are coated until they are separated out on the parchment paper.
Once the coating hardens (5-7 minutes), you can transfer them to a bowl and enjoy!
Reviews
Beth Fitzgibbons on 2026-02-18 (5 stars): Delicious! I did half white and half brown sugar.
tricia on 2026-02-05 (5 stars): came out great, thanks:-) i dont know why u want forty characters, that's all i have to say...
Lizzy Nix on 2026-02-03 (5 stars): I've just made this and it worked perfectly. I used the water method but I allowed the sugar etc to start to melt and then added the walnuts. There's a few blobby bits but it's delicious. I'm using the walnuts to decorate a carrot cake and any additional toffee bits I'll chop up and sprinkle on too! Thank you for a nice simple method.
Melissa on 2026-01-17 (5 stars): This was an outstanding recipe!! I added a few drops of LorAnn brand maple flavor.
Excellent!!!
KRB on 2026-01-06 (5 stars): I made these with walnuts the first time and they were great. Tonight, I tried this recipe with pepitas, and dare I say they were even better! Both times, I ended up eating half of them before they made it to the salad they were intended for. But I'm ok with that!
I did use Earth Balance to keep them plant-based, and it worked beautifully.
JT on 2025-12-25 (5 stars): I add a touch of cayenne and maybe ½tsp black pepper to a double batch (has to be double; half gets eaten warm), which doesn't add enough heat to know it's heat, but enough to make it ever so slightly more complex. The water is good less for anti-clumping and more for a visual cue on when it's done; when the bubbles get really small, the water's just about gone. Give it two stirs and onto the parchment.
