Ingredients:
- 4 cups walnut halves or pecan halves
- 1 cup sugar or Splenda
- Dash of kosher salt
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon five spice powder (or cinnamon)
Mix the water, sugar/Splenda and salt in a large saucepan or heavy skillet. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the nuts. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Turn the heat down to medium. After about a minute of stirring, add the five spice powder. Keep stirring until the liquid is almost gone and the sugar/Splenda starts to look dry and crystallized. Pour the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper. Allow to cool completely, put them back into the saucepan and cook a little while longer, stirring constantly, then dump back out on your wax paper or parchment paper.
Store the nuts in a Ziploc bag or a tightly closed container. They will keep for weeks. These are an awesome little treat for a snack, but I typically make them to use on salads. They are also fabulous on top of ice cream.
If you don’t have five spice powder (it can sometimes be difficult to find) you can substitute cinnamon. If you use cinnamon, I also urge you to add a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper. Woo hoo!
Come on — be bold and experimental. Try ancho chili powder, or whatever else strikes your fancy.
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