Easy Crunchy Candied Walnuts

These candied walnuts are crunchy, sweet, super easy to make and look absolutely fabulous. You can toss these restaurant style candied walnuts into your salad or eat them straight as a snack. Warning: they are super addicted so proceed with caution.

This easy crunchy candied walnuts recipe is one of my favorite recipes. I love the way the walnuts turn out at the end of the process: crunchy, sweet and super shiny.

If you notice, most of candied walnuts recipes out there have the white sugar coated the outside of walnuts. It likes you eating and munching on granulated sugar, in my opinion.

With the method used in the recipe, we will get rid of that white sugary coat. This recipe comes straight from the recipes book of the restaurant I used to work at in Austin. So it is 100% satisfaction guarantee you will have such amazing restaurant style candied walnuts at the end.

Facts about walnuts

Walnuts, together with peanuts, are non-nut nuts.

Because generally, nuts are the edible single-seed kernel of a fruit surrounded by a hard shell. While walnuts have two kernels and peanuts are legumes that grow underground.

Walnuts are relatives of pecans. They are native to Europe, North America and Asia.

Inside the US, pecans perhaps are the most famous and popular nuts. However, outside of the US, walnuts are more popular.

Walnuts are often used in baked goods, side dishes or cold pressed for oil.

The most common variety of walnuts are English walnuts, now grown primarily in California.

Black walnuts, native to Appalachia, has a dark brown meat and very strong flavor.

Health benefits of walnuts

According to Healthline, there are several science-based health benefits of walnuts.

1. They have higher antioxidant level than any other nuts
2. Walnuts are a good source of omega-3 which helps to reduce heart disease
3. Walnuts may help to decrease inflammation which the root of many bad diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer
4. They can support good brain function and aging

How to make easy crunchy candied walnuts

• Combine walnuts, sugar and water (enough to cover 2-3 inches above the walnuts) in a sauce pan. Simmer walnuts on medium high heat. Remember not to stir the pot constantly to avoid causing sugar to crystalize. Also don't go anywhere and pay attention to the pot the whole time.

• The mixture should be simmer from 15 to 20 minutes. You can stir 1-2 times when it is half way of the process (ideally after cooking for 10 minutes) to coat the walnuts evenly with sugar syrup.
• When many white bubbles start to appear on the surface, and the liquid reduced more than half, turn off the heat immediately. Don't let the sugar crystalize and form a white coat outside of walnuts and don't wait until the liquid reduce completely to turn off the heat.

• Remove the pot from the heat immediately and strain walnuts through a food mesh or stainless steel colander. Quickly lay the walnuts 1 inch away from each others on a rimmed baking pan that lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil (avoid paper towel) or the walnuts will start sticking together.
• Proceed with deep frying process. This step is to make this recipe become the best and addicted candied walnuts.
• Let crunchy candied walnuts cool completely before serving.

Equipment

To make these restaurant style candied walnuts effort less as much as possible, here some cooking equipment that can help to ease the process:

• Stainless steel fine mesh strainer
• Rimmed baking pans
• Parchment papers
• Non-metal air tight container

Pairing suggestions

The beauty of candied walnuts is you can do a lot of things with them.

You can eat them as they are because they are delicious. Just a soft warning, you might be addicted to their sweetness & crunchiness. Bonus: my cats love these snacks.

Besides, they are a good add-on for any charcuterie and baked cheese, a good garnish for Western style tuna avocado salad, or semi-sweet dessert like this panna cotta.

Storage

Walnuts, or nuts in general, are high in fat so that make them very vulnerable to rancidity and odor absorption. Rancidity is caused by temperature, light, air, exposed surface, and traces of metal (Science Direct).

So it is best to store walnuts and their relatives in a nonmetal, airtight container in a cool, dark place. And they can be kept up to 2 weeks.

Did you make this recipe? If so please leave a rating and let me know how it went in the comment section. Also, don't forget to tag me #cookmorphosis on Instagram and Pinterest.