I really love the Smitten Kitchen website.  It’s a beautifully photographed cooking blog that always makes me hungry and inspired to cook.  While I was poking around on the site the other day, I came across this recipe for Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts.

I had all of the ingredients on hand so I knew I had to make these.  I used 100% almonds instead of a mix though.

I did something wrong though.  Instead of following directions and coating the nuts with egg white, I coated them with a bit of melted earth balance vegan margarine.  This was not a great substitution, as my coating did not stick to the nuts well at all.    I ended up putting them in a skillet over medium heat to melt the sugar a bit, so that it would coat the nuts.  It ended up coating unevenly, and my result wasn’t that beautiful, but was delicious!

I am not complaining at all though, these came out really delicious- a bit smokey, sweet, and spicy.  My *edits* to the recipe resulted in a bit of brittle-like coating on the nuts, so they were a bit crispy and I broke them into shards.  They smell amazing.

The best way to serve these (besides straight from the container, of course) is in a salad made with romaine, carrots, dried cranberries, red bell peppers, avocado and blue cheese. I dressed the salad simply with lemon vinaigrette.