These walnuts need to come with a huge warning label:
ADDICTING.
SEVERELY ADDICTING.
DON’T LEAVE OUT IN PLAIN SIGHT.
Seriously. Vanilla and walnuts are made for each other. Match made in food heaven.
These are amazing on salads, would be great on ice cream or frozen yogurt (duh) and obvioussssssly are perfect on their own.
Long story short, you need these in your life. I guess the story wasn’t really that long. I’m running on about 3 hours of sleep as I write this, people. Don’t expect genius. I’ll be happy if there are no typos. Actually, I’ll be happy if the two-year-old stays asleep and I stay awake long enough to finish typing this.
Ingredients
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 ½ cups raw walnut halves and/or pieces
- the seeds scraped from one whole vanilla bean
Instructions
- Toast walnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat stirring frequently, about 3-5 minutes or until fragrant. Pour onto plate to cool. Also prepare a large rimmed baking sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper.
- In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and vanilla bean seeds. Cook on medium until sugar melts and starts to turn the color of amber. Remove from heat, add walnuts and stir to coat. Work quickly.
- Pour walnuts out onto prepared lined baking sheet and separate walnuts with two forks, working quickly. If you don’t get them all separated, it’s no biggie, you can cut or crack them apart once they cool.
- Cool completely before storing in an airtight container. If you don’t eat them all first.
Verdict: Pretty sure I made it clear how much I adore these.
Husband’s take: He calls ‘em crack.
Changes I would make: Make more next time.
Difficulty: Moderate if you’re not comfortable with melting sugar. Plus you have to work kinda quickly. But you can do it, I swear!
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great idea – I love the idea of the sweetness of the vanilla with the bitterness of the walnuts. I can imagine so many awesome uses for these!
I have a hard time resisting any type of “spiced” nut! These sound amazing!! Vanilla bean & walnuts?? Yum!
Vanilla bean anything and I’m sold. Love these!!
Ooh what a great snack! Im trying to teach myself to like nuts more..much healthier than snacking on chips!
Thanks!
I would love to have these around to snack on!
Ummm this sounds awesome! Great “healthy” snack!
These look so good! What a great snack!
YES! Short ingredient list including nuts and sugar, heck yes!
Great idea – I never thought of making candied walnuts before. But I’m up for vanilla flavored anything
I love how simple these are! And wow, I can bet they are amazing. I once had a “vanilla walnut” scented candle in my room and I swear I was tempted to eat it every day. I LOVE the versatility of nuts, even in their raw form I’m addicted, so I can only imagine how ravenous I’d be with a bag of these!
lately i’ve been debating whether the next big bag of nuts that i purchase from sam’s club will be pecans or walnuts (because i don’t have room for both in my freezer). walnuts it is!!
I am a complete sucker for candied nuts. These ones look great-I love anything vanilla flavored.
I love anything with vanilla in it. These look amazing! Hope the baby sleeps better for you tonight!
Wow, these look amazing! Love the simple list of ingredients too.
Vanilla beans are the best ever. I have a whole mess of pecans and imagine this would be delicious with them as well!!
Pecans would be great!
coincidence that i just received the vanilla beans i ordered off of amazon? i think NOT
Definitely not!!!
Talk about great on top of my oatmeal!
Best idea ever!
Ohhh yesssss come to mama! I love putting walnuts on my oatmeal or yogurt… but now I’m thinking about how I could put these on ice cream… lord help me!
Ohhh these do look addicting – I can say that with certainty!
I could seriously throw that in my face and be done eating it in 10 minutes. omg
This look incredible. Yogurt topping with some dried fruit? Make it part of trail mix? Mixed in with homemade ice cream? Amazing. Thank you!
Enjoy! They are soooo yummy.
Totally pinned this for later! YUM!