Burnt Sugar Almonds

I was searching for some Christmas candy recipes (preferably something chocolate, but I got sidetracked) when I stumbled upon this recipe for sugared almonds on thepioneerwoman.com. For those of you who haven't been to this website, go. It's amazing. Anyway, I had everything on the ingredients list, which is really short, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Turns out, when I told my boyfriend about this almond recipe I was going to try, he jumped and skipped and yippee'd because these were a treat that he would get at old hockey tournaments in Roseau. Ok, for his sake, he didn't jump, or skip, or yippee. He just said "Mmm." Then told me about getting them at old hockey tournaments in Roseau, and how good they were. So I was sold.

This recipe is pretty easy to do, although next time I think I'll mix my cinnamon into my sugar before I add it into the water, because the cinnamon clumped. Lesson learned. These are a sweet treat, with an aroma that'll make you drop dead. My house seriously smelled like a warm, sugary vanilla bean for two days straight after making these. And you can double or triple this recipe to give as Christmas gifts or if you think your eyes are bigger than your stomach. So pick up some almonds, and get crackin'.

Burnt Sugar Almonds:

2 cups raw, whole almonds 

1/3 cup water, plus 2 tbsp

2 ¼ cup sugar, divided

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Use a heavy saucepan (NOT the nonstick kind) and a wooden spoon.

First add the water, 1 cup of sugar and the cinnamon and stir. Bring it to a boil over medium heat. Add the almonds to the mix, raise the temperature to high heat and stir CONSTANTLY until the water is boiled away. After about 5-7 minutes of constant stirring, the water will have begun to noticeably evaporate. It’ll start to look like the almonds are swimming in syrup, and when you drag your spoon across the bottom, you’ll be able to see the bottom of your pot. The important thing is to not over-cook the syrup here; if you let it get too thick, the sugar you add in next will just granulate, and you won't get the nice, glossy slightly crunchy almonds you want. Lower the heat to medium-low and dump in the rest of your sugar and vanilla, and keep stirring. After a minute or so, the almonds will be coated in a sandy-looking sugar mixture and the pot will appear very dry.

Take them off the heat and transfer the almonds to a sheet of parchment paper. Spread them apart as much as you can, but don’t worry about some of them sticking together initially. BE CAREFUL, however. These are extremely hot, so only use a spoon.
 While they are cooling down, keep on breaking them apart with your spoon until they are all separated. Once they are cooled, store them in a dry, closed container. These can essentially keep for several weeks, but that's if you can keep yourself from eating them all in one sitting. Enjoy!