Christmas Almonds

Nutty delight recipe from Parenting magazine December/January 2004

Goody bag mix-ins by Jennie (moi)

Making these yummy nuts has been our little tradition for the past 4 years! We love to put them into goody bags for Christmas each year. We always have so much fun delivering them to friends and family!

Christmas Almonds
1 package (16oz) whole almonds, raw
Butter (to grease pans)
1 egg white
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp vanilla extract
½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spread almonds in a single layer in baking pan. Bake 8-10 minutes, until lightly roasted. Remove from oven and cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 300 F degrees.

Generously grease 2 large baking pans with butter. DO NOT use spray, it will taste funky!

In a large bowl, whisk egg white until foamy.

Whisk in sugars, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in almonds; toss until well coated.

Spread half of the nut mixture onto a baking pan, spreading them out in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and stir. (Nuts will be very sticky now but will become crisp as they cool.) Return pan to oven and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes, until nuts are a pale golden brown and appear dry. Remove from oven and let sit for 3-5 minutes.

When nuts begin to harden, quickly loosen them from the pan with a metal spatula and spread onto waxed paper to finish cooling. Separate into individual pieces or small clusters now, otherwise they will be too hard to do later.

Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Makes 5 ½ cups

*To stretch the goodness even further, mix nuts with mini pretzels and M&M’s in a goody bag. Place 2 large handfuls of pretzels, 1 handful nuts, and 1-2 handfuls of M&M’s in a bag. Putting the M&M’s in last will make them fall through the nuts and pretzels so you won’t need to shake your bag to mix them!

We usually double the almond recipe, use 2 bags (16oz) pretzels, and 2 bags (16oz) Holiday colored M&M’s. This will make 20 goody bags!