Candied Walnuts – Rachael Ray’s Vs Mine!

Today I am facing off my spiced baked walnuts with honey recipe with brown sugar against Rachael Ray’s Candied Walnuts with Black Pepper recipe. While Rachael Ray’s Candied Walnuts recipe is simple and straight forward, it is not without its problems. I found that it was really challenging to coat the walnuts evenly with the caramel sauce and it used a lot of sugar!

My crunchy sugar coated walnuts recipe are honey roasted and uses less sugar, is packed with more flavour with the addition of spices and toasted sesame seeds, and has a crunchier shell from the slow roast in the oven. Nothing beats a honey glazed walnut for a heavy snack!

To Make Rachael Ray’s Candied Walnuts with Black Pepper

Original Recipe from: https://www.rachaelrayshow.com/recipes/candied-walnuts-with-black-pepper

1 ½ cups walnuts

½ cup white sugar

Coarse salt or flaky sea salt & coarse ground black pepper

Toast nuts in 375˚F preheated oven on parchment- or silicone-lined baking sheet for 5-7 minutes. Meanwhile, melt sugar over moderate heat to caramel in color.  Drizzle the melted caramel sugar over nuts with a fork to coat and separate, then season with coarse or flaky salt and black pepper to taste. Cool. 

How To Make My Spiced Baked Walnuts With Honey

2 cups of Walnuts

1/8 cup of Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp of Honey

¼ tsp of salt

1 Star Anise

1 Cinnamon Stick

100 ml of Water

1 Tbsp of Sesame Seeds

Combine the walnuts, brown sugar, salt, star anise, cinnamon stick and water into a small pot. Heat until the water starts to boil and turn the heat down to a simmer with the pot lid on.

Allow the sauce to reduce gently and once the water evaporates, turn off the heat and add your sesame seeds into the pot. Give everything a good mix and put spread the walnuts over a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

Bake the walnuts in an oven that has been preheated to 160 degrees Celsius (or 320 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20-30 minutes until the walnuts form a hard crunchy shell.

Music by

Ready – Ron Gelinas – https://soundcloud.com/taimana-oficial/ready-ron-gelinas-chill-hop-jazz-hop-soultaimana-music-musica-ambiental-sin-copyright

Rachael Ray’s Candied Walnuts with Black Pepper can be found at: https://www.rachaelrayshow.com/recipes/candied-walnuts-with-black-pepper

Check Out Cooking Light’s explanation for why we should not stir sugar while we are caramelizing it: