Candied nuts seems like the quintessential holiday treat. Since I can’t remember the last time I had a candied nut, I was looking forward to these. I took the practical approach and used what nuts I had on hand so my mixed nuts included almonds, macadamia and peanuts. I was worried the cayenne pepper would be too spicy for me so I substituted with smoked paprika which was an alternate listed in Dorie’s ‘Playing Around’ section.

This was an easy recipe with minimal prep and baking. My husband started snacking on the nuts as soon as they came out of the oven. The smokiness of the paprika and the thyme kept the nuts from being overly sweet. These nuts definitely need to be kept in a container or portioned out as I kept going back for one more, one more…

To see what others thought head over to Cook the Book Fridays.