One thing I do love around the holidays is these salty, sweet nuts with just a bit of a kick to them. They’re a little sugary, a little salty, slightly spicy, crunchy and just divine. And Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts are pretty much addictive.
Cheap Holiday Party Tray
Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts are great to have on hand to put out for drop-in guests or to include in a cheeseboard or party tray like my Cheap Holiday Party Tray. A package of these nuts in a pretty bag or jar makes a great little gift or hostess gift. You might want to save a few back to sprinkle on a salad. Maybe something like this Longhorn Grilled Chicken & Strawberry Salad or this Spinach Quinoa Salad with Candied Pecans. They will give any fancy holiday salad a bit of flair.
About Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts:
Making the Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts is going to make your whole house smell of the holidays. There’s Ginger, Cinnamon, Clove and then just to keep them from being kind of a one-note sweet, there’s a touch of Cayenne. They’re not necessarily “hot” but that little hint of spice does come through.
While I love these nuts with the spices as is, part of the beauty of making a recipe like Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts is that you can vary the recipe in so many ways. As long as you keep the proportion of egg white, nuts, sugar, and butter the same, you can change up the nuts, the type of sugar and especially, the spices. The sky’s the limit as far as flavors. Maybe you have a recipe of your own you’d like to try with this method or maybe you’ll be inspired by some product you’ve seen in a shop or online.
What the slow cooker does for you is pretty much eliminates the risk of burning (you do have to be on hand to stir every twenty minutes and do watch and stir more often at the end) and it heats the nuts slowly, gently bringing up their natural oils, and that makes the best nuts. The slow cooker frees up your oven for other items just in case you might be doing some holiday baking.
Longhorn Grilled Chicken Strawberry Salad
Making Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts:
The recipe I’ve used in the past has been this one from Midwest Living but while I loved the flavors, I was never really completely satisfied with the nuts when they were done. Sometimes they were a bit soft and then I had to finish them off in the oven. Then I adapted the recipe and changed up the method. My nuts come out perfectly crunchy and are absolute perfection.
Make sure to really spray your slow cooker well, much higher than the level of the nuts so when you stir the nuts, the sugary residue won’t stick. The residue on my slow cooker where it was sprayed cleaned up easily with hot water and soap but up higher, where I hadn’t sprayed I had to soak for hours to dissolve everything and then give it a good scrub. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
This particular recipe won’t work well with fewer nuts, and it’s hard to scale with the egg whites, so just in case you were thinking you’d like to make only 4 cups of nuts, for instance, don’t do it! You definitely need the right proportion of the syrup and nuts for it to cook right and the right volume of nuts for the slow cooker.
These keep very well for a couple of weeks and if you do keep them longer and they happen to lose some of that crispness, put them in the oven at 400 degrees F. on a sheet tray and heat for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice. They will re-crisp beautifully.
The larger oval-shaped slow cookers work better for the recipe (more surface area) and do make sure to stir more often at the very end – I used a spatula to scrape them off the bottom and do make sure to cook until all the nuts are dry. If they’re shiny and wet, they’ll stick to your sheet tray and not be perfectly crisp. If that happens, you can pop them in the oven for a few minutes to dry and crisp up.
Use either a double layer of paper towels over the top of the slow cooker to absorb moisture or a thick kitchen towel if you’re like me and don’t use paper towels.
Spinach Quinoa Salad with Candied Pecans
Saving Money on Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts:
This recipe for Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts works with just about any nuts you’d like to use. The original Midwestern Living recipe suggests cashews, almonds, hazelnuts & pecans. I was so shocked at the price of pecans last time I went to the store I just stuck with almonds which I usually get at Costco or Aldi.
Nuts can be expensive, so check the bulk bin or buying clubs for the best prices, and the Aldi price was just as good as the Costco price. If you have a farm supply store, they can be a surprising place to find great bargains on all kinds of nuts. Fall is the time of year to clean out your stash of nuts from the previous year and put them to use before restocking. You’ll find nuts at their low in the fall after harvest and up through the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s sales. To see what else you should be stocking up on during the season, see my post on Winning at the Grocery, Winter Holidays.
The fridge is okay for storage, but for maximum shelf life, toss nuts in your freezer and preferably your deep freeze where they’ll stay fresh a lot longer. While this PDF is geared towards growers it does have some good information and charts about how long your nuts will stay fresh.
Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts
Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts
- Total Time: 2 to 4 hours
- Yield: makes 6 1/2 cups 1x
- Category: appetizer
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 heaping teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 heaping teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 6 cups nuts, choose your favorites
Instructions
Lightly coat a 6-quart slow cooker with cooking spray.
Add egg whites to slow cooker and whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add the sugar, butter, and spices and stir until a thick syrup forms.
Add nuts and stir to coat the nuts in the syrup. Cover the top of the slow cooker with a clean dishcloth or two layers of paper towels. Place lid on top, then cook on low for 3 to 3 1/2 hours or on high for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes and every few minutes at the end, until nuts are fragrant, lightly browned, and the coating appears dull and not shiny.
Remove nuts from slow cooker (there will be excess sugar coating left behind.) Spread nuts into an even layer onto 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spreading them out and separating as much as possible. Cool completely, stirring once or twice so the nuts won’t stick.
Once cool, break apart any nuts that have stubbornly stuck together and transfer to a serving dish, jar for gifting, or airtight container for storage. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for several weeks. If nuts soften with storage, crisp them by placing in a 400 degree F. oven for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often.
Keywords: Appetizer, Candy, kitchn, Midwest Living, nuts, Slow Cooker
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I’ll be sharing Sweet Spicy Slow Cooker Nuts at Fiesta Friday #251 where this week I’m one of the co-hosts along with Monika @ Everyday Healthy Recipes.
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