Cinnamon & Sugar Almonds

These cinnamon and sugar almonds are absolutely terrific and easy and make a perfect snack. You know, like the kind you pay an armload for at the mall. The almonds are coated in a silky cinnamon and sugar coating that turns crunchy and candy-like in the oven. These babies are positively addicting so let's get started! Gather the following ingredients:
1 egg white
1 teaspoon cold water
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups unsalted almonds
½ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Place the egg white in a non-reactive bowl and beat. Here is the egg white after being beaten for about 30 seconds. It is starting to get foamy but has a while before stiff peaks form.

After a minute or so the egg white is even more foamy! Exciting stuff, eh?

Here we go, baby. This is how you want the stiff peaks to look…stiff! It usually takes me and my mixer about 4-5 minutes to get to this point. It will vary based on the temperature of your egg white, mixer speed, etc.

Add the vanilla and water and mix again until the egg white is stiff.

Add in the almonds and gently mix.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. And mix it up.

Add the brown sugar mixture to the egg white/almond mixture.

Gently stir it all up.

Turn out the almonds onto a baking sheet lined with foil and lightly coated with cooking spray.

Spread the almonds in an even layer and pop them in a 250 degree oven.

Flip and stir every 15 minutes or so. This will be messy and you’ll be questioning my sanity as it seems like all the coating is running off. Don’t worry, it works, I promise. This is me stirring the almonds after about 15 minutes. Not even close to being done as you can see.

This is after about 45 minutes. Close, but not quite done yet. You’ll have less mess on your baking sheet because I forgot to grease mine. Oops.

To test for doneness, I grab one of the toasty almonds in my fingers and gently press to see if the coating is hard and crunchy. If some of it stickily sticks to your fingers, they need more time in the oven. These look just about perfect.

Let the almonds cool completely before snacking!