Candied Peanuts

This is one of my favorite snacks – the combination of sweetness, crunchiness, and caramelized taste is great. Oh, and I love peanuts in all shapes or forms.

Preparing candied peanuts sounds extremely simple – all you need is sugar and raw peanuts, or so I thought. While they are easy to make – be prepared, making good ones require a great amount of patience. I’ll confess to reading a book while mixing the peanuts over the stove.

The process is straightforward, just place the peanuts with sugar and water on a pan and heat it up.

When the water vaporizes, the sugar will crystalize on the peanuts. Supposedly, you can stop here, the peanuts are fully coated with sugar, but I don’t recommend it. Raw peanuts coated with sugar miss the point – where is the caramelized flavor?

You will need to keep on cooking, letting the sugar melt and caramelize. This is a painfully slow process, you need the sugar to caramelize but don’t let it burn – keep mixing every couple of minutes or you will get peanuts with an unsavory burnt taste. The caramelization also adds another benefit – the long roasting gives the raw peanuts a roasted taste (thus – no need to pre-roast them before).

Your peanuts are ready when some of the sugar caramelized and some remains crystalized – the combination of crunchy sugar and hard caramel is great. When it is ready just transfer it to a tray to cool off for an hour or so. The cooking itself can take around two hours so plan in advance if you want it as a snack after dinner.