Maple-glazed walnuts are a heavenly addition to salads. Their sweet crunchiness contrasts well with bitter salads such as escarole (chicory), blue cheese salads, or leafy green salads with fruit in them.
You can buy candied walnuts in jars, but they are so easy and inexpensive to make at home. I guarantee you that the first time you make these maple-glazed walnuts, they will all be eaten before they even have a chance to get close to a salad. Hopefully, some of your second batch will make it into your salad!
MAPLE-GLAZED WALNUTS
(makes 1 cup)
Ingredients: (recipe can be doubled)
- 1 cup walnut halves
- 2 Tbsp good quality maple syrup
- Pinch of sea salt
Directions to Cook
- If you have a small cast-iron frying pan or skillet, I recommend you use it. Otherwise you can use a small stainless steel frying pan.
- Pour 2 Tbsp of good quality maple syrup into your pan.
- Heat it on medium until the maple syrup starts to simmer.
- Add a pinch of salt and give it a stir.
- Add 1 cup of walnut halves and stir them to coat with the maple syrup. Keep stirring them so that they don’t burn. Reduce the heat if necessary. If you prefer sticky glazed walnuts, follow step 6. If you prefer dry glazed walnuts, follow step 7.
- STICKY GLAZED WALNUTS: If your preference is for sticky glazed walnuts, then after about 2 minutes of cooking you can take them out, place them on some parchment paper (make sure they are not touching each other otherwise they might stick together) and let them cool to room temperature. However if, like me, you prefer your walnuts less sticky, see the next step (I strongly recommend the drier type for salads).
- DRY GLAZED WALNUTS: If your preference is for dry glazed walnuts, cook and stir the walnuts for about 5-7 minutes. The walnuts will start to dry out and seem to have a slightly powdery-look. Remove them from the pan and place them on some parchment paper (make sure they are not touching each other otherwise they might stick together). Let them cool to room temperature.
- Your maple-glazed walnuts are now ready to use. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for upto a week.