I love candied nuts. The kind you can get at the mall around the holidays and can smell a mile away.
And I love trail mix. All the textures, the salty-and-sweet aspect. I can never stop at a handful.
Marrying candied nuts with trail mix was one of the best, and most dangerous, kitchen decisions I’ve had lately. Can you say addiciting. Whoa. But it makes great gifts and people love it.
I used a combo of pecans, walnuts, and almonds. I love using pecans when making candied nuts because the cinnamon-and-sugar coating really seeps into all the nookies and crannies and adheres beautifully.
My 7-year old hand model promptly picked out most of chocolate chips. I’ve taught her well.
My family loves almonds and you can’t go wrong with buttery cashews. Use your favorite nuts.
I use unsalted, raw nuts because they bake at the same rate and the salt level is uniform, but if you have lightly salted, roasted peanuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts, or others, I’m sure they’ll be fine.
I usually have a half dozen different bags of nuts open (salted, unsalted, raw, roasted) and this is a great pantry cleanout recipe. I’m BFF’s with the Trader Joe’s nuts and dried fruit aisle.
After baking I added dried cranberries, dried cherries, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips. If you’re not fond of certain dried fruits or don’t like white chocolate, omit them and use what you prefer.
The trail mix is salty and sweet, packed with rich cinnamon sugar flavor, and there’s so many textures from crunchy to chewy in every bite. The tartness of the dried fruit is offset by the sweet white chocolate. So good.
The heavenly scent while it bakes just helps contribute to how irresistible this stuff is. It’s going to be your new favorite fall snack. It would make great gifts if you can part with any.
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Cinnamon Sugar Candied Nuts Trail Mix
Ingredients
- 3 cups nuts, I used 1 cup each of pecans, cashews, and almonds. All were raw and unsalted
- 1 egg white from a large egg, whisked to frothy
- 1 tablespoon water
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed (light or dark is fine)
- 2 + teaspoons cinnamon, I used 1 tablespoon
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 1 ½ cups dried fruit, I used 3/4 cup each dried cranberries and dried cherries
- 1 ½ cups baking chips, I used 3/4 cup each semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300F. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat or parchment paper. Don’t skip lining your baking sheet; set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the nuts; set aside. I recommend using raw, unsalted nuts but if you can’t find them, previously roasted/salted will likely work but monitor baking time and optional salt level.
- In a small bowl, add the egg white, water, and whisk vigorously until very frothy, foamy, and bubbly, about 2 minutes by hand.
- Pour egg mixture over the nuts and stir to coat.
- Add the sugars, cinnamon, optional salt, and stir very well to coat evenly.
- Turn nuts out onto to prepared baking sheet, spreading them in an even flat layer.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, tossing once midway through (I baked 28 minutes); don’t overbake or nuts can burn. Coating may appear bubbly, possibly a bit runny and loose in the center of tray even when nuts are ready to be pulled from oven, but firms up dramatically as nuts cool. Use your judgment and let your nose and eyes be your guide to doneness.
- Allow nuts to cool on baking tray for at least 2 hours. Ideally, leave nuts on baking tray and exposed overnight as it helps them get extra crispy and crunchy.
- When nuts are cooled completely, sprinkle the dried fruit and baking chips over nuts.
- Use your hands to break apart large clusters and disperse fruit and baking chips throughout.
- Transfer mix to airtight containers, jars, or baggies. Mix will keep airtight at room temperature for at least 1 month.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Related Recipes
Sweet with Heat Cinnamon Sugar Candied Nuts – Make shopping mall-style candied nuts any time you want! Just 30 minutes and these crunchy and very addictive nuts are all yours! Makes a great gift!
Cinnamon Sugar Candied Cashews (GF) – Make the fancy storebought kind at home! Salty-and-sweet, ready in 30 mins & so good!
Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Granola (vegan, GF) – Make your own granola that’s full of rich flavors for a fraction of the cost of storebought
Rosemary Chipotle Roasted Almonds
Coconut Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Almonds
Parmesan Ranch Snack Mix – Pretzels, peanuts & popcorn tossed with ranch mix! Ready in 5 mins & so addictively good!
Vanilla Cake Batter and White Chocolate Chip Caramel Corn
Cinnamon Sugar Chocolate Pretzels – Make in 5 minutes in the micro
Skinny 100-Calorie Chocolate Peanut Butter Snack Mix (vegan, GF, no butter/oil)
Big Clusters Maple Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Granola (vegan, GF) – Easy homemade granola for a fraction of the cost of storebought! Learn the secrets to creating those highly coveted big clusters!
Mmmm, I don’t think I could stop at one handful!! ;) I probably wouldn’t stop munching until it was gone! Yum!
This looks soo good ! i would love to eat that with milk like cereals !
Oh my, I can certainly see why those would be addicting. I love that salty/sweet combination!
I’m pretty sure I would be unable to stop eating this trail mix after the first bite. Looks so tasty!!
I wish you were right around the corner, I would have gladly dropped off a whole bunch of these! :)
Skylar’s hand modeling = so precious! And I could seriously munch on these all day, especially right now at midnight!
She was a fairly cooperative subject :) Fairly. The rest of the time she was chattering and I was like ummm you’re moving and talking with your hands!
Mmm, this definitely looks dangerous! I love both candied nuts and trail mix so putting them together sounds like the best snack ever!
Oh my goodness. I would be in BIG trouble if I was left in a room with nuts prepared this way. I would eat so many I wouldn’t fit on the door to get out of that room. Wonderful treatment!!!!!
They’re super dangerous :)
these look awesome, like I could snack on them all day! YUM pinned!
Thanks for pinning!
I’m BFF’s with that Trader Joe’s aisle too! And I’m pretty sure I’d be BFF’s with this mix too!!
Glad you can relate to that aisle :)
I’ve always got half used bags of nuts lying around, I never thought to use them up in this way! trying it today so the hubby has got a healthy snack for work
Sure, these are ‘healthy’…I’ll go with that :) At the very least, it will totally clean out your random stash of almost-used bags of nuts. I tend to have like 10 of those going at once! LMK if you do try these!
These remind me of the nuts at Bass Pro Shops that always smell so amazing, but cost as much as a full meal. I love that you included trail mix ingredients with them, which gave them a gorgeous pop of colors. This looks perfect for an upcoming car trip we have planned. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us, Averie!
Same type of nuts, I’m sure, although I havent had the Bass nuts. But yeah, the nuts that cost $5 bucks for a tiny little bag and are way too easy to inhale in 5 mins. Now you can make them!
Oh. My. Gosh. I would have a raw mouth and be stuffed if I got these as a gift. Or if I made them, they’d never make it out of the house. You really are a genius!!
And many people near me DID get gifts because I didn’t need to do any more cardio :)
I love the roasted nut stands that you find in malls this time of year but I almost never let myself buy any. This seems like a perfect way to ring in the season. I can’t wait to make a huge bowl of this for myself!
These are exactly those types of nuts but instead of $5 bucks for a tiny bag, you get a huge batch, all to yourself :)
What a great trail mix! SO funny your daughter picks out the chocolate chips…my kids would eat all her leftovers for sure :)
I wish I had your crew near me! I need some boys and big appetites!