One of my go to sites for good recipes and photos is Smitten Kitchen. So, of course that is where I found this great recipe to use over the holidays for last minute gifts: Sugar and Spice Candied Nuts.  Even though the holidays are now a distant memory (it seems), this recipe is good for any holiday, like Valentine’s Day, Easter, or even a last minute hostess gift! It’s an easy way to revive some old nuts you likely have sitting in your pantry…

I followed the recipe on Smitten Kitchen’s very closely, but made a few changes of my own. I didn’t use as much spice, and added more salt for an emphasized sweet and salty candied nut mix. I did this by increasing the salt to 1.5 tsp, from 1 tsp. And I doubled the amount of nuts, so the candied coating was lighter. The recipe calls for one pound of nuts, I used two pounds (and there are about 4-5 cups of nuts in a pound, depending on the nut).

This made the recipe much more subtle but still very ADDICTIVE!

I packaged them up in mason jars, tied them with a ribbon and added a gift tag. Simple. I tripled the recipe for the holidays, and made quite a few jars. I will definitely keep this recipe on hand and use it again.

Use any mix of nuts you like, i just happened to have lots of almonds and pecans in stock.

What kind of food gifts do you like to make? and what recipes do you keep on hand?