Sugar Coated Almonds--So Good!!

I don't know how common this is, but there is a place in the University Mall in Orem around Christmas time that sells sugar roasted almonds, and they are so dang good. They taste pretty great, but they make the whole vicinity smell delish, which is even better. But the people who sell them in the mall charge about 5 bucks per half cup for them, which is not really affordable, in my book. In fact, I had gone to the mall around Christmas with Blair at some point and was drawn in by the smell, and Blair rebuffed me in my attempts to buy said sugared almonds. So, I went ahead and did what I always do in this type of situation, which is to procure a recipe for making them myself. I found one on allrecipes.com--which, as a sidenote, is probably my favorite website for finding great recipes on basically anything that you can think of--and tried it out. I was a bit skeptical that they would turn out as good as the ones from the mall, but I tried the recipe anyway because of the great reviews that other people on the website gave it. They turned out great. You can even ask Lacey or Randy and Jessica. I think they are the only ones who got to taste any of them besides us because we hoarded them after we realized how good they were. My reason for posting this is not to taunt those of you who were not so fortunate as to experience this delicacy, but to share the recipe since it was so great. So here it is:

Sugar Coated Almonds (or Pecans or another nut)

2 egg whites
1 tbsp vanilla
1 lb nuts (~3 c almonds)
1 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Grease one baking sheet. Mix together the egg whites and the vanilla until frothy and then pour it into a gallon bag. In another bowl, mix together the sugar, salt, and cinnamon and then pour it into a separate gallon bag. Add the nuts to the bag containing the egg white mixture, close the bag (hey, you have to include even the really obvious steps since some people are, well, you know), and then shake it to coat the nuts thoroughly. Then transfer the nuts to the bag with the sugar/cinnamon mixture and again, after closing the bag, shake it to coat the nuts thoroughly. Pour the nuts and extra sauce out onto the baking sheet and spread them evenly. Bake for 1 hour at 250, stirring every 15 minutes.

If you like candied nuts, you should definitely try this recipe when you have an extra hour and a half, like maybe on the weekend, because they taste great and it makes your house smell really good.