Vanilla Spice Nuts

I've had this recipe kicking around for quite some time (2010 to be exact). I thought it would make a nice little side appetizer. Of course, I had to play around with the original recipe - more on that later. Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Spice Nuts (Adapted from Cooking Light)

1 T vanilla
1 egg white
1 c almonds
1 c walnuts or pecans
1/4 c sugar
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
3/4 t ground allspice
1/4 t cardamom

I used fresh ground the allspice & cardamon

Line a baking sheet with parchment. In a bowl whisk together vanilla and the egg white until frothy. Stir in nuts. In a separate bowl mix remaining ingredients. Stir into the nuts. Toss to coat. Spread out on parchment. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Turn oven off. Toss nuts; breaking up any large pieces. Return to oven and let rest in oven for 10 minutes. Remove and cool.

Now I had to be a wise ass and thought that 1 egg white looked a little skimpy. I happened to have an extra egg white on hand so I mixed that in. It was way too much egg white. In the end I had too much liquid and had to return the nuts to the oven to dry them out a little further. Luckily this did not over toast them. I used whole almonds and I think that is why it was OK. The original recipe called for sliced almonds. I think the whole almonds stood up better to the walnuts. I also only used 2 cups of nuts. They asked for Macadamia nuts. I'm not a big fan. I feel that the seasoning was adequate for 2 cups of nuts. If you added 3 cups of nuts like the original recipe, you would definitely need to up the seasoning.

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