Balls...I mean nuts.

Candied nuts! (har har har)...are my new albeit fleeting obsession. After watching someone munch down a whole bag of cinnamon almonds at work recently, my tongue started craving candied nuts (not almonds though, for in their barely cooked or raw form, itchy beginnings of anaphylactic shock ensue...oral allergy syndrome, peoples, it's a thing). Perhaps such a craving harkens back to earlier days, when I used to eat nuts for breakfast in college, ritually, particularly on exam days. A handful of cashews here, handful of candied walnuts or pecans there, handfuls of pistachios everywhere, and so on so forth, primarily because my anxiety-ridden stomach could only tolerate minimal amounts of food on test day mornings. High fat high protein snacks, yes sir. I do love me some nuts, in all forms, probably pun intended...heeeheehee, really, how gross am I...??

Oddly, although peanuts fall farther down in the list of nuts-I-like-the-best, the recipe below features them. Because that's all I had in the fridge that day, and they certainly are less expensive. I make these in small amounts because I have a small pan and it's easier to stir small batches, but I'm sure you can double or triple the amounts and be just fine. One day, I will also try this out on other types of nuts...but one day is so far away.

Candied Sesame Peanuts

great for snacking or as a topping, e.g. on ice cream

1 C raw peanuts, skins removed

2 TB toasted sesame seeds

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/6 C water

salt

chili powder

cinnamon

In a pan on the stove on medium (or in a skillet of some sort), mix together the peanuts, granulated sugar and water. Stir constantly, and the mixture will begin to bubble and dry out, but don't stop stirring or else the peanuts will burn. Soon, the mixture will become sandy looking, and you'll be stirring the peanuts in dry sandy sugar, but keep stirring and lower the heat. Trust me, all this stirring will be worth it just so you can have blueberry butter tarts topped with vanilla ice and candied peanuts gahhh.

After what feels like forever stirring, you'll notice that the sugar is sticking to the peanuts and that the sandy sugar mixture in the pan is melting and turning brown. Keep stirring and making sure things don't burn, stirring constantly so that the melting sugar mixture is coating all the peanuts. Toss and stir (stir more, don't you get it???), stir, stir, to evenly coat the peanuts in this mixture. Add your sesame seeds at this point. So, now that you know you should always be stirring, pay attention to the mixture and try to get everything evenly coated and browned. If things are getting too hot or smoking, remove the pan from the heat. And for the love of god, don't splash any of the  mixture on yourself, it's blazing hot.

When the peanuts are candied to your preference (I took mine off a little early, wanted them to be more sugary than brown), add your salt, chili powder and cinnamon. Stir...hahaha. Then pour onto a pan and spread out to cool. If you candied them more (than I did), you'll have to crack the clusters apart when they are cool.