Cinnamon Maple Almonds

One of my favorite thing when I worked at the County building was when the freedom festival would set up on the lawn outside.  Every break and lunch I would be outside wandering the booths and smelling the wonderful food.  I would allow myself to buy a bag of those irresistible cinnamon roasted almonds.  MMMM.    I have a sugared nut recipe I use quite often, but it's best on pecans and not really the same, although very yummy and addicting in its own right.    I finally found the secret to those wonderful almonds.  Maple and vanilla.  The cinnamon of course was a given.  I'm not sure how I can across it all, I probably was searching and put a few recipes together from the internet.  For a while I was making these all the time,  I ate a ton of nuts!  But then I let it go and forgot how I mixed the glaze.  When I started wanting them again I had to start all over, except knowing that it had maple syrup, cinnamon and vanilla.  I couldn't remember if it had sugar or not. My memory is really fading as I get older.  Some things I remember very well though.  I finally found a recipe that looked close.  It had the sugar in it.  When I put the nuts on the pan I could immediately tell that this was not the recipe but I already had about 3 cups of nuts mixed in and so I still baked them.  They ended up almost burnt tasting and very greasy but good enough to keep around and snack on.  I cooked them less than it said to, so oh well.

It seemed to me that I never actually baked them, and again I wasn't really remembering sugar added.  I do remember adding Mapeline, but I don't remember if that was just to enhance my cheap syrup.  I know I didn't use real maple syrup. 

So I tried again.  I don't know why I can't remember what I used to do.  I blame it all on hormones.  This time I left out the sugar and cut way back on the butter.  It still wasn't what I wanted but it was a lot better.  I did end up roasting them but only for about 15 min.  I also started with raw almonds.  I would like them more roasted next time.  I will have to continue my quest.  When I get more time.

Here is what I ended up doing.


1⁄4 cup real maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon butter
1⁄4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 dashes salt
2 cups almonds.

Combine all ingredients except nuts in pot and bring to boil.  Boil 1 minute.  Add nuts and coat.  Pour in pan and bake at 300 for about 15 minutes.