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Sugar-free Cinnamon Almonds

I like having little snack foods around the house.  Something I can just grab a quick handful of as I go about my day, cleaning house, playing with the dogs, being awesome, avoiding doing chores.  I like these snacks to be crunchy but flavorful and preferably something easy to make.  I also like a variety of flavors…I bore easily, after all.  Hey, let’s go ride bikes!

I’m just kidding.  It’s too cold outside to ride bikes.

Anyway, these almonds are great.  I made them last year as Christmas gifts.  I started making them again this fall as snacks for get-togethers or just to keep around the house.  I’ve tried a few different flavors, my favorites being rosemary-olive oil, and cinnamon-sugar.  The pumpkin spice were pretty good, too.  ingredients for cinnamon almonds: almonds, splenda, cinnamon, egg whiteLast year, I made these with regular sugar but this year I started making them with Splenda so that my sugar-conscious friends could still enjoy them and to be honest, you really can’t tell the difference.

cinnamon almonds on a pan

Everyone loves munching on the sweet (or savory) and crunchy little snacks.  If you need a snack to put out before holiday meals this year, this is it.  They also make great, hand-made gifts wrapped up in pretty cellophane bags and tied with a bow.  And if you get almonds from a bulk-food co-op or store like Costco, they can be really affordable too!

Sugar-free Cinnamon Almonds

Ingredients

  • 4 cups whole blanched almonds
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 cup Splenda
  • 1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 250F.
  2. Whip the egg white until frothy (just a minute or so). Add in the splenda and cinnamon and the fold in the almonds. Stir until the almonds are thoroughly coated in the mixture.
  3. Line a baking pan with parchment or tinfoil and spread the almonds out on the pan. Bake at 250F for one hour. Let cool and eat! Store in an airtight container.

Notes

More interested in the rosemary-olive oil almonds? Replace the egg white with 1/4 cup olive and replace the Splenda and cinnamon with a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary.

For pumpkin spice almonds, sub a tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon in this recipe.

And don't forget all the other flavors you could try---chili and lime (a bit of lime juice and zest and chili powder), cocoa almonds (canola oil, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar), or even vanilla bean almonds (scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean or use vanilla bean paste and mix that into white or brown sugar). Be creative! And enjoy.

http://haveforkwilleat.com/2012/10/sugar-free-cinnamon-almonds/