Candied peanuts with cinnamon

My mom knows a peanut farmer, or, at least, she knows a guy who knows a guy who can get fresh Virginia peanuts pulled straight from the dirt. This means she buys them in bulk every year and she ends up giving me a kilo or two every couple months. Now, I always have them around because of my mom's twin love of both buying from the source and in bulk. I've made peanut butter, peanut sauce, peanut blondies, and--the reason for this post--candied peanuts.

David Lebovitz is one of my favorite food bloggers. He makes some really delicious sweets and I love hearing his stories about living in Paris. This candied peanut recipe from his blog is fast, simple, and delicious. The trick to making them is to keep a close eye on the peanuts at all times. The first stage of cooking the peanuts lasted longer than I expected, and then at the end, I had to be careful not to burn them! That's really the trouble with cooking sugar--it goes from caramel to smoking road tar in a blink.

As you can see from the pictures above, the peanuts look super delicious when they're finished. They're sweet and salty and crunchy. I love cinnamon, so I added some, but they're excellent without as well. Cayenne might also be an interesting addition if you're looking for something sweet, salty, and spicy. The peanuts probably keep for a couple of weeks when stored in an airtight container, but my friends and I had no trouble consuming them in the space of a few days. Try it out, y'all! Go nuts! (painful groan at the bad joke)

Candied peanuts with cinnamon
(makes 2 cups)
from David Lebovitz

2 cups peanuts (skinned and raw, if you can find them*)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tsp cinnamon
big pinch of fleur de sel or sea salt--something coarse would be best

In a heavy skillet (I used my cast iron) mix the peanuts, sugar, cinnamon, and water together. Heat the nuts over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to make sure the peanuts are evenly coated. It takes a couple minutes, but the mixture will begin to look sandy and dry and you'll think maybe you've done something terribly wrong. Never fear! The peanuts soon start to look caramelized and gooey. Keep stirring to prevent burning and cook the nuts until they're a deep brown, caramel color. Take care, because at this stage, the peanuts can go from delicious brown to inedible black really quickly. Remove the nuts from the heat and turn them out onto a large baking sheet. While the nuts are still hot, sprinkle the salt (and maybe a little more cinnamon) onto the nuts. Let them cool completely and then break them up into bite-sized pieces. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

*Note: My peanuts still had their skins, so I had to roast them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes in order to make skinning them easy. I rubbed the skin of the peanuts and, though they weren't technically raw anymore, the timing of the recipe was still about the same. This leads me to believe that you can use already roasted peanuts in this recipe and it'll turn out just fine.)