Cinnamon Non-Sugar Candied Nuts

These crunchy and sweet cinnamon sugar-free candied nuts are a delicious keto & low-carb snack that you just can’t stop eating!

These candied nuts are such an easy recipe and make for a perfect holiday or hosting edible gift for your friends, family and co-workers.

You can put them in small mason glass jars or wrap them in cellophane bags, tied with colored ribbons!

A hand full of keto cinnamon sugar-free candied nut mix.

The fact that these candied nuts are sugar-free is enough to get anyone excited, even if they are not on a keto or low-carb diet. Who doesn’t want some guilt-free indulgence every now and then?

They are a great addition to recipes, as well. The keto pumpkin spice baby bundt cake you can see on the pictures throughout this post got some of these crushed keto candied nuts on top which took it to a whole new realm of sticky and crunchy deliciousness!

Keto cinnamon no-sugar candied nuts piled high in a white ramekin.

The ingredients

Nuts – You can use any single nut or mix of nuts you prefer! It’s a great way to use up nut left-overs (if that’s even a thing). For my keto candied nut mix recipe I added a little bit of every nut I had in the pantry: there’s walnuts, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamias and peanuts. Yes… peanuts. Why not?

Although not technically a nut, peanuts are a cheap and delicious option as well. I added some I had left from my keto spiced boiled peanuts recipe. When boiled, peanuts are similar in taste and texture to sweet potatoes, it’s nuts 😁 If you miss sweet potatoes on keto go and check it out!

Egg white – an egg white beaten to stiff peaks is the base of the coating

Powdered keto sweetener – Powdered sweetener, like confectioners Swerve, is very important for uniform coating. You can use granulated sweetener, but the candied coating will not stick as well.

If you just have granulated sweetener, it’s easy to powder it yourself: just add it to the (very dry!) jar of a blender and pulse it for a few seconds. Wait for the powder to settle before opening the jar. Done!

I used my homemade erythritol stevia blend, which is as sweet as sugar. Pure erythritol has only 70% of sugar’s sweetness. You can make your own, or buy keto baking sweeteners already blended, with either stevia or monk fruit

For this recipe, as the crunchy is a major factor, it’s better to stick with erythritol. I DO NOT recommend allulose or xylitol as the nuts will take a long while to crunch up after baking.

Crushed sugar-free candied nuts being sprinkled over a keto pumpkin pie spice mini bundt cake covered in cream cheese frosting.

Spices – A generous amount of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, vanilla extract and, optional but highly recommended: organic blackstrap molasses. It is a natural sugar, but with only one fourth of a teaspoon for the whole recipe the macros are barely affected and the flavor boost is really amazing.

Organic blackstrap molasses adds a burnt sugar dimension that we can’t get from simple white erythritol, and it’s much cheaper than using brown keto sweetener. You can leave it out if you prefer, or just use a brown or golden keto sweetener for a similar result.

Optional: Whey protein! – As you probably have noticed, I am all for sneaking protein into every recipe possible. You’d think that this simple keto cinnamon sugar mixed nuts would be different… but no! I couldn’t resist. I had to make half of the batch adding whey protein.

The difference: in the end, pretty much unnoticeable. The candied nuts coated in the mix that takes protein powder seemed a to get a better coverage, but by a very small margin. The color is slightly lighter, and they have a resemblance of a milky taste.

All in all, when they are all mixed up I couldn’t really tell the difference. So, do as you please! Both variations of this keto candied nuts recipe are incredibly awesome, crunchy and delicious.

A white ramekin filled with keto cinnamon no-sugar candied nuts.

What are the most keto friendly nuts

To help you choose the best nuts for this keto candied nuts recipe, I separately calculated the net carbs of several nuts options. I pulled the nutrition facts for this table from the USDA database, and rounded the values.

In the USDA database, the term “carbohydrates, by difference” is used. Carbohydrates by difference means, in essence, the total carbs. I subtracted the fiber for the net carb counts, and the result is the list of some of the most common nuts to be candied in a keto friendliness order:

Nut*Net CarbTotal CarbFatProteinCalories
Brazil nuts4126614656
Pecans414729690
Macadamias514768718
Hazelnuts7176117628
Walnuts7146515654
Peanuts8164926567
Almonds9215221654
Cashews27304418553

Nut* in the culinary term. Botanically, peanuts are legumes, and pecans, macadamias, walnuts, almonds and cashews are seeds.

Most unfortunately, with the exception of our savior, the peanut, it seems the keto friendliness of nuts generally correlates with how expensive the nuts are, at least where I live. Tastiness, too. Oh, well.

Gluten-free pumpkin pie spice mini bundt cake frosted with cream cheese and topped with cinnamon candied sugar-free crushed nuts.
These keto pumpkin spice mini bundt cakes are even better topped with crushed candied cinnamon nuts.

What are the best nuts to use

The more the sweet candy coating sticks onto the nuts, the better. Nuts that have more nooks and crannies will get a thicker candy coating and walnuts and pecans are the best in this sense, followed by almonds with the skin on. Skinless nuts don’t keep the sugary coating on as well, but they will work, too.

Macadamia nuts are the ones that the coating stuck less to, I guess not only because they are super smooth but also because these little buttery morsels are the highest in fat, at least from the selection on the table below.

How to make keto candied nuts

Start up your oven to 150 °C (300 °F). Line a baking tray with parchment or wax paper. Beat the egg white to stiff peaks (1)
Add the keto sweetener (erythritol is best here), cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and, optionally, black treacle or unsulfured blackstrap molasses for a deeper flavor (2). Beat the mixture until fully combined (3)

Step by step of keto candied nuts recipe preparation.


If you want to make the keto candied nuts in high protein version, the recipe is almost the same. You just need to add two ingredients at step 2, along with the spices: One scoop of whey protein and one tablespoon of water. Mix it up until the whey protein powder is also fully dissolved.

Finally, add the nuts to the egg white spiced concoction, and mix them in, coating them all really well.

Uniformly spread the keto candy coated nuts onto a baking tray covered in parchment or wax paper (6). The pictures 6 and 7 show the before and after baking, and the top row of nuts is the one with whey protein. Notice that they are much lighter in color before they go into the oven, but not that different after baking.

Step by step of keto candied nuts preparation, and their appearance before and after baking.

Take the tray with the keto cinnamon candied nuts into the oven for one hour. Every 15 minutes, take the tray out of the oven and mix the nuts around with a spatula or wooden spoon. Be gentle so you don’t rip the paper.

When the hour is up, take them out of the oven and wait for them to cool down before storing them, in airtight plastic bags or containers. The keto sugar-free candied nuts made with erythritol will crisp up immediately, but will get even crunchier and more irresistible on the next day!


A hand full of keto cinnamon sugar-free candied nut mix.

Keto Cinnamon Candied Nuts

Yield: 10 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

These delicious sugar-free cinnamon candied nuts can be made with any of your favorite nuts, or even peanuts! They are the perfect crunchy and sweet keto snack, and make a lovely homemade gift!

Ingredients

Option 1: For the cinnamon non-sugar keto candied nuts

  • 250 grams (~2 cups) of any one type or mix of nuts
  • 60 grams (~1/3 cup) powdered keto 1:1 sweetener
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon blackstrap molasses (optional)

Option 2: For the high protein version, also add:

  • 1 scoop of unflavored (or vanilla) whey protein
  • 1 tablespoon of water

Instructions

    1. Preheat oven to 150 °C (300 °F).
    2. Beat the egg white to stiff peaks
    3. Add the keto sweetener, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and blackstrap molasses (if using). Mix until fully combined.
    4. If doing the Option 2 with whey protein powder, add one scoop of whey protein powder and a tablespoon of water. Mix it up until the whey is also fully dissolved.
    5. Add the nuts and mix them in, coating them all really well.
    6. Pour the coated nuts onto a baking tray covered in parchment or wax paper. Spread them uniformly .
    7. Take the tray with the keto candied nuts into the preheated oven, for one hour. Every 15 minutes, take the tray out of the oven and mix the nuts around with a spatula or wooden spoon, carefully not to rip the paper.
    8. Take them out of the oven and wait for them to cool down before storing them, in airtight plastic bags or containers.

Notes

Nutrition information displayed at the end is calculated for an Option 1 recipe (without whey protein), using pecan nuts. If counting macros, recalculate using your chosen nut or mixed nuts.

Nutrition information for Option 2, with whey protein added: 1 serving: Calories 202 Total Fat 18.3 grams Carbohydrates 4.2 grams Fiber 2.9 grams Sugar 1 grams Protein 5.2 grams Net Carbohydrates 1.3 grams.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 190Total Fat: 18gCarbohydrates: 4.1gNet Carbohydrates: 1.2gFiber: 2.9gSugar: 1gProtein: 2.7g

Nutrition information is provided as a guideline only. Different brands of ingredients may have different nutrition facts. If tracking macros, remake the calculations using the nutrition facts from the labels of the ingredients you selected. Net carbs calculated exclude carbs from insoluble fiber and sugar alcohols.

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