【焦糖核桃】Candied Walnuts

第一次吃这个焦糖干果是多年前有个朋友从亚洲来纽约出差，顺道来我家玩。

当时他带来的手信就是一包他在纽约街边买的焦糖干果。我不是一个嗜甜的人，对于甜味的干果总有点抗拒，我更喜欢原味或者咸味的做法。

前几天跟妈妈聊天，说起侄儿侄女很爱吃零食，外边买的又不健康，较后在厨房里看见还剩下大半包的核桃，就想尝试做一次焦糖核桃，以后回去可以给小朋友们做了当零嘴。

It has been raining cats and dogs today, it really is not helping with my mood. Baby A has been waking me up several times every night for more than 2 weeks now, I have ruled out teething, sickness and even growing spurt... It is really tough living with broken sleeps every day nowadays.

This morning after sending baby A to the daycare, I came home planning to work on some paperwork. So I turned on my laptop and begin to work, out of sudden I just could not proceed anymore, I could not even look at my computer screen. 

All I wanted was to rest. I turned off my laptop and went to bed, after about half an hour of tossing and turning, I got more irritated and tired. I was probably so severely sleep deprived that my body doesn't know how to relax and just rest anymore.

So I get up and made this candied walnuts, cooking is always therapeutic for me, seeing my own creation just makes me forget about things in life for a bit. 

When I was done, I went to bed relaxed and manage to nap for 45 minutes. Life is all great again!

材料:
450 克 核桃 
2/3 杯 红糖/糖
1/4 杯 黄油/Butter

1/2 杯 水

Ingredients:

450 gm of Walnuts

2/3 cup of brown sugar

1/4 cup of butter

1/2 cup of water

1. 先把核桃分批在微波炉里转2分钟，摊凉备用。

2. 锅里下黄油，1/4杯的水和糖，中火煮溶后不断搅拌至浓稠。

3. 看见糖浆出现大泡泡的时候，取一滴的糖浆滴到凉水里，如果糖浆迅速结晶变硬，温度就合适了。

4. 迅速倒入核桃不断翻炒至所有的核桃都裹上糖液，这个时候倒入1/4杯水，煮至水干后熄火，这个步骤是让焦糖挂得更匀。

5. 把核桃盛出摊凉即可食用。

1. Microwave walnuts in a few batches for about 2 minutes each, spread it out and let cold.

2. In a cooking pan/wok, add sugar, 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of butter, bring to boil and keep stirring at medium heat until the syrup thickens and show big bubbles (as shown in the picture).

3. Take a drop of the syrup and drop it into some cold water, if it hardened right away, the caramel is ready.

4. Add walnuts and continue stirring until all walnuts evenly coated with caramel, add 1/4 cup of water and quickly stir until the water evaporated, this is to smoothen the caramel coating on walnuts and prevent overcooking. 

5. Spread the walnuts on a piece of parchment paper and let it cold down before storing in airtight container.

中文 -- 焦糖核桃