Handmade Christmas: Crockpot Cinnamon Almonds - FAIL

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I'm a sucker for recipes that use slow cookers, because they always imply that the machine is doing the work. So when I saw a recipe for Crock Pot Cinnamon Almonds, I was game to give it a go.


And the recipe was dead simple:

1 ½  cups sugar

1 ½ cups brown sugar

3 Tbsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. salt

1 egg white

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups almonds
¼ cup water

Just whip the eggs, assemble the ingredients and toss them in a crock pot.

My first point of alarm came when I read 3 Tablespoons for the cinnamon. Did they mean 3 teaspoons? It sure smelled strong!

Nevertheless, I followed the instructions, whipping the whites, then adding the sugars and seasoning. Then dumped the melange into my crockpot. Here's where things got tricky. The instructions say:

Cook (with the lid on) 3-4 hours stirring every 20 minutes. In the last hour, add the 1/4 C. of water and stir well. Stir really well, especially as it gets later in the cooking process.

What? I have to stir it every 20 minutes? I was planning to go to bed and let the mess simmer all night.

Lesson learned: read the entire recipe, all the way through. Every word.

So I stayed up quite late that night.

After two hours in the slow cooker, they looked like this.

So pretty!

Exceedingly goopy, not at all like what was promised. But I set them out to "dry" for a while.

This was as close as it got.

They did not improve, so I put them back in the crock pot and set the dial to "warm," and I went to bed. I came down in the morning to this.

The opposite of "pretty."

Epic fail. But did I give up?

No, I did not. I tasted a couple and they were okay, so I spread those marble-flicking almonds over the reusable pan liner I had just bought. (See my postscript about the pan liner below. Hint: it rocks!)

Or, at least, I tried.

I finally got them all onto the pan. I waited until they had cooled to room temperature, then tried to break the mass into chunks before it got too hard to handle.

This is what happened:

It bends, but it won't break!

I tried to use my hands to break it into chunks, but it was so rubbery, it would not break. It tasted okay, but not great. I put the entire glob into a pretty bowl and set it out for the kids to nosh on.


P.S.The reusable pan liner was a godsend. I can't imagine how the syrup would have adhered to waxed paper or even parchment.

The product is made by cookina, and it is ah-mazing. It seems to be some kind of fibre that is coated with silicone or something. The package I bought had enough to line both of my jelly-roll pans (which I use as cookie sheets), with slight gaps at top and bottom. I could have custom-fit it, but then I would only have had one pan liner. I found it for $9.99 at Metro.

To read more in this series, visit my Handmade Christmas page. 

1 cup of Sugar
1 cup of Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons of Cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of Salt
1 egg White
2 teaspoons of Vanilla
3 cups of Almonds
1/8 cup of water
Read more at http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/09/slow-cooker-cinnamon-almonds.html#FOeWjR2kxz6wv2Pi.99

1 cup of Sugar
1 cup of Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons of Cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon of Salt
1 egg White
2 teaspoons of Vanilla
3 cups of Almonds
1/8 cup of water
Read more at http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/09/slow-cooker-cinnamon-almonds.html#FOeWjR2kxz6wv2Pi.99