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Sugared Hickory Nuts
2 CUPS SHELLED HICKORY NUTS 1/2 CUP WATER I CUP SUGAR Put nuts in saucepan and keep in a warm place. Put sugar and water in another pan, stir until sugar is dissolved, and boil without stirring until candy forms soft ball in cold water. Hold pan of nuts several inches above the fire and shake vigorously while slowly pouring syrup over the nuts. Occasionally stir the nuts, then add remaining syrup drop by drop until all is used. Nuts should be evenly covered with a coating of sugar.
A two-ingredient sugar coating on nuts, cooked over a campfire in the original but equally workable on a burner. The hinge is the syrup stage: get it to soft ball and no further.
- Soft ball, by number"Soft ball in cold water" is 235-240F on a candy thermometer. Below that the coating stays sticky and never sets; much above it the sugar hardens into brittle shards that crack off the nuts.
- Do not stir the syrupOnce the sugar has dissolved, leave the spoon out. Stirring a boiling syrup drags crystals down the sides of the pan and seeds the whole batch into grainy fudge instead of a smooth glaze.
- Warm nuts matterCold nuts chill the syrup on contact and it sets in lumps. Holding them in a warm pan, or ten minutes in a 250F oven, keeps the coating fluid long enough to spread evenly.
- Shaking over heatHolding the pan several inches above the fire keeps the coating just soft while you agitate it. On a stovetop, hold the pan a few inches above a low burner and shake continuously, or work off the heat and return the pan for a few seconds at a time.
- Hickory nutsShagbark and shellbark hickory are mostly gathered rather than bought, and shelling them is slow work with a hammer. Pecan is the closest relative and behaves much the same here; English walnuts or almonds also work.
- Yield and coolingTwo cups of nuts and a cup of sugar make roughly 2 1/2 cups of finished candy. Turn them out onto parchment or a greased sheet and separate them while warm, then store airtight -- humidity will make the coating tacky within a day or two.