Spiced Candied Nuts

Yesterday, in kitchen experimentation, I attempted to spice up my candied nuts. Candied nuts, in and of themselves, are pretty simple. You toast some nuts, melt (and try not to kill yourself) some sugar, toss to coat and salt if desired. They're simple and delicious. But I wanted to try something new, so I added some spices. Namely, Hungarian paprika and cinnamon.

Here's the recipe:
1 cup of toasted walnuts (to toast: lay flat on baking sheet and toss in 350 oven for five minutes)
1 cup of roasted, salted cashews
1+ cup of sugar
roughly 1/4 cup of paprika and cinnamon
After the sugar is melted, add the spice mixture (off the heat)...it will smoke like the dickens, but throw the nuts in and stir anyway. Then, lay it out on a baking sheet and attempt to separate the chunky bunches. (Good Luck).
What did I think?
Well, it might just be the humidity, but it never hardened up the way I wanted it to. It was still delicious. But it didn't give me the same candied crunch as the straight-sugar version. Also, it didn't have the spice level I was looking for. (This might be because I was using sweeter paprika.)

All in all? Pretty tasty, but in need of some tweaking.