Slow Cooker Roasted Almonds

My dad is impossibly hard to shop for.  Really, he has enough money to buy whatever he has even the remotest interest in, so you are stuck with ideas that he didn't know he wants.  And he is kind of a technophile (I had to get it from somewhere!)  Which leaves me at an eternal loss for gifts for him.  One year I got him one of those SD cards that automatically uploads your photos to a website for sharing or sends them to your email.  I thought it would be perfect for him since he often works out of town, and my mom attends all the grandchildren stuff.  He could configure the card, slip it in her camera, she could photograph away and BAM!  As soon as she was within range of a WIFI connection, he could view the photographs instantly.  Plus it would auto backup the photos as soon as he took them via wifi so if it was ever lost or stolen the photos wouldn't be lost.  I really thought I did a good thing.

Until I found it in his office, still in the package, 3 years later.  I guess the EYE-Fi wasn't such a cool idea.

So that pretty much leaves him with food gifts.  I usually make him hard candy.  Lemon Flavored.  But I wanted to do something different this year.  See, he has grown accustom to our traditional gift exchange of homemade hard candies for him and something really nice techie and expensive for me.

I found a recipe for Slow Cooker Roasted Almonds and they are JUST LIKE the ones you get from the mall.  And they are super easy.  And they make your house smell good.  Only downfall is that Almonds are kinda expensive as far as nuts go.

Slow Cooker Roasted Almonds
Makes 3 cups

1 and 1/2 cup sugar
1 and 1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg white
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups almonds
1/4 cup water

Pour sugars, cinnamon, and salt into base of slow cooker. Mix until evenly combined throughout. In a separate bowl, whisk egg white with vanilla. Add almonds and stir until all almonds are coated with egg wash.

Pour almonds into slow cooker and stir with sugar mixture

Cook almonds in slow cooker for 4 hours on low heat, stirring well every 20 minutes. When 1 hour of cook time remains, pour water into slow cooker and mix thoroughly.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread cooked almonds to cool. Make sure to break up any clumps and don't be afraid to let there be a bunch of 'topping' pooled between the nuts.
(I am too cheap to buy parchment paper so I used cooking spray on a cookie sheet and when the nuts were cooled, they popped right off the tray.)


They were a huge hit, and will probably become a holiday favorite.