Crunchy, caramelized walnuts make a sweet snack and a great topping for summer berry salads and ice cream, or a quick topping for muffins. Today I’m showing you how to make candied walnuts!

I recommend doubling the recipe if you have snack-happy kids like mine, as you might catch them snacking on them too.

How To Make Candied Walnuts

It’s easier than you might think to make candied walnuts at home. With just a pat of butter, a handful of walnuts, and a spoonful of sugar, you can stir up a batch of walnuts that are tastier than anything you can buy from the store.

I like to start with walnut halves and then roughly chop them on a cutting board. For bigger pieces, I will just break halves apart by hand if I only need a cup or so.

You can actually use this technique for other nuts as well to get the sweet, buttery toasted flavor that makes for a sweet topping.

Your candied nuts should not be sticky once they are cooled. If they are they probably did not cook long enough on the stovetop. The key is to hit that sweet spot, literally, between being cooked long enough and burnt.

Candied walnuts can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a month. These containers work perfectly!

Candied Walnuts Recipe

1. Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Place a sheet of parchment paper or a silicone mat next to the stove.
2. Add the walnuts and sugar. Stir with a rubber spatula to combine.
3. Continue stirring until the sugar melts and the walnuts are well-coated.
4. Quickly transfer the walnuts to the parchment and work quickly with a spatula to spread them out to avoid clumping.

Read more

Sharing tips on how to make and flavor your own kombucha at home!

Hi friends! Hope you’re having a lovely morning! This week is a bit bonkers and we’re enjoying time with some friends who are here from Florida! I’ll be back on Friday with some faves, but in the meantime, here’s a post from the archives. If you’re curious about making your own kombucha at home, here’s the full how-to!

So, it FINALLY HAPPENED.

After about a year (maybe a little longer?) of inconsistently making kombucha at home, I finally made some that tastes even better than store-bought stuff.

Orange Cranberry Ginger Homemade Kombucha

It was getting really close, and I was happy with the flavor combos I’d tried, but it was always a little too tangy, too sweet, not fizzy enough, etc.

After quite a bit of experimentation, I got the result I’d been searching for; it was a glorious moment indeed. A warm embrace was shared with the kombucha jar before holding the scoby in the air like a baby Simba while singing a celebratory chant.

(Ok, just in my mind.)

Tips on How to Make Kombucha at Home

-I followed the steps in this post, but will outline them again, updated with the current techniques.

1) The quality of the scoby (the starter bacteria that looks like a flat, opaque gummy disk) makes all the difference in the world. I got an awesome scoby from Amazon, but I’ve also ordered a dud that ended up molding. (A little tidbit about mold: a lot of people are rightfully fearful about making moldy or bad kombucha. If the batch is bad, it’s an obvious thing. You will know it’s bad just by looking at it. The scoby will have blue or greenish patches on it, and well, it will look like mold. Don’t drink it; throw it away to start over.) The scoby I picked up from the farmer’s market in Ocean Beach is a BEAST.

(I got a bottle from the farmer’s market, filled with scoby strands and starter tea. To say I was skeptical would be an understatement. Shame on me.)

I’ve made multiple batches with said amazing scoby and also gave one to Whitney; she now has a full-up scoby hotel.

I like ‘em thick.

Read more

Two kinds of chocolate and real cream make this the best and easiest homemade chocolate ice cream you can make.

The deliciously rich chocolate flavor of this recipe comes from the combination of both cocoa powder and melted chocolate chips.

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

Homemade ice cream is one of my family’s guilty pleasures. My boys are forever coming up with combinations and ideas to try.

But nothing beats a classic like chocolate. We use this as a base to add cookies, berries, and all sorts of goodies to when we’re craving something a little different. The options are endless.

When making chocolate ice cream it is important to get a creamy chocolate base with the sugar and cocoa powder fully incorporated into the heavy cream. You will want to stay by the stovetop and continuously whisk your chocolate base so nothing burns.

How To Make Chocolate Ice Cream

To get a rich creamy ice cream not only do I use heavy cream, but whole milk is a must. Making ice cream just isn’t the place to cut calories.

While you’re welcome to make this using 2% or even skim milk, whole milk delivers the creaminess we love.

If you are chocolate ice cream lovers like we are, you’ll want to try this Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunks too. And for anyone with a dairy allergy, this Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream is a great alternative.

What about Dark Chocolate Almond Ice Cream with almonds and just the tiniest hint of cinnamon? Or a Chocolate Orange Ice Cream combination? Don’t knock that one until you try it!

We’re celebrating three weeks of new ice cream recipes this summer with a very cool ice cream maker giveaway! Enter to win the Cuisinart ICE-100 1.5-Quart Compressor Ice Cream Maker by CLICKING HERE an