German Burnt Almonds (Gebrannte Mandeln)

Burnt almonds are a traditional snack found on the streets of German cities in the holiday season. Crunchy, nutty almonds are coated in a layer of sugar and cinnamon to make this tasty treat which is dished out hot to warm up happy pedestrians. Although we're a far ways away from German Christmas Markets, these delightful almonds also make great finger food for parties certainly for say....New Years? They also make great Christmas gifts, wrapped in old fashioned paper cones and decorated with lovely ribbons. Watch out when making this one, although they have simple ingredients, like all candy it's relatively easy to burn so keeeeeeep stirring!

Ingredients:
-1/2c. water 
-2 1/2 c. Sugar 
-2-3 tsp. Ground cinnamon
-4 c. Almonds 
-2 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
-1/4 tsp. salt

1) Grease 2 cookies sheets on which you'll pour out the almonds when ready. You'll need these close to your work area as the almonds must be removed quickly from the pot once ready.
2) Take a big, thick bottomed pot, add 2 cups of sugar, water and cinnamon, heat and stir on medium until homogenous and liquidy, add almonds.
3) Keep heating and stirring quickly and wait patiently until the syrup thickens and the almonds stick.
4) Once the almonds are sticking add the vanilla and remaining sugar, remove from heat and keep stirring until almonds are coated in the crispy sugary coating, pour out onto cookie sheets.
5) Let almonds cool about one hour before eating this will allow them to cool down and for the almonds to become hard again.
6) Add water to the pot and heat on low heat to melt all the sugar off and clean the pot, this step is optional but highly recommended, unless you want to spend eternity scraping the pot!