Sweet Spicy Christmas Nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside. 
2. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, ginger and salt until well blended.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and water together until very frothy and foamy.
4. Add the nuts and toss with a large rubber spatula to coat thoroughly with egg wash. The egg should coat the nuts without adding egg white at the bottom of the bowl.  If there's additional egg white mixture pooling in the bowl after coating the nuts, add another ½ to 1 cup of nuts and toss again until well coated.
5. Add spice blend and toss with a spatula to coat the nuts entirely.  All the spice mixture should adhere to the nuts without having leftover spice in the bottom of the bowl.  Continue to toss until all of the spice mix coats the nuts.
6. Spread nuts in a single layer on the sheet pan.  Bake for 10 minutes, then stir or flip the nuts and re-spread them into a single layer. Bake an additional 10 minutes until the nuts are toasted, fragrant and crisp. Cool on the sheet pan. Nuts will get crisper as they cool.
7. Store in an airtight container. Serve with cocktails or wrap in cellophane bags to gift.
8. Fill festive cellophane bags or decorative jars or tins with the nuts to gift the nuts. Seal them well to stay fresh.

Making Nuts in a Large Batch

1. I spend a few hours on a Saturday making about 30 cups of nuts for my holiday gifts.  To do this, I mix the nuts in a large Tupperware container and portion out the nuts in 6-cup increments.  
2. Make each batch of nuts individually.  Do not mix a large batch of sugar-spice mixture or egg white and water mixture... You're asking for trouble.