Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the nuts on a baking sheet and toast for 10-12 minutes, tossing a few times, until fragrant. Remove from the oven and cool.
Lower the oven temperature to 320 degrees F and place the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a bowl, stir together the egg whites powdered sugar, cocoa powder, salt and vanilla until fully combined. Add the nuts and stir in.
Drop 2 tbsp scoops of the batter onto the cookie sheet, only 6 to a cookie sheet, making sure the cookies are evenly spaced from each other and the edge of the pan as they spread a lot! Sprinkle broken candy canes over the cookies(I like to sprinkle them just over just half of the cookie).
Place baking sheets in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets half way through. The cookies are done when they are fully puffed up and cracked on top. Do not continue to bake once they have fully puffed up and cracked as they will get hard and crunchy. Do not remove from the oven too soon as they wont hold together.
Remove from the oven when done and let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before sliding the parchment paper off the baking sheet onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
Notes
As always, when making anything for someone with an allergy please double check that all your ingredients are free from contamination.
To make these cookies grain free make sure to find a powdered sugar without cornstarch, in some countries you can purchase pure powdered sugar which has no additives, or search for one that uses tapioca starch instead of cornstarch to make these cookies grain free.
When breaking up the candy canes, try not to completely crush them into a powder, bigger pieces will look nicer :)
Store in an airtight container on the counter for up to a week or in the freezer for much longer.