Candied Pecans

I am going to start this post off with two questions for you…. 

They may not taste exactly the same (everything always tastes better when someone else makes things for you), but you can get pretty darn close. 

You can ‘candy’ any nut, I chose pecans because I was making carrot cake. Recipe is below with some pictures to follow along with.

Take your dry ingredients sugar(s) and whoever spices you want. I chose cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg to compliment the cookies I was making. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl. In another bowl, separate the egg yolks from the whites, you will only need the whites.

You can save the yolk if you will use them in another recipe, I was wasteful and threw mine away. Then you whisk the egg whites as fast as you can until they become frothy, to the point where they almost make a peak.

Take your pecans, or nuts of choice, toss them in the egg whites, then add in sugar and spices. Toss until they are completely coated then add to baking sheet.

Depending on your oven, I would set a time for 20 minutes, periodically mixing the pecans. You may think they are done… but I highly recommend leaving them in the oven a little longer. They will start to get golden brown but will not be quite as crispy as they could be. If you are nervous, set a timer for every 2 minutes, but ultimately this is your experiment, you cook them to the crunch you want.

Once they are baked to your liking, take them out of the oven and allow them to cool COMPLETELY, otherwise you will get some soggy nuts… and no one likes those!

Then add them to anything.. carrot cake cookies… or summer salads!! They are great on pretty much anything!!

Now.. be creative. You can use any spices you want, even cayenne if you like to spice up your life!! Give them and shot and let me know how they turned out!

Recipe