These candied pecans are spicy and sweet, and make for a wonderful holiday gift. Or, serve them at your next cocktail party!
It’s the big day! The movers came yesterday to pack up all of our belongings, we handed over the keys to our house, and now we’re embarking on a 20-ish hour drive to get ourselves, the pets and a few too-fragile-to-give-to-the-movers belongings to Minnesota. Oh, and seven boxes of preserves. The moving truck isn’t temperature controlled, and if my jams and jellies freeze overnight (likely, given the time of year and all), we’d likely be unpacking a lot of broken and burst jars. And I would cry. So the preserves are coming with us!
Side note: We are SO grateful to my dad for flying out to Ithaca to help us with the drive back. We have our car + a rental, and driving a car for that long with nobody to relieve me while 6+ months pregnant sounds like a miserable experience. This will make things much more pleasant – or at least as pleasant as a 20-hour drive can be!
I mostly made these candied pecans to be road-trip snacks for the big move. But then we got stuck in that giant snowstorm that hit the northeast the day before Thanksgiving, and our 3-hour drive to get to my aunt’s house turned into 6. Which means most of these got eaten on that trip. Oops.
Luckily, I had all of the ingredients left, and they needed to be used up anyways… so we’re restocked. I also made a batch of Christmas cookies (totally logical thing to do when you’re packing up your entire house, right?), so we can feel a little more festive and cheery during the long drive.
I definitely recommend making these spiced candied pecans for your holiday cocktail parties and DIY food gifts. The crunchy coating is sweet and a little spicy. They also store well in an airtight container, so you can get them done in advance, and save yourself some time when it comes to party prep and gift wrapping.
These candied pecans are spicy and sweet, and make for a wonderful holiday gift.
Adapted from my Mexican hot chocolate pecans .
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 egg white
- 3 1/2 cups unsalted raw pecans
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250°F and grease a rimmed baking sheet.
- Whisk the sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg together in a small bowl.
- Beat the egg white in a medium mixing bowl until it is white and frothy with soft peaks. Fold in the pecans, stirring carefully until they are all coated with the egg white.
- Add the sugar to the pecans and fold until all of the sugar is sticking to the nuts.
- Spread the pecans onto the baking sheet. Bake at 250F for 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes, until the pecans are dry and the sugar doesn’t come off on your fingers when you touch them.
Make Ahead and Storage
Store these pecans in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.
PS: Looking for more DIY food gifts? Check out these creamsicle marshmallows and cocktail kits!
I didn’t realize you were moving, so exciting! Where are you headed to?
Back to the Twin Cities! 🙂
It will be so nice to be close to your family again! Hope the move wasn’t too bad!
Definitely! Just got here tonight – moving is exhausting! Glad to finally be here.
Congrats on your new home and good luck with the move! These spiced nuts look fantastic and I love the way you’ve packaged them up too. Such a fun homemade gift!
Thanks so much!
I’m new to your blog – visiting after you commented on my blog (thank you) – and absolutely love everything i’m seeing! these pecans look amazing, candied pecans are my fave! And congrats on the move! You mentioned ithaca…that’s where i went to grad school so it has such a fond place in my heart 🙂 Good luck on your move with your jams!
Thank you. We’re really going to miss Ithaca – it is a great town!
Moving is exciting I think. These pecans are perfect! I definitely need to make them! Pinning!
Enjoy, Marye!
Good luck with your big move! And I hope you’re bringing some of these pecans in the car with you – they’d be perfect for snacking.
Thanks. They definitely made car snacking more delicious than anything from the gas station would have!