Homemade Candied Pecans are a quick & easy treat full of warm cinnamon & spice. Make a big batch for a delicious snack or DIY holiday gift!
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Friends. This recipe is so unbelievably easy.
If you are looking for a little something extra to tuck into gift baskets or cookie tins, you can’t go wrong with this super simple recipe for homemade Candied Pecans. With just eight ingredients and only five minutes of hands-on prep, you can certainly find the time to make a batch amidst even the busiest holiday planning. Make enough to keep a few for yourself – trust me, you’ll be snacking on them as soon as they come out of the oven!
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Gifting Candied Pecans
If you’re anything like me, you end up gifting a lot of food around the holidays. Cookies, candies, jars of jams – Anything that looks nice in a little tin or gift basket. Candied pecans make a thoughtful addition to any food-centric present – even a little bag accompanying a bottle of wine or a family member’s favorite scotch is a nice touch.
Airtight glass jars are a relatively inexpensive and lovely way to gift candied pecans. You can use spice jars like in my photos or simple eight-ounce mason jars. If you want to go the extra mile, add a little hand-written label with storage instructions and a list of the (very few) ingredients. I always like to include a little note like this with homemade food gifts. It might sound silly, but sometimes people forget homemade foods are perishable!
Storing Candied Pecans
I received some incredibly salient pecan wisdom from Vivian Howard’s book, Deep Run Roots (You can find my full review here). The author notes that due to the high fat content, fresh pecans are highly perishable and need to be stored properly so that they don’t go rancid. She suggests storing raw pecans two months in an airtight container in the fridge, or in the freezer for up to year.
Roasted nuts have an even shorter life span than raw, so it’s important to store your candied nuts properly. This is even more important if you plan on giving them as gifts. Store your finished candied pecans in an airtight container, where they will last for up to four weeks in the fridge. I suggest making the pecans no earlier than one or two weeks before gifting them, leaving your recipient enough time to store and snack themselves.
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Next time a recipe – like these Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake Bites – call for candied pecans, don’t think you need to hunt some down at a store. Make a big batch of candied pecans at home with this simple recipe and have plenty left over for snacking and sharing.
Easy Homemade Candied Pecans
Ingredients
- 4 cups pecan halves (quarters are fine too!)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg white, whisked
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 300°F and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, pour the whisked egg whites over the pecans and toss to coat. Mix in the sugar, spices, and salt and toss until all of the pecans are completely coated.
- Spread the coated pecans out onto the prepared baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 40-50 minutes, stirring halfway through. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the pecans to cool.
- Transfer the candied pecans to an airtight container for storage once room temperature. Candied nuts are more perishable than raw nuts, but should last for 1-2 weeks at room temperature, or 3-4 weeks in the fridge if stored properly.
