Candied Pecans

A few years ago I ordered a salad in a restaurant. I don't remember which restaurant. I don't remember what kind of salad. But on that salad was something that I have never been able to forget... candied pecans. They were not only the highlight of the salad but they were the highlight of every salad I've ever had! They were THAT amazing :)

I've tried to duplicate that experience by making my own candied pecans. I've tried a couple of recipes and as soon as I found this one I stopped looking. They are so good I have often eaten them by the handful. Just warning you... :)

Let's begin......

The ingredients are simple. Salt, pepper, cayenne, sugar, corn syrup, and pecans.

First we place some plain old regular white sugar in a bowl. I made triple the recipe so normally you wouldn't need a bowl quite this big. Sorry Weeza, I forgot my ruler.

Then I added some white corn syrup. Hey, I was kind enough to leave the bottle in this picture so that'll give you some idea of the size of the bowl.

Then the kick... salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. If you don't like a kick then omit the cayenne. But I like kick so..... cayenne-orama :)

Mix it all together until it looks really greyish and disgusting. Give it a tiny taste just to make sure you haven't gone too far into pepper-land. Adjust the sugar-salt-pepper ratio accordingly.

Then mix in the nuts. Gently stir them for a minute or so to ensure they are evenly coated with the mixture.

And spread the nut mixture out on a foil lined cookie sheet. I normally use just pecans but this time I decided to use half pecans and half almonds. Do I live on the edge or what?

This was triple the recipe. I have made quadruple the recipe before but with that many nuts you will need to use two cookie sheets. The nuts should be a single layer only.

After baking for about 15 minutes the nuts came out of the oven and I spread them out on aluminum foil. The candy glaze on the nuts will harden very quickly so make sure you spread the nuts out using two forks.

When they have cooled to room temperature these nuts will keep in an airtight container for a week or so.

For the original recipe check it out on Smitten Kitchen's site... Sweet & Spicy Candied Pecans. There are some cool salad tips there too.