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.

Homemade Bagels from scratch

Instead of doing a "which is better" experiment this time I'm doing a "can I do it?" experiment.

The Experiment: Can an a foodiestudent who has only purchased bagels in the past make them from scratch?

Inspiration: I ran across a "real New York bagel" recipe on smittenkitchen's blog. The recipe was intimidating because it involves many steps and takes 2 days to make. But since the chances of me going to NY any time soon so I can experience a "real NY bagel" is pretty slim I thought I'd give it a try.

Expected Results: I expect the bagels will be edible but different from what I'm used to. They are supposed to be chewier and more dense than the bagels we are used to in local bakeries.

Actual Results: The first day involved making a "sponge" of flour, yeast, and water....
I was worried right from the start because after 2 hours the sponge was supposed to double in size as well as form bubbles. The bubbles were there but it didn't seem to grow in size at all. So I gave it another hour but it still looked the same. I contemplated chucking it out and starting over but after 3 hours of waiting time I didn't want to repeat the waiting time just to have the exact same thing happen again so I decided to soldier onward.

I added the other ingredients and kneaded and kneaded and kneaded as per the instructions. This was a very firm ball of dough that was a pain in the wrist to knead for so long. If you decide to make bagels from scratch I recommend going to the gym and doing some serious upper body training for a couple of months in advance LOL.

This recipe makes 12 giant bagels, 16 regular bagels, or 24 mini bagels. I opted for minis. The dough is resting here. Why is there a single electric beater sitting on the counter, you ask? What an excellent question, I respond. I needed to find a tool in my kitchen that I could use to start a hole in the bagel to give them their classic shape. It was surprisingly difficult to find a tool that would make a small but perfectly round hole. However, I came across the beater and found the plug-in end to be the perfect size, shape, and easy-clean material for the job.

Here is half the batch in their beautiful round form. Aren't those holes perfect? Thank-you electric beater :)

Before I could "retard" the bagels in the fridge overnight (let them rise slowly) I had to check to see if they were ready. This involved dropping one bagel in a bowl of cool water to make sure it would float within a few seconds. This one floated right away so I put it back with its brothers and they slept in the fridge overnight.

Good morning uncooked bagels! The sun is coming in the kitchen window and it's a beautiful day. The bagels rose a little overnight but they aren't explosive. However, for mini-bagels, they are bigger than I expected. If I made the 12 giant bagels they would have been scary-huge.

Yeah baby! This is the step that separates the real bagels from bagel-wannabe's. They were boiled 6 at a time in a baking soda-honey-water mixture.

I didn't take a picture of it but while the bagels were boiling I had a wee fire in my oven. It's a long story involving cake batter and a pan that was too small and a homeowner who forgot to clean up the mess before pre-heating her oven to 500. Luckily it burned itself out after a few minutes as we don't have a fire extinguisher and I was afraid to pour water on it just in case there was grease fueling the fire. I blew on it really hard and that seemed to help too :)

The finished bagels. The ones on the right were sprinkled with kosher salt. The ones on the left are plain.

The recipe instructions clearly state to let the bagels cool for 15 minutes before serving. I waited about 3 minutes and couldn't stand it anymore. This is one of the salted bagels with some light cream cheese. This bagel along with 2 of its brothers were consumed so quickly I think I broke some kind of bagel eating record.

The verdict is in and yes, Vicky can indeed make bagels. The ones with kosher salt are a little tastier than their plain counterparts although both are very enjoyable. They are definitely dense and chewy but no more so than some bagels I've had in the past. These are white (plain) bagels but they have the denseness of a typical whole wheat bagel available from local bakeries. They are chewy but only as much as you would expect from a bagel. I was worried the chewiness would be too much and be the downfall of the bagel but it wasn't even an issue. This experience was definitely a success.

I was asked the other day if I will take requests for food experiments. The answer is absolutely yes. If there is a food experiment you want me to try or a question you would like the answer to you can leave a comment or email me. I will do my best to respond to all requests.

Until then... happy kitchen experiments :)
foodiestudent

**edit: a loyal blog reader commented to me that bagels, given their shape, should not be referred to as brothers but instead as sisters. I see your point, loyal reader. I shall be sure to think more carefully about the sexual shapes the foods represent before assigning them a gender in future :) **