Candied Vanilla Pecans
You know how they say you should bake fresh cookies before an open house so that your house will smell more enticing to potential buyers? I’m going to go ahead and claim that instead of cookies, you should make these Candied Vanilla Pecans. My house smelled AMAZING last night when I made these. They bake for an entire hour, so the wonderful sweet vanilla scent lingers for a good while. I honestly didn’t want to go to bed and miss any of the awesome smelling air in our place.
The pecans were still warm when I went to bed so I didn’t get to try them until today. Let me tell you, they taste better than they smell. This recipe is amazing. If you’re looking for a last minute holiday gift to make or even a snack to take to a holiday potluck, definitely give this simple recipe a shot.
One Year Ago: Toffee Pecan Cookies
Two Years Ago: Pecan Pie
Four Years Ago: Squash Bisque
Candied Vanilla Pecans
Ingredients:
4 cups (~1 lb) pecans
1 egg white
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp cinnamon
1 heaping tsp sea salt
3/4 cup vanilla sugar (If you don’t have vanilla sugar, substitute regular sugar and increase the vanilla extract to 1 tsp)
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 250 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix together the sugar, cinnamon and sea salt.
In a large bowl combine the egg white, vanilla and water. Beat the egg until it’s light and frothy. Stir in the pecans and mix well. Pour in the sugar mixture and stir until all the pecans are coated.
Dump the mixture onto your large baking sheet and spread the nuts out evenly.
Bake about 1 hour making sure to stir every 15 minutes and break up any large clumps.
Cool completely on the baking sheet on a wire cooling rack.
Recipe from Miss Lemonie
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
That looks so yummy! Can you suggest a good substitute for the cream cheese? I can’t eat dairy….. Also, can I use honey/agave in place of the sugar & corn syrup? Thanks!
beantownbaker — July 11th, 2013 @ 7:54 am
Have you tried the Tofutti “Better than Cream Cheese”? I am lactose intolerant and use that in place of cream cheese. I think the cream cheese is there to enhance the smooth texture of the ice cream. You could just leave it out if you wanted. The corn syrup is there to help it not freeze too hard. Again, you could omit it if you wanted or replace with honey. Let me know how it turns out for you with the substitutions.
I really need an ice cream maker….
beantownbaker — July 14th, 2013 @ 4:15 pm
I can’t believe I lived so long without one…
i’ve done a pistachio ice cream awhile back and it was most definitely amazing. never was into the bright green stuff as a kid, either 🙂