The last few months at work have been crazy for me, and that’s left me little time to blog and try new recipes. The good news is that I have a fair bit of time off over the holidays, and I plan on cooking and blogging up a storm. Stay tuned!
I was putting a Christmas gift basket together for my boss this week and I thought it would be nice to include something homemade. These pecans are just the right amount of sweet and spicy, and once packaged up in a cute jar with some holiday trim, they make really easy personal gifts.
Notes
- These aren’t overly sweet.Feel free to add a couple tablespoons of sugar if you want them to be more like candied pecans.
- They also aren’t overly spicy. Again, feel free to add more chili and cayenne if you want a real kick!
- Leftovers would be really good sprinkled on a salad. I don’t suspect they’ll stick around long enough for that in this house!
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Maple Spiced Pecans
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 4 cups
Ingredients
- 4 cups raw pecans
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ginger
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- ⅛ tsp allspice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.
- Place all ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.
- Spread pecans in a single layer on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.
- Remove baking tray from oven and spread the nuts onto a large plate in a single layer, ideally not touching each other.
- Place plate in the fridge for 10 minutes (this cools the nuts and makes them extra crispy).
- The pecans can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container up one week.
Hi there! This recipe sounds so good. I always keep away from recipes that call for chili or cayenne because I find them too spicy, but I know exactly who will love these pecans and I’m making them as a gift! I only found your blog very recently and I want to say congrats! I’d try all the recipes that I’ve browsed so far. Happy holidays!
Thanks for the kind words! If you’d like, you can leave the chili and cayenne out and increase the other spices, but they’re really not that spicy. Anyway, let me know how they go over and happy holidays! :)
Hi Angela, and Merry Christmas! Hope you’re having a great day, just wanted to say thank you so much for this recipe, I made them for last night’s dinner party and they were a huge huge success!! I used half the amounts of chili and cayenne but was told I should have gone all the way! So that’s what I’ll do for the next batch :)
Yo Angela, how’s it going? I love the sweet/spicy combo, these sound awesome – and I should really consider getting on the Christmas present bandwagon soon, so I’m not madly cooking and baking a day before! Thanks for sharing the recipe, I’m pinning it up! :)
Hi Allysia! Thanks for stopping by! I know what you mean, I haven’t done any baking or present-shopping yet, but making these little dudes has put me in the mood. I’ll be cooking up a storm next week and certainly catching-up on all my blog-reading – including yours!! Hope all is well! :)
I made these yesterday and they are awesome! I tossed them in some dried coconut to keep them from sticking together, though (I know–it totally changes your recipe). I can’t wait to share these with friends!
I’m so glad that you liked them. The addition of coconut sounds yummy, thanks for sharing!
These were so good that I made a second batch last night. They were absolutely perfect. I think my oven must not have been hot enough the first time. Yum!
Awesome! Good to hear they worked out better for you this time :)