SO excited to get to make a batch of these amazing Cinnamon Sugar Pecans for my family’s early Thanksgiving dinner! They scream, “warm me up on this chilly fall day” and “Christmas is coming!” all at once.
I make these every year for a couple of reasons:
- They are D-licious
- My dad LOVES pecans
- They make my house smell A-mazing
- They make GREAT homemade gifts
- And they are D-liciously A-mazing.
The End. Seriously, they are THAT good. And super easy. I made them while texting.
You’ll want to buy your pecans in bulk, if you can. You’re going to love this recipe so much that you’ll want to make very large batches. Enough to eat through the winter (as if you were a bear in hibernation?!) and enough to give away as gifts.
Let’s get started! Texting while cooking isn’t dangerous, but you might set your phone down for a few to follow along.
First off, grab a large ziplock bag and load it up
with sugar
cinnamon
and salt. Zip the top and shake it all around to combine.
Separate your egg yolks from the whites.
Add the whites to a large bowl
throw in about 2 teaspoons of water
and good vanilla ~ not the imitation, but the pure extract. No, there is no other way. Pure vanilla extract is the ONLY way to go. Trust me on this.
Grab a fork and whisk until frothy. Go ahead and put your back into it. You want big gloriously puffy, sparkly egg white bubbles.
Pour in your pecan halves and use your fork to stir and coat each pecan in that beautiful frothy vanilla egg white mixture.
Dump these beauties into your big bag of cinnamon sugar.
Zip the top and shake, shake, shake!
The pecans will be coated in every granule of sugar and look very wet. That’s perfect!
Pour out onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 250° for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes with a spatula.
Try to let them cool on the baking sheet a few minutes so you don’t burn your tongue (Joel…I’m talking to you…). Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
If you manage not to eat them fresh out of the oven, set out bowls throughout the house at your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner so guests can grab a handful at every turn. Or, pack them up in mason jars wrapped with a burlap bow for friends and neighbors. You should print out the recipe card below and attach with a hole punch ~ you will get asked for this recipe, I promise!
Happy Early Thanksgiving!
~pw
- 1 egg white
- 2 teaspoons water
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1lb pecan halves (1 pound)
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ - 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (your preference)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees
- Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
- Mix sugar, cinnamon and salt in a large ziploc bag
- Whisk egg white, water and vanilla in a large bowl until frothy (you can use a fork or electric mixer, either works just fine)
- Add pecans to large bowl and stir to combine, coating each pecan in egg white mixture
- Pour coated pecans into ziploc bag, seal and shake to fully coat in cinnamon/sugar mixture
- Spread out in a single layer onto prepared baking sheet
- Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes.
