What to do with leftover pecans

As you might recall, I made pecan pie last weekend.  As usual, my ability to judge required quantities of ingredients was lacking, so I ended up with about a pound of leftover pecans.  One option (probably the one Becca would have chosen) is to chop them up and put them in oatmeal.  But I have something of a sweet tooth, so I went a different route: candied pecans.

This has got to be the easiest recipe in the world.  So easy that I feel silly using the baking tag on this post.  But there it is.  I can illustrate the whole thing in about four photos.

Here’s what you need: pecans (I had about a pound), white sugar (1/4 cup), brown sugar (1/4 cup), salt (1/2 tsp), an egg, and cinnamon (1/2 tsp).  The cinnamon is not in the picture due to an unfortunate combination of a plastic tub, the plastic bag holding the cinnamon, and our grill.

 

Preheat the oven to 250 F.  Grease a baking sheet.

Separate the egg and put the egg white in a bowl.  Add about 2 tsp. of water to the egg white and beat them until they’re frothy.  Then mix the two kinds of sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl.  Stir the pecans into the egg-white mixture until they’re evenly coated.  Then mix the pecans into the sugars/salt/cinnamon combo until all the sugary goodness is coating the pecans.  They should be shiny and gooey at this point.

Pop those suckers in the oven for about an hour, stirring them every fifteen minutes to keep them separate and not sticking to the pan.  They’re going to remain pretty gooey the whole time, but they should start to harden a bit as they spend more time in the oven.

 

Allow them to cool on a piece of parchment paper (so they won’t stick).  As they cool they’ll harden and regain the crunchiness you associate with pecans.  And candy.

Enjoy!

Pecan pie, or, Danny can do some food blogging, too

An American friend of ours in London hosted a Thanksgiving dinner last night (I think I may have been the only other American there, so I was very much the native informant), so I brought along a small contribution: chocolate pecan pie.

This was very much a collaborative effort, with the initial idea coming from a version of this made by our friend Lilly at a Thanksgiving dinner several years ago.  Becca’s dad contributed his pie-making expertise.  I also cribbed a bit from a recent issue of Cook’s Illustrated for the crust.  So it was something of an uncertain effort, especially since I couldn’t find any shortening in the local supermarket (I decided to substitute margarine instead (thinking there must be at least some affinity between the various processed-vegetable-fat solids).

 +  =

Bake for 40 minutes and you get this:

I was a bit disturbed by the size of the cracks, but after cooling they shrank considerably.  Besides, I’m not one to care that much about how something looks.  Taste is what matters, right?  If the speed with which people ate this late night is any guide, I’d say this was a success.  So, thanks Lilly and Caleb!