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. 
How awesome that you were on Leno! Are we allowed to ask what you were on for? I love your list and am raising two hands to vote for the Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake. I made it last fall (http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2008/10/11/brownie-mosaic-cheesecake/) and it is simply to die for. You won’t be sorry!!
Um yeah, totally meant Letterman. ::slaps forehead:: I’m sleepy 😉
What a cool blog event! I wish I had known about it before today, so I could participate. Is it a monthly thing? If so, I’m definitely in next time!
Michelle – I was the co-captain of a Rube Goldberg team (think of the game mouse trap but on a HUGE scale) in college. In 2003, Purdue won the national competition and they got us on the Letterman show. I was the “spokesperson” for the team and we had our machine on stage. It was an awesome experience. I’ve been trying to find pictures, but that was pre-digital camera for me so I can’t find any…
Annie – I believe it is a monthly event. I think she started it in May…
Thanks for the link to my site! I hope you try out the Chocolate Goat Cheese Truffles if you are a goat cheese fan. They were so delish.
yay for the best bookmarks ever! we have similar taste i guess bc i got some great ideas from this post and i’ve done some on your list. two quick notes on these bookmarks:
1) do the bagels at smitten kitchen. the cinna. raisin rock and it’s so rewarding to spend that much time and yield awesome results. i’m a new baker and it wasn’t very hard to do. definitely add the maple syrup or molasses to the water when you boil the bagels. dole makes plump raisins and they rock.
2) billy’s cupcakes will be your answer to vanilla cupcakes forever! i had issues with overflow so i’d reduce the baking powder from 3t (=1T) to 2.5 tsp.
Thanks for the tips Sweetie
OMG thanks for the shout-out!!! 🙂 where the HECK have i been!?? i’ve seen your facebook status updates and i never realized they were from YOUR blog!!! they are awesome! i’m SO proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! talk soon!!! love, WALKER
ps: i have some pics, i’ll get them scanned. 🙂