Featured Recipe: Candied Pecans

Other countries go wild for American pecans. Being America’s ONLY native tree nut, 80% of the world’s pecan supply is grown in 15 states right here in the U.S.A. In a nutshell, Chef David is a big fan of this protein-packed for holiday snacking.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups of sugar

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tbsp cinnamon

¼ tsp allspice

¼ ground ginger

4 cups pecans

4-6 tsp water (to make wet sand texture)

DIRECTIONS

Combine sugar and all of the spices into a mixing bowl with a small amount of water. Stir until the mixture reaches the consistency of wet sand. Fold in pecans and mix well.

(CHEF’S TIP – “I use my hands to mix pecans with spice mixture to guarantee that every nut is sugar-coated.”)

Lay pecans flat, not stacked, on a sheet pan so that none are touching.

Preheat over to 200 degrees. For the first two hours, stir nuts every 20 minutes (if you neglect this step, you’ll end up with pecan brittle.) After about two hours, the nuts won’t stick together and will create the candy. Continue to bake until nuts are all the way dried out.

Store in an airtight container. They should last for 30-60 days when stored properly.

Enjoy!