Candied Pecans

This past Thanksgiving brought about memories of my childhood. It’s probably because I miss my family, and the things we used to do. Granted, the holiday was surrounded by cocktails, and a smoke filled atmosphere, but heck, those were the times. That was not the memory I had this past holiday, although there were a few coughs left over from the childhood second hand smoke, but there was the memory of a Phillips’ style holiday. What does that mean? It meant good times, and good food.

I do not remember the turkey as much on Thanksgiving day, nor a ham, nor potatoes, but for some odd reason I remember these candied pecans. It could be that I was younger and had a sweet tooth, of which is unlike me to this day, but I think it was more than that. It was a classic snack dish. Something you nibbled on, and always came back to. So I figured, what the heck, let’s try it on my family and see how they would adapt to these classic nibblers.

The outcome was an amazing one. My wife told me to “bag it and sell it”, and the others had “eyes of delight” when they bit into them. To me, that was enough satisfaction to bring me back to childhood memories; memories that are often rare in the time of my busy life.

Try them out, see if they work for you, and start your own memories, and who knows, maybe they get others started on candied pecans.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of whole pecan nuts, shell removed
• 2 cups of light brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• pinch of cinnamon powder

Begin by getting a sauce pan heated on medium to low heat. Add in the brown sugar, cream, and butter, and slowly begin to melt the ingredients. Make sure the sugar gets nice and dissolved, then toss in the vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix well, remove from the heat, and stir so the nuts begin to thicken in this lovely, syrupy sauce.

The sauce will thicken pretty rapidly once you remove it from the heat, and this is when I like to add the granulated sugar. Just sprinkle the sugar on the nuts, and toss, or break apart with your spoon, but make sure you get a bit of the sugar all over the nuts.

Let cool (if you can), and then dig in. Two words. Trust me.