My spouse came home from the dog park the other day with a bag of candied/spiced nuts that a friend had given her as a holiday gift. They were delicious. I decided right then and there that I needed to learn to make them; I could not be dependent upon the kindness of others for my newfound spiced nuts needs. So I went online, and poked around, and found some recipes. Then, being me, I pretty much ignored the directions I had found and tried my own way. That usually works out pretty well for me, but this time, it didn't. I had made too many changes; what I created was kind of like burned peanut brittle. Feeling a bit chastened, I went back to the online recipes and tried again. The second time worked better, and I must have made a dozen batches in the next few days. I tried mixed nuts, and pecans, and walnuts, and cashews. I experimented with savory coatings as well as sweet. This turned out to be my favorite:
Spiced/Candied Pecans
Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees. (If you are making walnuts or cashews, you can set the oven at 350, but pecans have a tendency to burn easily).
Cover a baking pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together an egg white, a tablespoon of water, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Stir in 3 cups of raw pecans.
In a second medium-sized bowl, mix together:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
You can put in other spices if you like; some people like to add nutmeg or allspice. You could also increase the cloves or decrease the ginger; it's all a matter of taste. Did you know there is actually something called pumpkin pie spice? It contains cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves, and nutmeg. Throwing some of that in is easy, but it doesn't let you tweak the flavors.
ANYWAY, once you have combined the spices, stir in the wet nuts. Make sure the nuts are thoroughly coated in the spice mixture. Then dump them onto the parchment paper and pop them in the oven. After 15 minutes, stir the nuts on the pan. They'll be a bit sticky; I take the pan out of the oven while I try to re-distribute the nuts evenly on the sheet.
After another 10-15 minutes, they will be done. I often check after 10 minutes (a total of 25 min in the oven) and then turn off the oven and let them sit for the final 5 minutes.
When you first take the nuts out, they will be hot (duh) and chewy. The chewiness does NOT mean they need to cook for longer. They will be crunchy when they cool. Let them cool completely on the parchment/cookie sheet. Once they are completely cool, they are ready to be stored in an airtight container. This is assuming that you don't scarf them all down immediately.
Variations
These all use the same wash of egg whites, water and vanilla, and still have 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt as the base of the spice mix. Substitute the spices named below, or just add them in along with the others. It's all good.
- Walnuts with white pepper and smoked paprika: cook at 350 rather than 300 degrees. Start with 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and 2 teaspoons of paprika, and sample the sugar mixture; adjust to taste.
- Cashews and rosemary: cook at 350 degrees. It takes a lot of powdered rosemary to make the flavor show up; I used 3 teaspoons. Sage is also good with cashews.
- As I was reading through E2 to make sure I didn't replicate a recipe that already existed here, I came across this node. The Dynasty brand Chinese Five Spices that I bought actually contains seven spices: cinnamon, star anise, fennel seed, cloves, ginger, white pepper, and licorice root. I used about 3 teaspoons of the spice mix, in with the sugar and salt. I like it; what mostly comes through is the flavor of black licorice. If I made it again I would use 2 teaspoons of the Five Spice Mix, and then add in more cinnamon and cloves.