Oven Baked Candied pecans are an amazing caramelized pecan dessert dish perfect for the Southern mama in you.
Oven Baked Candied Pecans
Growing up I loved eating candied pecans out of my grandmothers lap. I cant say they are a healthy option but boy they are so much fun.
You cannot go wrong when making up your Christmas cooking list to include these tried and true sugared pecans.
Of course you can always use a cinnamon roasted peanut for the same effect, but pecans are nearly the perfect nut to enjoy while snacking ANYTIME.
Once you make these candied pecans you will wonder why you haven’t done it before.
The only problem with making candied pecans, and I mean this, is that you will eat them all day. ALL DAY.My kids snack on them, every time I walk by, I grab a handful. I tried sealing up and putting on the counter, but I am powerless against how delicious these are.
Let’s get started on those candied pecans before I drool on myself.
To get started, this is a super easy recipe with very few ingredients. Its really hard to mess these up and while they can take up to 45 minutes on low temps to finish up, they dont require a lot from you other than stirring.
The glaze of the sugar and cinnamon harden in just the right away to create a deliciously sweet crust around the pecans.
ADDICTING!!
Ingredients
Scroll to the bottom for a printable version of this post, including all measurements and instructions, so you can follow along in your kitchen without being on your phone.
Here is what ingredients you need to gather to get started:
- egg white
- water
- pecan halves
- sugar
- cinnamon
- salt
RELATED RECIPES: Candied Walnuts, Spiced Nuts, Divinity Candy, Cinnamon Sugar Pretzels
Making Candied Pecans: Helpful Tips
You’ll get about 2-3 cups of pecans from this recipe. They are as expected, sweet and crunchy. I lined my pan with foil but make sure when you turn the pecans, you aren’t ripping the foil if you dig into the pecans.
You could eliminate the foil because it’s such a low temp, the sugar won’t burn on the pan. but I like to keep clean up simple.
How to make Candied Pecans
Time to make is 10 minutes to whip up and then baking, which takes anywhere from 45-60 minutes.
My oven is really hot (its gas) and things often bake or cook a lot sooner than a full recipe takes, so you will need to monitor depending on what you know about your kitchen.
Mine were done at the 45 minute mark.
To get started, first preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Line the baking sheet with foil and spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.
Set pan aside.
In a large mixing bowl, add sugar, cinnamon and salt and mix well.
Beat water and egg white in a mixer for about 2-3 minutes until light and frothy, but not stiff.
It sorta foams up.
Add pecans to egg mixture stirring to evenly coat, so the egg wash gets all over each side of the pecans, which helps the sugar stick for coating.
Now pour sugar mixture over the pecans, stirring well to evenly coat, getting all sides.
Pour sugared pecans onto prepared baking sheet.
Spread pecans in a single layer (or as best as possible) trying to make sure they are not piled on top of each other.
This helps them to bake evenly.
Toss into oven and bake for 45- 60 minutes, flipping with a spatula every 15 minutes.
I just put a timer on my phone so I remembered when to flip.
Let cool completely before serving (if you can wait!)
Makes 2-1/2 cups of candied pecans.
Holiday Desserts
If you are looking for more holiday desserts, here are a few right here on Salty Side Dish that I love:
- Cinnamon Roll Monkey Bread – this can be made with a variety of flavored rolls that bring up the fall (I used pumpkin rolls!)
- Homemade Butter Mints – after dinner mints that are often given out in weddings. Here are the more traditional cream cheese mints (the larger ones) if you prefer that.
- Blueberry Dump Cake – easy cake that you dump in a crock pot, heat, and then serve. Also an apple version here!
- Simple Fudge – I feel like the holidays are not complete without a fill of chocolate fudge.
- Marshmallow Fluff Christmas Dip – This is a rich peppermint candy cane flavored pink dip that is so good!
- Oreo Truffles – Truffles are great for every holiday and decorate for each season the way you want, recipe stays true
I cannot STOP EATING these candied pecans!!
Candied Pecans
Ingredients
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon water
- 10 ounces pecan halves
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Time to make is 10 minutes to whip up and then baking.
- Preheat oven to 250.
- Line a baking sheet with foil and spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add sugar, cinnamon and salt and mix well.
- Beat water and egg white in a mixer for about 2-3 minutes until light and frothy, but not stiff- this is an egg wash.
- Add pecans to egg mixture stirring to evenly coat.
- Pour sugar mixture over pecans stirring well to evenly coat.
- Pour pecans onto prepared baking sheet.
- Spread pecans in a single layer (or as best as possible) so they are not stacked on each other and bake for 45-60 minutes, flipping with a spatula every 15 minutes. Mine are usually dont at the 40-45 minute mark.
- Let cool completely before serving.
- Makes 2-1/2 cups.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sharing of this recipe is encouraged and appreciated. Copying of full recipe to any social media is prohibited.
Comments & Reviews
Lynda Self says
Those look so delish!
Danique says
Followed the Recipe and they burned within 15 min.
Trisha says
danique, that is odd – I dont know what kind of oven you had but I literally made these this week and they were not even close to being done in 15 minutes. Are you sure your oven was on 250? Its a really low temperature and nothing should burn in 15 min at that.
Collen Ellsworth says
I am new to the South and have a Pecan tree in my yard that has produced a ton of pecans. Can I use them to make this or do I need to add a step to this recipe to prep the pecans( Moe oven time or salt first?)
Trisha says
Hi Collen! I used to live near a farm with a lot of pecan trees and they were BEAUTIFUL but always blocked our cell towers, so hopefully that doesnt happen to you, ha ha! I truthfully have never harvested pecans in this manner for a recipe but I did pull out a bag of pecans I have in the pantry and they just say the only ingredient is “pecans”. They do not list any salt. That being said, I would wash my pecans when anything is coming in from the yard and let them completely dry. I dont suspect they will be any different than the bagged!
Tammie says
These sound really good! I noticed in the description you mentioned vanilla, but I don’t see it anywhere in the actual recipe. Is it something I should add? Thanks!
Trisha says
Tammie, you are 100% right. When I wrote this out and updated the video, I was also adding video to 9 other recipes that I had made that week and I always try to go back and talk a little more if I had any additional tips and I think I added the term vanilla here when I meant Cinnamon Roll French Toast Casserole. I did that video same day too. I was scratching my head reading your comment and had to go double check my own notes to be confident that it was just my typing error. Thank you for catching it!! I removed the term from the post- the recipe is correct as it is (the printable one and the one in there) and I apologize. – trisha
Lauren says
These are delicious! We plan on giving them to all our neighbors for the holidays, but only if I don’t eat them all first 🙂
Trisha says
Lauren, thanks for stopping by to share! I love them too and I sadly eat them as I walk around the kitchen. Candied pecans are NOT SAFE for my jeans!! LOLOL !
Laura Grant says
Hi I am making this for the first time . Can I make them ahead of time and freeze them? Or should I just store them at room temp or in the fridge?
Trisha says
Hi Laura, they can just be stored on the counter in a sealed container or gallon sized bag. How long do you need them to keep for? Mine do fine for about 3 weeks sealed in room temp.
Patricia Geisenheimer says
Hi Trisha, can brown sugar be used in place of the white sugar, or maybe half and half? Thanks! Looking forward to making these!
Trisha says
Patricia, questions like this always stump me because I hate saying YES and then having it turn into a bit burned mess. Traditionally brown sugar can be substituted 1 for 1 in the oven over white sugar. The main difference is I believe brown sugar contains molasses. My instinct says that brown sugar can burn a lot quicker and it would not take the entire time for you to cook these pecans. Truthfully, without really testing it, I dont know. But if you try it, come back and let me know and Ill work on testing that out coming up soon so I can add that into the article.
Debbie H says
I have made these twice and I am getting ready to make them a third time (per friend and family requests). There is plenty of sugar mixture to coat a 1 pound bag of pecans (in my opinion). I used the bigger bag both times and these turned out amazing. Instead of foil I used a silicone baking mat for extra easy cleanup. Every bit as good as the fancy nuts I sometimes bought at the mall kiosks. Delicious and easy!