Spiced Pecans

See! I told you I would figure out how to sort out my days! It's not perfect yet, but I am posting something 3 days after my last post rather than a week. Gimme some credit.

And again, I've come back with something sweet.. Just in case you needed more sweetness in your life. But this is different. This is something that I would never usually think of making.

I'm not much of a nut girl, and if I do have some nuts accompanied with chocolate and sugar and some sort of cake/biscuit. The only nuts I enjoy eating alone are walnuts, and that's not a frequent occurrence.

But recently, pecans have been growing on me, and I've started to include them more in my baking, instead of just skipping them when a recipe calls for them. Eating them on their own? Haven't got to that stage yet. But baking them with some spices and sugar and egg whites until they're crunchy and sweet? That sounds like something I'm willing to try.

And so I went and made these spiced pecans, which were crunchy, sweet, and not overpowering with spices, although you can up the spices if you like. These would be great to have as a sweet snack, or mixed in to your banana bread batter, or even used to decorate a cake (hint hint). It's up to you what you do with them.

Spiced Pecans

Slightly adapted from Baked in America

85 grams granulated sugar

1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg white

55 grams unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled

225 grams pecans

Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F). Butter the bottom of two pans (or, as I did, cover a large pan with baking paper).

In a small bowl, combine the sugar, spices and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or using a handheld electric whisk, whisk the egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff. Slowly add the sugar mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time, and whisk making sure the whites remain stiff. Adding sugar too quickly causes the egg whites to collapse, which usually means that they are of no use, however, when this has previously happened the authors have beaten the hell our of the mixture and it seemed to have worked. Remove from the mixer and fold in the butter and pecans. Spread the mixture evenly among the pan/s.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and, using a wide metal spatula, flip the mixture a little section at a time. Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes more. Watch the pecans carefully toward the end as it is easy to over do it. Cool in the pan then break chunks into nut-sized pieces.