Simple Sugared Pecans

There are several recipes available for "easy" sugared pecans, but this method is even easier than most of those! Ingredients consist of some pecans and brown sugar. 

For the 100 gram package of pecans, I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup water. You really just need enough water to dissolve the sugar. Less is better because you're going to have to boil it all away again anyway.

First, I dissolve the brown sugar in the water and then boil it on the stove for about 5 minutes to start reducing. It should start looking a little thicker, but you're going to want it to be able to coat the pecans still.

Put the pecans in a microwave safe container. I like this casserole dish as it has a big flat bottom. (As an interesting tidbit, I very rarely ever make an actual casserole. I think this dish gets used for these pecans or a seven layer dip more often than something like lasagne.)

Pour the sugar water on the pecans and stir to coat them. Then they go into the microwave to continue boiling away the water. You can start with setting the microwave to two minutes at a time. You'll gradually see the water disappearing. Make sure to stir them every time so that you can make sure they're evenly coated.

Then there is going to be a point where you've got it down to syrup. The first time I tried this I stopped here because I thought they were done, but they aren't. You're getting there, but keep going!

At this point, I start going with shorter stints in the microwave, only a minute at a time. I do keep the pecans spread out for cooking, I just pushed them aside for the pictures so you could see how the sugar part changes.

Here it's still quite sticky syrup. The gob at the top is me trying to scrape it off my stirring spoon.

In this one, it's sugar crystals in the centre of the dish, but syrupy around the outside now. Cut the microwave time down to 30 seconds each so that you easily monitor the progress.

Then you get to sugar crystals in the dish, but the pecans themselves are still a bit sticky. (The "hole" in the sugar layer on the dish is from where I scraped it up into a pile so you could see it. Not sure it comes through that well in the pictures.)

At this point, I microwave in 15 seconds at a time so that you can be sure they're done but you don't go too far and end up burning the pecans. You can see now that it's sugar crystals on the pecans and they look dry, they aren't shiny anymore like the picture above.

You can serve these as candies as they are. Not sure how many I "sample" during the process, but I certainly end up with less than the 100 grams I start with. Just be careful not to burn your tongue :)

But they go really well on a salad. Spring greens, red onion, strawberries, feta cheese, and shrimp with a sweet dressing (like poppy seed or raspberry vinaigrette).

If there are any leftovers, I store them in an airtight container in the freezer as lots of sites say they'll stay fresh for up to a year this way.

Enjoy!
~Lisa