We make these easy candied pecans a lot and love how quick they are to make on the stovetop. I love them for salads, snacks, and cheeseboards. They are perfectly sweet and a little bit salty, plus I add a little cinnamon and orange zest, making them extra delicious. If you love this quick method for making candied pecans, you might also enjoy my method for making candied pecans in the oven. That recipe calls for egg whites, which makes them even more light and crispy.
Key Ingredients
Pecans: I use pecan halves to make this recipe, but you can easily swap the pecans for other nuts like walnuts, hazelnuts, or cashews! Brown Sugar: I love the extra rich flavor of brown sugar with these candied pecans. Spices: I combine cinnamon, salt, vanilla extract, and a little orange zest for these candied nuts. I also love a pinch of cayenne pepper for some heat, but that is optional.
How to Make Candied Pecans in Under 10 Minutes
My stovetop candied pecans really are so simple to make! I add them to salads, rice dishes, and desserts, plus I love adding them to cheeseboards! To make our sweet and salty candied pecans, you’ll combine sugar with spices, vanilla extract, and a little water in a skillet. Heat everything until it looks like a glaze, and then stir in the nuts. Continue to stir the nuts around the glaze for a few minutes, then transfer them to a baking sheet to cool. Once cool, you might need to break apart a few nuts that have stuck together, but other than that, they are ready to enjoy!
Ways to Use Candied Pecans
My stovetop candied pecans are so simple to make! I add them to salads, desserts, and cheeseboards, and they are also amazing as a standalone snack. A few recipes that would benefit from a handful of these sweet and salty nuts are this creamy apple fennel salad, this easy farro salad, my favorite quinoa salad, and this warm apple cabbage salad. I also love using candied nuts for this balsamic strawberry salad and these coconut oil roasted sweet potatoes. 6 tablespoons (75g) brown sugar 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 ½ tablespoons water 2 teaspoons orange zest, optional Pinch cayenne pepper, optional 2Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, water, orange zest, and cayenne to a medium skillet. 3Place the skillet over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until the brown sugar melts into a bubbling sauce, about 1 minute. 4Stir in the pecans so that the brown sugar sauce coats them. 5Cook, stirring the entire time, until the pecans look candied and smell nutty, 2 to 3 minutes. As the nuts heat up in the pan, the sauce will slowly coat them and turn shiny. Watch closely as the nuts cook so that they do not burn. 6Transfer the candied pecans to the prepared baking sheet and spread them out in one layer. 7Allow the pecans to cool down and break them up before serving.
