Spicy Pecans

 Dan and I would like to give out some small gift at our Cousin Christmas night, but there are now too many people to give individual gifts.  I've been looking into ways to use the Pecans my dad sent me (6 pounds!) besides my usual pie and tarts. 

I found a recipe in County Living Magazine for spicy cocktail Pecans and thought I'd give it a try.  I halved the call for amount, as I didn't want to waste my delicious pecans if I didn't like how they turned out.

The recipe I followed was:

3 Cups Pecan halves
1/2 stick of butter (unsalted ) Melted
2 Teaspoons Tabasco sauce
1 Teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 Teaspoon of sea salt
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder (it should have been just 1/2 teaspoon, but I love garlic)


Oven on 325 degrees.  Combine ingredients, then poor over Pecans.  Toss to mix then put on baking sheet in a flat layer.  Bake for 7-8 minutes, stir, the bake for 7-8 more until nuts are toasted.

Pre-baked nuts.  I store my nuts in the freezer, so when I poured the melted mixture on them, it congealed again. 

After being toasted!  Bonus: the house smells delish.

Close-up.

I'm storing them in a tin lined with wax paper.  

Tasting thoughts:

They taste very similar to the chex mix Dan's mom makes.  They aren't as spicy as I would have imaged them to be (since they were called spicy cocktail pecans).  I don't know if we'll make this for the fam, but we'll certainly eat the 3 cups I made of it.  Perhaps I'll try batch adding some other seasonings (thinking red pepper flake, cumin, more Tabasco as options).