Crunchy and Sweet Baked Maple Glazed Pecans

Crunchy, rich, and lightly sweet with warm spices. From breakfast through afternoon snacks, cocktail hour and dinner, these maple glazed pecans are versatile. The only downside is they are dangerously delicious.

Maple Glazed Pecans

For the past nine years I’ve catered a fancy dinner party for a favorite client every October. We always do a harvest salad with fall flavors, including pomegranate seeds, a cheese of cheese of some sort (goat, blue or brie), apple or pear wedges and toasted pecans. I usually make rosemary maple roasted cashews but this year I wanted to change things up a bit so I baked these spiced maple pecans.

How to Glaze Pecans

Melt butter with maple syrup, brown sugar, olive oil, a pinch of salt and spices in a wide pan. Add pecan halves and stir to coat. Scatter the nuts onto a parchment lined baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 15 minutes in the oven. The nuts will crisp as they cool.

Spice Options

For spices, I use Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend from Savory Spice Shop. It’s a heavenly aromatic combination of Saigon cinnamon, Indonesian cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace, allspice and cloves. Create you own blend or buy one.

But What About the Sugar?

With many of us actively reducing sugar in our diet, beware that anything with “glazed” in the title usually has sugar. My maple glazed pecans are not as sugar coated or as sweet as many recipes. Second, it takes approximately 21 pecan halves to make up a full ounce. That’s a generous handful of pecans. Far more than you need for a salad. A half ounce of nuts (about 10) has just 1.6 grams of sugar, and 109 calories.

Ingredient Tips

For brown sugar, use a natural, organic brown sugar, not a fake brown sugar that is really just white sugar with added molasses and coloring. For maple syrup, get the real deal, not the fake stuff that is nothing but artificially colored corn syrup. Grade B maple has a richer, stronger flavor.

What to Do With Maple Glazed Pecans

• Toss a few into a salad for richness
• Chopped and sprinkle over baby green beans or Brussels sprouts
• Chop and garnish soup
• Add a few to morning steel cut oats
• Enjoy a small handful at cocktail hour
• Package a batch or even a half batch in a decorative jar as a housewarming gift

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Maple Glazed Pecans

Crunchy, rich, and lightly sweet with pumpkin pie spices, toss these maple glazed pecans on a salad, snack on them at cocktail hour, package up a jar as a housewarming or holiday gift or add a few chopped to oatmeal or baby green beans.

Servings 30

Calories 113kcal

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tablespoons dark maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar or golden monk fruit
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend
• 2 pinches  of sea salt
• 1 pound raw pecan halves

Instructions

• Pre-heat an oven to 300°F (convection) or 325°F standard oven (will depend on your oven). Over medium low heat in a medium sauté pan or skillet (or microwave), melt butter, maple syrup, olive oil, brown sugar, spice and salt. Melt and stir until smooth. Add pecans and stir to coat evenly.
• Spread nuts on rimmed baking sheet lined with baking parchment or foil. Bake until nuts are golden brown and you can smell the spices, about 15 minutes. Do not let them get too dark. Allow nuts to cool. They will crisp upon cooling. Package in an airtight container.
• Nutritional analysis per serving (1/2 ounce or 10 nuts): calories 109, fat 11 g, saturated fat 1.2 g, cholesterol 1 mg, fiber 1.4 g, protein 1.3 g, carbohydrate 3.1 g, sugar 1.6 g, sodium 0 mg

Notes

For spices, I use Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend from Savory Spice Shop. It's a heavenly aromatic combination of Saigon cinnamon, Indonesian cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace, allspice and cloves. Create your own blend or buy one.

Nutrition

Calories: 113kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 27mg | Potassium: 66mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 9IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg