orange - sugar coated - pecans

Valerie's Orange Sugar-Coated Pecans

We were baking little almond pound cakes, and she casually mentioned these pecans.  They are wonderful.  The ingredient list contains no spices to distract your senses - just orange, pure orange.

The recipe is simple.

finely grated zest from one orange (original recipe states 1 T)

1/4 c orange juice (I used fresh juice, strained)

1 c sugar

4 c pecan halves

Combine zest, juice and sugar in heavy sauce pan.  Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil.

Stir in the pecans, and continue to cook until all the liquid/syrup has coated the pecans (this took about 5 minutes)

Pour coated pecans onto parchment to dry.  Separate the nuts, as they tend to clump.  They begin to dry quickly.  Let these sit in a tightly covered tin for a couple of days; the orange flavor intensifies.

The syrup does coat the pecans, and eventually your pan should look like this: