Gourmet Pecans

This week marks the second week in the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies that I’m hosting. Joined by 30+ other bloggers, we’ll be sharing our holiday treats with you to help you get organized for the holidays and fill your freezer with yummy treats to pull out during that busy time of year. If you’re telling yourself, there’s no way I can eat or serve all those cookies, then consider hosting a bake sale to help out a great organization in your area or one that I support, Cookies for Kids Cancer.

This week I’m not featuring a cookie but a holiday treat that I’ve been making for years: Gourmet Pecans. I like to make these in big batches then wrap them up and give them as gifts to teachers, neighbors friends or as hostess gifts. They’re always very popular and I guess I’ve been lucky that those on my gift giving list haven’t had nut allergies. They’re super simple and taste delicious!

Gourmet Pecans
Recipe from Stop and Smell the Rosemary

1 large egg white
3 Tbs. Kahlua, Amaretto, Grand Mariner, or other strongly flavored liqueur (I like Kahlua most often but sometimes use the Amaretto or an Irish Crème)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Prepare a large jelly roll pan by lining it with tin foil.
Combine the sugar and salt in a bowl, set aside. Combine the egg white and the liqueur in a large bowl, stir well with a whisk. Add the pecans, and stir well. Add sugar to bowl, and stir well to coat.
Spread onto prepared jelly roll pan in a single layer.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until pecans are lightly toasted and browned, stirring every 10 minutes. It will look like the coating is coming off (it’s not). Stir from the outside in to keep pecans on the edges from burning, and watch closely since sugar burns easily.

Remove from oven, transfer IMMEDIATELY to wax paper to cool. Pecans keep for two weeks in an airtight container or in freezer up to three months.

Are you a blogger that would like to join our blog hop? Then join us every Thursday (or any Thursday you can make it!) from now until December 15th. And if you’re not a blogger or just not up for blogging about it, then join us anyway and fill your freezer. Each week we’ll be bringing you lots of new inspiring recipes. Put on your baking cap and collect all those recipes from your recipe box, magazine cuttings, cookbooks or online. Now is the time to make those cookies you’ve always wanted to. And feel free to make a bar or even a candy—any sort of sweet treat will do!

TO JOIN: Add your link using the linky tool below. Link-ups require approval so if you don’t see your link appear right away, that is why. When adding a link it MUST be a post dated 2011 and your post must mention the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies blog hop. No links from previous years to any old random Christmas cookie recipe just to get extra traffic to your blog, sorry! If you want to join the blog hop for future weeks and add the thumbnails to your blog for future weeks, please email me and I will send you the code and graphic to use. Thanks so much!

Be sure to visit all the other bloggers shown below to see what they’ve baked up today!