Ancho Chile Candied Pecans

Last year for the holidays, I made some semi-successful salty maple pecans for people. This year, I got a real recipe for candied pecans and replaced the disgusting cinnamon with ancho chile powder. Holy crap was that a stroke of genius. The smoky chile flavor paired perfectly with the flavor of the pecans. I used less sugar and more salt than most recipes and have been receiving nothing but compliments, specifically that they are the perfect level of sweetness.

Ancho Chile Candied Pecans

2 lb pecans

1/4 C egg whites

2 T water

1/2 C evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)

1/2 C coconut sugar (or dark brown sugar)

3 t ancho chile powder

2 t Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350. Whip egg whites with water just until a little foamy. Toss pecans in egg wash, coating thoroughly. Whisk the rest of the ingredients together and toss with eggy pecans until well-combined. Pour onto parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes. Stir and bake another 15-20 minutes until the sugary stuff starts to crystallize. Immediately remove parchment paper to another surface to cool. Wait to bag pecans (if you're not shoveling them directly into your mouth) until they are completely cooled and dry.

Holiday Baking

We po' this year, so gifts are homemade. I started out with salty maple-roasted pecans (no photos, sorry), which are just pecan halves coated in maple syrup and sprinkled with Kosher salt, then roasted for about 5 minutes at 450°F. Then I moved on to cookies. I started with brown butter sugar cookies for the flavor, but combined the recipe with your average sugar cookie for the look.

First, I attempted to brown 3 sticks of butter. There was a bit of an... accident... so I ended up with 1 cup of brown butter and added a stick of regular butter. Since I was ready to make the cookies, I just threw the cold stick of butter into the still-warm brown butter, which ended up working really well for the mixing.

After the butters equalized a bit, I creamed them with 1 cup each of white and brown sugars.

Next I added 4 eggs, one at a time, and 1 teaspoon of double-strength vanilla extract.

I stirred together 5 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and just under a teaspoon of salt (because as you know, I always use salted butter).

On low, mix the dry into the wet ingredients about 1 cup at a time. I ended up mixing in the last cup by hand because the dough was so thick my mixer was straining.

Wrap the dough and chill it for at least an hour. I do not recommend being lazy and leaving it in the bowl like I did. It stuck horribly and was a huge PITA to get out.

I let my dough chill for about 3 hours, then rolled it out on a very lightly floured surface and cut it into random shapes of cutters I have lying about (I'm not much of a dough cutter). Some of the cookies got dusted with evaporated cane juice, which gave them a nice mellow sparkle. The cookies baked on parchment at 400°F for about 7 minutes. After they cooled completely, I iced them with a mixture of icing sugar (1/2 cup) and milk(1 tablespoon). To one batch, I added about 1/2 tablespoon of blackberry-flavored corn syrup, and to another, I added a splash of almond extract and maraschino cherry juice (mostly for the color). Then, I went out and bought some cookie icing so I could make silly designs.