This is my favorite candy. Your family and friends will love it too and won’t believe it’s from a “diet”. When you roughly chop these, they make for an excellent addition to a fresh salad.
Ingredients:
1 lb raw shelled pecan halves
3 large egg whites, preferably at room temperature
1 cup honey
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp additional butter, melted
salt
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Roast pecans in a large pan in a single layer for 10 minutes.
3. Cool pecans completely before continuing recipe.
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 300° F.
2. Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt until it reaches the stiff peak stage.
3. Add ginger, cinnamon and vanilla extract, mixing just to combine.
4. Slowly add honey.
5. Continue mixing just until combined.
6. Fold in cooled pecans.
7. Pour 1/4 cup melted butter on large, lipped sheet pan and cover entire bottom.
8. Pour pecan mixture onto sheet pan and spread out evenly.
9. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until lightly browned (see image).
10. Stir and return to over for 15 minutes.
11. Stir again and return to oven for 10 minutes, making sure nuts do not burn.
12. Place wax paper on a cooling rack and coat wax paper with 2 Tbsps melted butter.
13. Pour pecans onto buttered waxed paper and spread into one layer.
14. Lightly salt the pecans while they are still warm.
15. Let the pecans cool for about 10 minutes then transfer to storage.
16. When they are completely cool, cover and store.
Note that this treat will expand as it first cooks. That is why your pan needs to have a lip. If you try this with an unlipped pan, you will make a big nasty mess in your oven. The pan pictures above is 13 x 18 x 1 inches.
Keeps at least 3 weeks if you don’t eat them first.
Eating SCD 
Can you use something besides eggwhites? We can’t do eggs but this recipe sounds like a Godsend for my kidlets.
Lindsay,
I’ve never tried, but the thing that comes to mind is “Julia’s Incredible Caramel Toffee” on http://www.scdrecipe.com. Here’s the direct link: http://www.scdrecipe.com/recipes-candy/julias-incredible-caramel-toffee/
I’ve made it many times as is and enjoyed it. I imagine there’s a way to incorporate the two recipes.
-Paul
These look so yummy!
I just made these, and they are delicious! Thank you for sharing this recipe, Paul.
Alex,
I just made a batch myself. I’m glad you are enjoying them. Thanks for letting me know you like them.
-Paul
I’m not quite sure what I did wrong, but mine did not come out very crispy. They taste good, but even after one day of drying.. these treats are still sticky and gooey. Are they supposed to harden? If so, what do you suppose I did wrong?
Anon,
I’ve never gotten them to be completely un-sticky. You could try baking them longer, but be careful that you don’t burn them.
-Paul
Hi Paul,
How sweet are they with 1 cup of Honey? Would they work well without that much?
I’ve been meaning to try these for awhile.
Hi Mara,
Well, they satisfy my sweet tooth and I consider them a candy so I suspect anyone would think of them as sweet. I haven’t tried making it with less, but I suspect it would work fine. I would watch them closer as perhaps they will cook faster and you definitely don’t want to burn them.
-Paul
Paul, I just made these — used about 3/5 of a cup of honey — maybe a bit less — for my taste I could have used just half a cup, cause I find them plenty sweet as is. But my gosh — you didn’t say that it came out like the most fabulous butter pecan! That’s amazing. Also, for some reason, they taste very much like French toast — LOL — who knows why. I changed the spices up a bit, too, because it turned out there was no ginger powder, so I used cloves and nutmeg instead and a few dashes of chili powder for a bit of spice with the sweet. But the latter is pretty masked.
Definitely will make these again. The only problem I had was determining when they were done — they took longer in the oven I was using then your instructions specified — but this often happens to me with SCD recipes.
Mara,
Thanks for the feedback. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
It can be a real trail and error exercise with SCD. With the oven variances and the sensitivity of honey to heat it can be a challenge.
-Paul
Love these nuts, but I had to hunt down this recipe again since I couldn’t find the previous one. Unfortunately, I forgot about the reductions I had made in the amount of honey and butter used. Without the reduction the nuts were too wet and burned too easily. I also had problems in the past with the nuts taking too long to dry. Definitely need to reduce the amounts in my opinion.
Yumyum Pecan candy with Crohn’s – and in the Air fryer too. (Half time)
Thank you for my pecan candy. (Have Crohn’s almost 28 years ago)
Jane 😀
Jane,
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoy them.
-Paul