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These glazed pecans take 3 ingredients and 10 minutes on the stovetop! They’re sweet and crunchy, great for salads, oatmeal, or snacking.
They’re sweet, a little salty, and have the perfect crunch! These glazed pecans are so tasty, you’ll want to make up a batch immediately for topping all your salads. They’re faster than my classic candied pecans recipe, making them much easier to whip up on demand.
When I first made these to top our Spinach Apple Salad, I kept the leftovers in our cupboard. My son (3 at the time) kept asking with a sneaky smile, “Mama, can I have a pecan?” So these work as a “healthy” version of candy, too.
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Glazed Pecans vs. Candied Pecans: What’s the Difference?
While some people think these terms mean the same thing, there is a subtle difference. Candied pecans are mixed with sugar and an egg white and then baked until the sugar makes a crunchy shell that looks frosted. For glazed pecans, you simmer them in a sweetener on the stovetop and the outside looks smooth and shiny.
My easy candied pecans recipe makes that classic crunchy texture, and it’s good for a very large batch of pecans because it works in the oven. For a faster method that makes a shiny coating (great for topping salads), this is your recipe!
Ingredients You’ll Need
This glazed pecans recipe has only 3 ingredients! Yes, 3 ingredients to make the tastiest treat: and there’s no refined sugar either. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Raw whole pecans: If roasted is all you can find, you can use those too!
- Pure maple syrup: This recipe is naturally sweet using maple syrup. You’ll notice that we use maple in many of our dessert recipes and even in my cocktail recipes to sweeten them! It’s my favorite natural sweetener around here, hands down.
- Salt: This helps to bring out the sweet flavor even more.
How To Make Glazed Pecans
There’s really only one part of this glazed pecans recipe that’s “tricky”: making sure you don’t cook them too long! Here are the basic steps (or go straight to the recipe!):
- Simmer. Simmer 1 part maple syrup to 4 parts pecans in a skillet for about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In the last minute, stir and watch carefully! In the last minute, the maple syrup will be almost totally cooked out, and the nuts will start to clump together. Keep your eye out! Pull it from the heat once the syrup is cooked out, but don’t leave it on the heat too long! You’ll end up with a powdery sugar look (more below).
- Spread on parchment paper to dry, and sprinkle with salt. Glazed nuts are best with a little salt to play up that salty sweetness! Spread them in a single layer on parchment paper to dry. You can eat them right away after 5 minutes, but if you’re storing them wait for about 15 minutes until they’re hardened.
What If I Cook Them Too Long?
Good question! If you cook these maple glazed pecans too long, here’s what happens. The maple turns from shiny to powdery! You end up with something that looks like sugared pecans instead.
Is that bad or wrong? Not at all! We compared two batches flavor-wise, and they both tasted great! So never fear if you cook them too far. They come out a bit crunchier as sugared pecans, and they taste just as good. They’re just not shiny like they are above.
Ways to Serve Glazed Pecans
How to serve these shiny glazed pecans? They’re a perfect easy salad topping (even better than croutons, in our opinion). Here are a few great ways to use them:
- Spinach Apple Salad This salad features a zingy balsamic dressing and sliced apples and pears. We like to alternate serving it with glazed walnuts or pecans.
- Best Oatmeal or Instant Pot Oatmeal Glazed pecans add the perfect crunch to oatmeal! Try them with a sliced banana and spoonful of peanut butter.
- Bananas Foster How delicious would crunchy pecans be on this easy dessert? Yum.
If you want more pecan recipes to use up your leftovers, here are 13 Easy Pecan Recipes to choose from.
How to Store Them
After they’re cooled, place the pecans in an airtight container and you can store them at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Don’t refrigerate them, because they’ll turn sticky! I have not tried freezing them, but I expect they would turn sticky after defrosting.
Dietary Notes
This glazed pecans recipe is vegetarian, plant-based, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free.
Glazed Pecans Recipe (3 Ingredients)
These glazed pecans take 3 ingredients and 10 minutes on the stovetop! They’re sweet and crunchy, great for salads, oatmeal, or snacking.
- Prep Time: 0 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
- Category: Essentials
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten-Free, Vegan, Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw whole pecans
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 pinches kosher salt
Instructions
- Add the pecans and maple syrup to a small non-stick skillet over medium heat. When the maple just starts to bubble, reduce the heat to low but still slowly bubbling. Simmer for about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- In the last minute when the maple syrup is mostly evaporated, stir continuously until the liquid is totally cooked out and the nuts start clumping together (but watch so that it doesn’t burn or go too far and become powdery, not glossy!*). Immediately remove from the heat.
- Transfer the pecans to a sheet of parchment paper in a single layer. Sprinkle with the salt and allow to cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes if eating right away and about 15 minutes if you want to store them for later use. Store in a covered container at room temperature.
Notes
*If this happens, don’t worry! They still taste great, they just look more like sugared pecans.
Would this work with Agave syrup?
I think so, but we haven’t tried it!
Fast and easy and a definite repeat in the future.