Campfire Candied Pecans
A slow cooker recipe moved onto coals. Sugar, cinnamon, and a dutch oven you stir every ten minutes.
- calories
- 490
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 163
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 60 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 60 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Pecan halves | 4 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| White sugar | 1 cup | |
| Brown sugar | 1/2 cup | packed |
| Cinnamon | 5 tsp | |
| Meringue powder | 2 tbsp | stands in for one egg white, no cooler needed |
| Vanilla extract | 2 tsp | a small dropper bottle is enough |
| Water | 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp | split: 2 tbsp to start, 1/4 cup at the end |
| Oil or cooking spray | 1 tsp | for the pot |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals. You want steady low heat under the oven, not flame.
- In the pot, whisk the meringue powder with 2 tbsp water and the vanilla until it goes foamy. About two minutes of arm work.
- Add the pecans and stir until every half is wet.
- Dump in both sugars and the cinnamon. Stir until the nuts are coated and the sugar stops looking dry.
- Wipe the pot with oil first if you can, or just accept a scrub later. Set it over a thin bed of coals with a few on the lid.
- Cook about an hour, stirring every ten minutes and scraping the bottom. Pull coals if you smell scorching.
- In the last five minutes, pour in the remaining 1/4 cup of water and stir. It loosens the crust and lets it re-coat.
- Spread them on foil or a plate to cool. They go from sticky to crisp in about ten minutes.
This started as a slow cooker recipe, which is three hours of low, even heat and no attention. A dutch oven on coals gets you the same thing faster and less politely. The heat is hotter and comes from one side, so the stirring is not optional. Ten minute intervals, scraping the bottom, or the sugar on the floor of the pot turns bitter before the top layer has done anything.
Two changes for camp. Raw egg white is a cooler ingredient with a short life, so meringue powder and a splash of water do the same job: it is the glue that holds the sugar to the nut, and it dries to that crust. The quarter cup of water at the end matters more than it looks like it should. Without it the coating stays grainy and falls off in the bag.
Packing
Combine the sugars, cinnamon, and meringue powder in one bag at home. Pecans in another. That is the whole kit, plus the vanilla bottle.
Variations
- Half a teaspoon of cayenne in the sugar mix cuts the sweetness.
- Swap in walnuts or almonds. Almonds want another ten minutes.
- Made at home in a 300F oven, they pack out as a grab-and-go snack for any trip.
https://mealswithmaria.site/slow-cooker-candied-pecans