Toasted Pecan Syrup for Camp Coffee
A pecan-sugar syrup made at home and carried in a bottle. Turns instant coffee into something worth sitting down for.
- calories
- 90
- weight
- 1.1 oz
- cal / oz
- 82
- protein
- 0 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Drink
- No cook
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Gluten free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Pecans | 1 cup | halves or pieces, both work |
|---|---|---|
| Granulated sugar | 1 cup | |
| Water | 1 cup | kitchen only, not carried |
| Kosher salt | 1/4 tsp | added at the end |
Method
- At home: toast the pecans dry in a saucepan over medium heat, two or three minutes, until they smell like pecans. Do not walk away.
- Add the sugar and half the water. Simmer ten minutes at a low bubble.
- Pull half the nuts out and blitz them with the remaining water, or run an immersion blender straight into the pot. Broken nuts give up more flavor than whole ones.
- Simmer another two or three minutes, then strain out the solids and stir the salt into the hot syrup.
- Cool completely and pour into a leakproof bottle.
- In camp: stir a tablespoon into a mug of instant coffee. No stove work beyond the coffee itself.
This is a kitchen recipe carried to camp rather than cooked there. The syrup is a one-to-one sugar and water solution, which is concentrated enough to be shelf-stable and to survive days in a pack without a cooler. All the work happens on a home stove.
Toasting and blending are the two steps that matter. Whole nuts dumped in a pot give up very little; breaking them open after they have softened exposes far more surface to the syrup, and the flavor difference is not subtle. The salt goes in off the heat, where it sharpens the sugar instead of dissolving into the background.
Packing
A small HDPE dropper or Nalgene bottle, capped and bagged. Sugar syrup at this ratio keeps for weeks without refrigeration, but heat and a loose lid are both ways to lose it into your pack.
Variations
- Swap in walnuts or hazelnuts. Same method, same ratio.
- The strained pecans are still good. Dry them low in the oven and carry them as trail mix.
- A split vanilla bean in the pot while it simmers reads as praline.
https://www.pinchmeimeating.com/pecan-coffee-syrup