Three small bowls of spiced nuts on a wooden board: dark glossy butter-roasted pecans, pecans with a matte cinnamon-sugar shell, and almonds in a rough bronze sugar crust

Spiced Nuts, Three Ways, and What Holds the Spice On

Published 16 min read

Filed under Nuts

A roasted pecan is smooth and oily, so any cinnamon or chile you shake over it slides off and ends up in the bottom of the bowl. That is the real problem with spiced nuts, and it has little to do with the spice. Any spiced-nut recipe worth keeping is a recipe for glue.

This page gives three. Pecans roasted in butter and Worcestershire come out dark and savory, with a little smoke from chipotle. A second batch of pecans bakes for an hour in a thin, crackly shell of egg white, sugar and warm spice. The third are almendras garapiñadas, which, by a local guide's account, the cloistered nuns of a convent in Alcalá de Henares make. They are cooked in a pan of boiling syrup until the sugar turns to sand and then, with more heat, half melts again. Make one kind on a weeknight. Make all three and you have the nut course for a party from one oven and one burner in about two hours.

The salt-roasted almonds recipe sorts seasoned nuts by what holds the seasoning on: brine, fat, protein or sugar. It uses brine and a finishing oil. These three recipes use butter, egg white and sugar, and they behave so differently that the order you cook them in matters.

Three glues, side by side

Butter and Worcestershire pecans Sugar-and-spice pecans Garapiñadas
The glue Melted butter and the sauce's liquid Egg white thinned with water, holding sugar Sugar syrup that crystallizes, then partly melts
When the spice meets heat In warm butter, before the roast, so ground chile blooms in the fat Inside a slowly drying film at 250°F, well below the point where sugar melts In boiling syrup, then in melting sugar above 320°F; keep ground spice modest
Where and how long 300°F oven, 18 to 25 minutes 250°F oven, 50 to 60 minutes Stovetop, about 15 to 22 minutes
What done looks like Snapped pecan is light tan inside Coating matte and dry once cool Rough bronze shell, sandy in places, glassy amber in others
How it fails Pecans scorch and turn bitter Sticky coat, or pecans glued into slabs Syrup never sands, or the sugar goes dark and bitter
In Denver No change No change Syrup reaches the sanding stage sooner; candy target temperatures run about 10°F lower

What each glue is doing

Butter

Butter is roughly four-fifths fat and the rest is largely water, per Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. The Worcestershire adds more liquid. In the oven the water cooks off first, and the pecan toasts under a film of fat that also carries the chipotle. Warming ground chile in that butter before the roast is the same move as blooming spices in oil (see the toasting and blooming spices guide).

A pecan half is thin and toasts through quickly, so this recipe holds the oven at a moderate 300°F with a stir every eight minutes, and the snap test tells you when to stop. Salt does not dissolve in fat, so the salt in the butter is there to dissolve in the Worcestershire's water, and the rest goes on at the end. Grains stirred into plain melted butter stay grains and slide off, but a hot, buttered pecan holds them.

Egg white

An egg white is about 90 percent water and 10 percent protein (McGee again). Whisked only to a loose froth, it spreads into a thin film over each nut. Whipped to peaks, it makes a thicker, meringue-like coat that is more likely to clump the pecans together, which is why the method says frothy and stops there. Sugar dissolves in the wet film. In a low oven the water leaves slowly, the proteins set, and sugar and protein dry together into a thin, crisp shell, a meringue in miniature. McGee explains why meringues are dried at low temperatures: slow drying sets them without browning.

Two published recipes bracket the method. Mississippi State University Extension, sharing an American Egg Board recipe, bakes at 300°F for 30 to 33 minutes. A sugar-roasted pecan recipe posted on a Texas A&M University faculty page uses 250°F. This page takes the lower temperature, which keeps the sugar far below its melting point and gives the shell time to dry all the way through. The coating stays tacky while hot, so judge doneness on a nut that has cooled for two minutes, not one straight from the pan.

Sugar

Garapiñadas are made in two stages, and the first depends on crystallization at the right moment. Sugar and water boil with the almonds. As the water leaves, the syrup grows more concentrated until it holds more sugar than it can keep dissolved. McGee explains that stirring a syrup in that state makes it crystallize. Fudge makers use that fact deliberately, and brittle makers avoid it. Here the pan is full of rough almond skins, and you stir on purpose. Within a minute or two the glossy syrup goes cloudy, then dry and grainy, and every almond wears a coat of white sugar sand.

Then the heat does the second job. Table sugar melts at about 320°F and begins to caramelize just above that, per McGee. The loose sugar touching the hot pan melts to amber, and as you keep stirring, that melted sugar fuses to the sandy coat in patches. Meanwhile the almonds roast in the heat of the sugar around them. The finished shell is half crystal and half glass, knobbly and bronze. The caramel guide follows sugar past that point.

Ingredients

Sugar-and-spice pecans (about 2 1/2 cups)

  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 teaspoon water
  • 225 g (8 oz, about 2 cups) pecan halves
  • 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Vietnamese cassia and Ceylon-type cinnamon give different characters, and both work here. Try Royal Cinnamon from Quang Nam (shop Royal Cinnamon) or Cinnamon Verum from Zanzibar (shop Cinnamon Verum)
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, from a whole nut such as Stone Nutmeg (shop Stone Nutmeg)
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves, freshly ground from whole cloves such as Pemba Cloves (shop Pemba Cloves)
  • 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Garapiñadas (about 2 cups)

  • 200 g (7 oz, about 1 1/3 cups) whole raw almonds, skin on
  • 200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
  • 150 ml (2/3 cup) water
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
  • A pinch of fine sea salt

Butter and Worcestershire pecans (about 2 cups)

For the garapiñadas, use a wide, heavy pan, 10 to 12 inches across. In a small saucepan the syrup sits too deep, the almonds sit in a pool of it instead of rolling through it, and the sanding comes on unevenly. For other spices, see the spice collection.

Method

The steps run in the order that uses one oven and one burner best: the slow pecans go in first, the almonds cook on the stove while they bake, and the butter pecans go in once the oven is free.

Sugar-and-spice pecans

  1. Froth the white. Heat the oven to 250°F (120°C) and line two rimmed sheet pans with parchment. Whisk the egg white and water in a large bowl for about 30 seconds, until loose and foamy with no peaks. Add the pecans and toss until every half glistens.
  2. Add the sugar and spice. Stir together the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cayenne and salt. Sprinkle the mix over the pecans and toss until no dry sugar is left in the bowl. Spread in a single layer on one pan, with space between the halves where you can.
  3. Bake low and stir. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, stirring and separating the nuts every 15 minutes. At first the coating looks wet and syrupy. By the end it is matte and dry to the eye. Pull one out, give it two minutes and bite it. The shell should crack cleanly. If it is chewy, give the pan another 10 minutes. Let them cool on the pan, breaking up any clusters while they are still warm.

Garapiñadas

  1. Boil the syrup with the almonds. As soon as the pecans are in the oven, put the almonds, sugar, water, cinnamon and salt in the wide pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring every minute or so, for 8 to 12 minutes. The bubbles start small and fast. As the water goes they turn large and slow and the syrup looks thick and glossy. Nothing needs to happen quickly yet.
  2. Stir it to sand. From here on, stir constantly with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom. Within a minute or two the syrup goes cloudy, then suddenly dry and grainy, like wet sand drying, and it clings to the almonds in a white crust. Loose sugar sand collects in the pan. This is right. The thermometer is only a guide here. Watch the pan.
  3. Melt it back, partly. Lower the heat to medium-low and keep stirring for 5 to 8 minutes. The sand touching the pan starts to melt and turn amber. Keep rolling the almonds through it so the melted sugar coats the sandy crust in glassy patches. You will smell toasting almonds, and you may hear them crackle. This is the stage that moves fast. Take the pan off the heat when the almonds are bronze, with sandy and glassy patches, before the amber in the pan turns deep brown and smells sharp.
  4. Separate and cool. Tip everything onto the second lined pan or a sheet of parchment and pull the almonds apart at once with two forks. The sugar sets within a minute and anything touching then stays stuck. Let them cool completely. Loose sugar will be left in the pan, which is expected. Fill the pan with hot water and leave it, and the sugar dissolves without scrubbing.

Butter and Worcestershire pecans

  1. Turn up the oven and make the butter. When the sugared pecans come out, raise the oven to 300°F (150°C). Give it ten minutes to get there. Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat with the Worcestershire, chipotle and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, swirling until the salt has mostly dissolved into the sauce.
  2. Roast and snap. Toss the pecans in the warm butter until coated, spread them on a freshly lined pan and roast 18 to 25 minutes, stirring every 8 minutes. The kitchen should smell of toasted nuts, not smoke. From 15 minutes on, let one cool for a minute and snap it. When the inside has gone from pale cream to light tan, take the pan out. The nuts keep cooking for a minute on the hot pan.
  3. Salt while hot. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and flaky salt if you like, over the hot pecans and toss. Slide them off the hot pan onto a cool plate or tray, where they crisp as they cool.

To serve and keep

  1. Separate bowls, airtight jars. Serve each kind in its own bowl. Once everything is completely cool, store each separately in an airtight jar, away from heat and light.

When it goes wrong

Symptom Likely cause Fix
Sugared pecans sticky or chewy after cooling Underbaked, so the shell still holds water; or stored in a humid spot Back into a 250°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes, then cool fully before the lid goes on
Sugared pecans baked into one slab Egg white whisked to peaks, too much white for the nuts, or not stirred during the bake Break apart while warm; next time, froth only and stir every 15 minutes
Garapiñada syrup turns straight to caramel, never sandy Heat too high as the water disappeared, or not enough stirring at that moment Keep going, pour onto parchment and separate. You have caramel almonds, closer to a praline. Next time, stir constantly as soon as the bubbles slow
Garapiñadas dark, bitter, smelling scorched Melting stage too hot or too long Medium-low heat; stop while there is still sandy white on the almonds
Garapiñadas pale and raw-tasting inside Melting stage cut short Give it the full 5 to 8 minutes on medium-low; snap one to check that the center has gone cream to light tan
Butter pecans bitter Oven too hot, or no stirring; pecan halves burn fast 300°F, stir every 8 minutes, start snapping at 15 minutes
Butter pecans greasy or soft Left to cool on the hot pan, or sealed while warm Move to a cool tray to crisp; store only once completely cool

At altitude

In Denver the two oven recipes need no change. The oven sets the temperature, and roasting nuts climb well above the boiling point of water; an Almond Board of California technical summary on roasting notes that almonds rise far above 212°F. Denver's lower boiling point doesn't cap that. The garapiñadas are different, because their first stage is a boiling syrup. Colorado State University Extension puts the boiling point of water at 202°F at 5,000 feet, notes that syrups lose water faster up here, and advises lowering candy temperatures by 2°F for every 1,000 feet, about 10°F in Denver. Since this recipe is judged by eye, the practical effect is timing. Expect the bubbles to slow and the sanding to start a little sooner than at sea level, and be stirring by then. If you use a thermometer anyway, first check what it reads in boiling water in your own kitchen and read the syrup against that. The melting stage at the end is not about boiling water, and sugar melts at the same temperature in Denver as anywhere. The Denver altitude guide covers the rest.

Then there is storage. Sugar pulls moisture from the air, which is why candy goes tacky in humid weather (McGee). The two sugared batches keep their snap only when sealed while fully cool. The buttered pecans have a different enemy: the Almond Board's research finds that roasting speeds oil oxidation in almonds. Pecans carry even more oil, about 72 percent fat by weight in USDA data against roughly 50 percent for almonds by the Almond Board of California's figures, so make an amount you will finish. For how long nuts keep, raw and roasted, see the nut storage guide.

A convent almond and a marshal's cook

Of the three recipes here, garapiñadas have the longest documented history. A local Alcalá guide says the Poor Clares of the Convent of San Diego in Alcalá de Henares, east of Madrid, founded in 1671, make them. By the same guide's account, buyers ring, and the nuns, who are cloistered, pass the almonds through a turntable window without being seen. The guide also dates documentary evidence of the sweet to the eighteenth century and points to a well-known book. Juan de la Mata, a pastry chef at the Spanish court, published Arte de Repostería in Madrid in 1747. Its table of contents lists a recipe titled "Almendras de Alcalá." As the Alcalá guide summarizes it, his method is close to the one above: almonds cooked in sugar to the blowing stage, worked with a wooden spoon, then returned to low heat and turned until the sugar covers them and turns crunchy.

The name describes the pan. The Real Academia Española defines garapiñar as bathing sweets in a syrup that forms clumps, and more generally as putting a liquid into the state of garapiña, a liquid setting into clumps. That is exactly the moment in step five when glossy syrup turns to grit. Spanish spells it both ways, garapiñada and garrapiñada, and the Alcalá sources use the double r.

France has its own version of the story, with a nobleman in it. The praline is said to be named for César de Choiseul, comte du Plessis-Praslin, a seventeenth-century marshal and diplomat. The Maison de la Prasline Mazet in Montargis traces itself to 1636, when, by its account, the duke's officer of the kitchen, Clément Jaluzot, caramelized roasted almonds in sugar. The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets calls the story of the duke inspiring his cook unverifiable, and names the cook as possibly one Clément Lassagne. In both versions of the story, the praline began as roasted almonds caramelized in sugar.

In Louisiana the praline changed completely. Pecans replaced almonds, and butter and cream went into the sugar, so a New Orleans praline is a soft, fudgy patty, with chopped pecans folded into a stirred sugar-and-cream mixture. A popular story credits the Ursuline nuns who arrived in the 1720s. 64 Parishes, the Louisiana humanities encyclopedia, notes that the earliest mentions of pralines appear in late-nineteenth-century newspapers. The pralinières, Black women who sold pralines on the streets of New Orleans after the Civil War, appear in that later record. By 1901 the Daily Picayune was already writing about them with nostalgia, according to WWNO.

Putting them out

Three bowls work better than one mixed bowl. The salty, smoky pecans between the two sweet batches make each taste more like itself, and nobody has to pick through the mix for the ones they like. Pass the garapiñadas with the story of the Alcalá nuns and their turntable window. For a Spanish evening they suit the vermut hour (see the vermut hour guide). The buttered pecans belong with anything cold and bitter, and the bar nuts guide covers pouring and buying.

For nights when nobody wants to stir sugar, a ready-made bowl does the job, such as Varah's Thai red curry-inspired roasted cashews (shop Varah Thai Spice Cashews). For other seasoned nuts, see the nut collection.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and visitors can ask staff questions in the shop. Products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com.

Sources & Further Reading

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