Roasted Pecans for Steak Salad (updated)

A little update to the steak salad recipe. I loved the cinnamon pecans, but the previously used recipe sometimes didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped. I tried this one last week and it was AMAZING! It takes some babysitting, but it is well worth it!

Ingredients

• 1 egg white
• 1 1/2 pounds pecan halves
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Beat egg whites until foamy in a large glass or metal mixing bowl until soft peaks form. Lift your beater or whisk straight up: the egg whites will form soft mounds rather than a sharp peak.
3. Mix the pecan halves into the egg white.
4. Stir the white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon together in a bowl; add to the pecan and egg white mixture and stir.
5. Coat the bottom of a jelly roll pan with the softened butter.
6. Spread the pecan mixture in an even layer in the prepared pan.
7. Bake in the preheated oven until crisp, turning occasionally, 45 to 60 minutes.

Couple of changes: I used a whole bag of chopped pecans, which I think was 2 cups (but less then 1.5 pounds). Switch the amounts of brown and white sugar (3/4 cup brown, 1/4 cup white). I covered  the pan with foil, which made clean up pretty easy.
I think they turned out AWESOME! And you could just as easily use a different kind of nut (almonds come to mind). The only thing I might change is add a little bit of salt, though on the steak salad paired with the blue cheese, I think it was perfect the way it was.


Hopefully now that life has settled back down after preparing, executing, and recovering from the Hawaii trip, I can get back to trying new recipes and blogging! It's weird how one event takes over your life for such a significant amount of time! It was an AMAZING trip, but I've found it so hard to tell people about it now that I'm back! I'm not sure whether it's just me, but I find it hard to relate something that was so much an experience, and less a story. I've found that as time goes by, I'm remembering bits and pieces that didn't come to mind when asked how the trip went.
It is nice to get back to "real" life though. Happy Sunday, everyone, and here's to hoping for a wonderful upcoming week.