My niece, Tiffany, shared this recipe with me. When I made them last year, I sent a box of them to my nephew, Beau. He proclaimed them "crack"! (I guess that's good!) They are so easy to make and fun to share!
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I found this recipe years ago and since then it has become a Christmas favorite with friends and family. Like all candy making, it requires quite a few steps. However, these pecans are so yummy, it is totally worth it!
Let me walk you through it...
Get all your ingredients together. A bag of Costco Kirkland pecans will make two batches of this recipe.
Lay out a big area of foil on the table. fold the sheets of foil together so they will not come apart when you dump the hot, finished pecans on to the foil. Spray the foil with oil so that the nuts do not stick.
Spray the bottom of two large cookie sheets with oil. Cover the cookie sheets with foil (this step really saves in clean-up!), making sure that you have enough foil to roll around the edges to prevent slipping. Divide the nuts equally between the two pans.
Microwave the Karo syrup, butter, and brown sugar in a two-cup pyrex measuring cup according to the direction. Then quickly add the baking soda and vanilla, and stir vigorously until the mixture is nice and foamy.
Drizzle the syrup over the nuts.
It will look like this:
Put the pans in a 250 degree oven and put a 20 minute timer on.
In 20 minutes, when you pull the pan out, it will look like this. Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon and spread the nuts back out. Put them back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
The next time you pull out the nuts, they will look like this. Stir them again and put them back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
The final time you pull them out of the oven, immediately dump them onto the foil you put on the table. Working quickly, spread them out as much as possible. They will cool fast, and the baked candy coating will get nice and crispy. After they have cooled, add them to the cranberries and Enjoy!!
Last year, at one of the craft sales I went to, I saw the sweetest idea for a tree ornament and, of course, thought to myself, "I can do that!". And just like that, at the next craft fair I went to, I found this box of Bee and Willow Advent Calendar bottlebrush trees, set on wooden spools. I came home and set upon the creative process of making something unique out of and idea and a box of trees.
I rounded up some sweet small-print Christmas paper, some tiny beads and baubles, skinny ribbon, and some vintage plastic snowflakes from a broken garland I had rescued at a yard sale, earlier this summer. With a large circle punch, a brown ink pad, some glue, scissors and paper trimmer, I got to work and came up with these adorable little trees.
With Pinterest as my inspiration, I went on to create other colors and styles...once you get started, the ideas just seem to roll...
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