By Kevin Williams
Spiced pecans
Georgia does not have an Old Order Amish population (yet), but they do have a fairly robust population of Beachy Amish Mennonites. The best-known settlement is in Montezuma, Georgia. The community isn't far off I-75 so it's fairly accessible and worth a visit if you have some extra time. There's a great Amish-style restaurant and some other businesses to enjoy. Beachy Amish Mennonite cooking styles are very similar to traditional Amish cooking. One different when sampling Beachy Amish Mennonite cooking in Georgia is the southern influence. You have more southern type vegetables like okra and sweet potatoes. A really nice Beachy Amish Mennonite man near Albany, Georgia once sent me this "spiced pecan" recipe which he says they make as a "special treat" using locally grown pecans. Yum! And he was nice enough to share the recipe with me (his handwriting, as you can see, was an art in itself)
The gentleman says of these pecans "they make a nice gift when put into a clear glass or plastic container with top. Tie with a ribbon." So, there you go, you can start planning to put these on your "gifts to give" from Christmas list! They sound amazing.
- 1 egg white
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 pound pecan halves
- Whisk the first 5 ingredients until frothy.
- Then add pecan halves and stir until well coated.
- Pour into a large rimmed baking pan that has been greased.
- Bake for 20 minutes at 250, then, using a metal spatula, remove from the bottom of the pan, turn over and bake an additional 15 minutes until crisp.
- Cool.
- Then place in an air-tight contained or freeze.
brenda
great additional item for Christmas goodies. ours is slightly different in that we actually beat the egg whites into a meringue and onto the baking pan have melted butter that is incorporated into the spicy meringue pecans during the baking process.