Cinnamon sugar pecans are an easy and festive holiday snack

Have you ever walked through the mall, a Christmas market or a fair and smelled the sweet sugary aroma of candied pecans swirling in the air? It’s delightful, isn’t it?

As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to make these sweet and savory pecans at home. As a bonus, those delightful cinnamon-sugar scents will fill up your kitchen.

You can find a festive recipe for Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Pecans on JoyFoodSunshine, a blog run by a self-described “delicious food enthusiast” who says she keeps a batch of these freezer-friendly pecans on hand at all times and has been making this recipe for the last 10 years.

Not only do these homemade candied pecans make great additions to gift baskets during the holiday season, but you can toss the pecans on salads, add them as an ice cream topping or just enjoy them as a snack. One commenter on the JoyFoodSunshine recipe says she used the candied pecans as a cake topper! You could crush these pecans and sprinkle them on cupcakes, too.

The pecans are drizzled with a syrup that calls for sugar, sea salt and cinnamon. This six-ingredient recipe bakes on a pan for an hour in the oven and the nuts are dairy-free and gluten-free.

“These Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Pecans are better than the nuts you’ll find at the mall or fair,” says the recipe creator Laura, who runs JoyFoodSunshine. “They are so easy to make and have very few ingredients.”

We’re sold!

If you’re short on time, you can also make candied pecans on a stovetop. This recipe from Fifteen Spatulas shows you how you can whip up the pecans in five minutes with brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Love other types of candied nuts? You can also bake some candied walnuts with this recipe from Gimme Some Oven that uses vanilla, cinnamon sugar, cayenne, sea salt and brown sugar.

Let’s just say you’ll go nuts for these festive recipes!