Mexican Hot Chocolate-Spiced Pecans

By on January 30, 2011 in Desserts & Baked Goods, Holidays, Paleo and Primal, Street Food

This is one of my favorite ways to get a healthy chocolate fix–roasted pecans coated with cocoa powder, spices, and just a touch of sugar.  You can vary the level of sweetness to meet your own taste, of course, and these are a great lunchbox snack.  Pecans are super healthy, with lots of “good fats” and trace minerals and fiber, and if you eat these instead of a candy bar, so much the better.  Note: I am in the process of updating the photos from some of my older, more popular posts, and this is my most recent update project.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Spiced Pecans
Here’s the old photo:

I have also tweaked the recipe a bit and put it into a printable format.  I decreased the total amount of sugar and went with coconut sugar instead of refined white sugar, and I adjusted the amount of chipotle to make them a bit more mild.  You can do this to taste, of course. I also added in a teaspoon of vanilla for another layer of flavor.

Here’s the recipe for this addictive little snack.  For a vegan version, skip the egg white and toss the pecans with two tablespoons of melted coconut oil before tossing with the spice mixture.

Print
Mexican Hot Chocolate-Spiced Pecans
Author: 
Recipe type: Snack
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3 cups
 
Ingredients
  • 3 cups raw pecan halves
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper (or to taste)
  • 1/4 cup coconut sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Lightly coat a cooking sheet with coconut oil.
  2. Place the pecans in a medium mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white with the vanilla extract. Pour the egg white mixture over the pecans and stir to coat.
  3. In a small bowl, stir together the cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt, chipotle, and coconut sugar. Pour this over the pecans and stir until they are evenly coated. Spread the pecans in a single layer on the prepared cookie sheet.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes, then stir the pecans. Reduce the heat to 225 degrees and bake for another 10-12 minutes. Remove the pecans from the oven but leave them on the hot cookie sheet until they have cooled completely. Stir to break up any clumps.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Spiced Pecans

These make a nice holiday gift and they are much lower in sugar than the traditional cookies and candies, so they are appropriate for a lot of special diets.  You can easily double the amounts to make a larger batch for gift-giving purposes.

Thanks for reading,

-Angela

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5 Responses to Mexican Hot Chocolate-Spiced Pecans

  1. Anonymous January 31, 2011 at 3:31 pm #

    guess what I'm gonna make =) Yum!

    itsrenee

    Reply
  2. Betsy February 1, 2011 at 12:17 am #

    Are there any other spices that would work well with this?

    Reply
  3. Angela FRS February 1, 2011 at 12:29 am #

    Betsy, you could use ginger or nutmeg for the "warm" spices, and you could use different kinds of chile (or none at all, if you don't like heat). I like the smokey flavor of the chipotle, but any chile would work.

    Reply
  4. Yenta Mary February 1, 2011 at 12:41 pm #

    Those would be absolutely addictive!!! And what a fabulous aromatherapy, too … 🙂

    Reply
  5. Angela FRS February 2, 2011 at 1:44 am #

    They smell wonderful–unless you burn a batch, which sadly I did…

    Reply

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