Bourbon Old Fashioned Pecans
These sweet & spicy pecans taste exactly like a Bourbon Old Fashioned cocktail! Dried cherries, bourbon, orange zest, and a sweet and spicy glaze makes an excellent cocktail snack and perfect for a holiday gathering.
An Old Fashioned cocktail consists of the following: bourbon, sugar, bitters, orange zest, and a boozy cherry. The smoky and slightly sweet notes of the bourbon, plus the sugar, are balanced with the fruitiness of the orange and cherry. The slight taste of the bitters brings everything into balance. It is a cocktail everyone who drinks should try at least once!
How long does Bourbon Old Fashioned Pecans take to make?
This glazed pecan recipe can be completed in about an hour. Soaking dried cherries in bourbon takes 30 minutes, while prepping the ingredients, sauteeing the nuts in the glaze and then finishing them in the oven takes another 30 minutes in total.
Let’s talk about the ingredients for Bourbon Old Fashioned Pecans
Pecans – Pecans are sweet with a slight bitterness, so they evoke the bitters of the original cocktail. Their size and shape lends well to coating with the sticky glaze.
Bourbon — Choose a bourbon you enjoy!
Orange zest – Adding the orange zest at the end keeps the essential oils fresh and tangy
Dried cherries – Soaking the cherries in bourbon makes them plump and tender, and taste like the boozy cherry so often associated with the Old Fashioned cocktail.
Can I Make Substitutions?
Pecans – The only substitution I would make for this recipe is with the nuts. You can use mixed nuts, or try a mixture of pecans and walnuts to keep that bitter edge.
How to make Bourbon Old Fashioned Pecans without alcohol
The short answer is that you can’t —Bourbon is the main ingredient! However, I do have an idea for how you might try to make this without alcohol, but the flavour will be slightly different.
Replace the ½ cup of bourbon with ½ cup warm water with 2 teaspoons of rum extract added. Use this mixture to soak the cherries instead of the bourbon.
The Bourbon Old Fashioned Pecans Method
Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper, aluminum foil, or a silicone mat and set aside.
Soak the dried cherries in bourbon for 30 minutes.
While that’s soaking, mix your sugar and spices in a bowl and set aside.
In a large non-stick skillet, toast the pecans over medium-high heat until they smell toasted and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Lower the heat to medium and add the sugar / spice mixture and stir to coat.
Turn off the heat and add the bourbon / cherry mixture — it will bubble up and cause lots of steam, so stand back! When it calms down, turn the heat under the skillet back on to medium, and stir until the syrupy glaze is almost gone, about 8-10 minutes.
Spread the glazed pecans in a single layer in your prepared baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring once half-way through.
Let cool completely out of the oven, and then zest the orange directly over the glazed pecans. Stir well, and store in a sealed container.
These make a great gift!
Bourbon Old Fashioned Pecans
Equipment
- Sheet pan
- parchment paper or aluminum foil or silicone mat
- Large non-stick skillet
- 2 mixing bowls
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried tart cherries packed
- ½ cup Bourbon
- ½ cup dark brown sugar packed
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 cups pecan halves
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp orange zest or from one small orange
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a sheet pan by lining with parchment paper, aluminum foil, or a silicone mat. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, add dried cherries. Using your hands, break up any large clumps of cherries. Add bourbon and stir. Set aside to soak for at least 30 minutes.
- In another small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper and set aside.
- In a large non-stick skillet, heat pecans over medium-high heat until they smell fragrant and toasty, about 5 minutes.
- Add sugar / spice mixture and stir until the nuts are completely coated.
- Turn off the heat and add the bourbon cherry mixture (see note). It will bubble up a lot and create a lot of steam, so stand back! Once this has settled down after a few seconds, turn the heat back on to medium, cooking until the syrup reduces to a thick glaze and has almost disappeared, about 8-12 minutes.
- Spread the glazed nuts on the sheet pan in a single layer, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, stirring once.half-way through.
- Cool completely out of the oven, and then zest the orange over the nuts and stir well to coat every nut in the zest and oils from the orange.
- Store in a sealed contained.
- These nuts make a great gift! The recipe will make 6 – 1 cup jars of nuts to give away. Enjoy!