Today I’m sharing my family’s recipe for crockpot cinnamon pecans that we make every year for the holidays:
I played around with the original recipe to make it much healthier and lower in sugar, and no one could tell a difference.
That’s my goal with all of the recipes I publish here on the blog.
It’s a sign of a successful healthy dessert if the people to whom you serve it don’t feel like they’re missing anything and would gladly pick the healthy version over the original.
These slow cooker pecans–completely vegan and free of refined sugar–make such an excellent gift.
People appreciate the cinnamon pecans because they are homemade and taste delicious… and all you have to do is throw everything in the slow cooker and sit back as the machine does all the work for you!
Also Try This Healthy Sweet Potato Bread
This family-favorite Christmas recipe is one of the three recipes I made for my holiday recipe appearance on Dr. Oz this past month.
Here are a few more photos from my segment on The Dr. Oz Show.
Craft stores such as Michaels or JoAnn are great places to go if you want to package the pecans up and hand them out as gifts.
Most craft stores will sell holiday-themed paper and tin boxes (like the santa box above) at a pretty good price.
Another option is to place the nuts in clear bags tied with holiday ribbons. I could honestly spend hours in craft stores.
**If you don’t have a crock pot, I’ve also included oven instructions in the recipe below.
Cinnamon Pecans
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3 cups sliced raw pecans, or other raw nuts
- optional 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
Instructions
- Slow Cooker Version: Lightly coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray. Place all ingredients except pecans inside, and stir to combine. Stir in the nuts, and turn the heat to low. Put the lid on and cook 2 hours, stirring once after the first hour. Remove the lid and stir, then cover again and continue cooking an additional hour on low. Pour the contents onto a cookie sheet or large platter, and break up any large clumps. Allow to cool completely, and they will harden as they cool. Transfer to decorative tins for gifts.Oven Version: Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Stir together all ingredients in a large bowl, then spread out on the cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes, turn with a spoon, then bake another 5-10 minutes as needed. Store leftovers in a decorative tin for up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 4 months.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
More Easy Holiday Recipes:
Snowball Cookies – 60 calories each
These look amazing…I love pecans and I love cinnamon! I never would have thought to make these in a crock pot! I made about 5 batches of pralines over the holidays to give as gifts so you can imagine how much I had to stand at the stove stirring to make them!!
As a child I used to eat a lot of these, and never knew how they were made. What memories.
Delicious and my house smells great, too. I made these this morning and they are so good.
I made these for a holiday party of mine and they went so fast! I’m going to use them from now on because I got so many compliments!
I made a double batch of this recipe, using the oven method, and loved it!! I took them to a party where there ended up being 2 other versions of this recipe and your version was the best – there were barely any left over (and there were plenty of the other 2 types still there.) Definitely using this for a gift idea next Christmas. Thank you and congratulations on the Dr. Oz show!
Hi Katie, what size was the slow cooker? I will probably need to adjust the amount for mine… 🙂 Mine is 5.2 quart (5 litre)
4 quart 🙂
Would this work with agave and almonds for a lower glycemic option?
I made one batch with almonds. They tasted great, but turned out to be more chewy and gooey instead of crispy and crunchy. My guess is that the fat content and surface area of the pecans works better vs. almonds.
I’m confused lol. Cook for two hours with the lid and then remove the lid and cook for one hour more?
I’m confused too. Do they cook for a total of 2 hours or 3 hours? Please write back!
340 degrees, 5 minutes, shake, 5 more minutes – in the air fryer!
If you are looking for a sweet and more of a candied nut recipe I would cut down on the salt. I was expecting these to be more sweet than salty and unfortunately that was not the case. They are still very good but the salt is prominent and that was not what I was hoping for.