So the people voted (all 10 of them) and it was a tie. I would have to try making both the sugar glazed pecans in the crockpot and tcutting glass with string, nail polish remover and fire. First up were the pecans.
Ingredients:
- 16 ounces pecans or walnut halves
- 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Preparation:
Turn slow cooker to HIGH about 15 minutes in advance. In hot slow cooker, stir together the nuts and butter. Add the powdered sugar, stirring to blend and coat evenly. Cover and cook on HIGH for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to LOW and remove lid; cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 2 to 3 hours, or until the nuts are coated with a crisp glaze.
Transfer the nuts to a bowl.
In another small bowl, combine the spices; sift over the nuts, stirring to coat evenly.
Let cool before serving.
I broke my cardinal rule of crockpot cooking and forgot to put in a crockpot liner. I was too eager to get going and I didn't notice until I already had the butter and pecans in the pot (and that pot is still soaking in the sink, so that's my punishment). The beginning is pretty easy, turn the crockpot on high for 15 minutes, then throw in melted butter and pecans and stir that around, add powdered sugar and stir that around. After the initial 15 minutes on high you just need to go back every 20-30 minutes and stir it up (while it's on low). The smell in the house was incredible and that alone was almost (almost) worth the cost of the pecans (which are crazy expensive by the way). At the end of 3 hours the pecans looked like this.
Transfer the nuts to a bowl.
In another small bowl, combine the spices; sift over the nuts, stirring to coat evenly.
Let cool before serving.
I broke my cardinal rule of crockpot cooking and forgot to put in a crockpot liner. I was too eager to get going and I didn't notice until I already had the butter and pecans in the pot (and that pot is still soaking in the sink, so that's my punishment). The beginning is pretty easy, turn the crockpot on high for 15 minutes, then throw in melted butter and pecans and stir that around, add powdered sugar and stir that around. After the initial 15 minutes on high you just need to go back every 20-30 minutes and stir it up (while it's on low). The smell in the house was incredible and that alone was almost (almost) worth the cost of the pecans (which are crazy expensive by the way). At the end of 3 hours the pecans looked like this.
Some of the pecans had a nice sugar glaze but the butter was still melty at the bottom and a lot of them were more buttery (not that that's a bad thing) than crunchy. I poured these into a Pyrex bowl to get ready to be seasoned.
This is what was left behind, not the worst crockpot mess I have dealt with but still, so take this as a warning! I mixed the spices in a separate bowl, sprinkled them in and stirred it around. I let them cool for at least 2 hours and they were still very oily from the butter. Taste wise they are great, the spices aren't over powering but they do give it great flavor. That being said, they still don't hold a candle to the ones you buy at the fair. These are good but those are better, but these are a great substitute and would probably great during the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays (and easier than a pecan pie to boot).
So obviously you know the win, now here is the fail (which I was super bummed about) the glass cutting. I pinned this a few weeks ago and was excited at the prospect of trying it (and kicking myself for not knowing how to do this in college when I had way more glass bottles at my disposal). The instructions were found at http://valueplus.tumblr.com/post/18772917574/accidentalcharm-i-am-a-girl-who-likes-her. I was very careful (and so should you if you attempt to recreate this) and followed all of her instructions.
So obviously you know the win, now here is the fail (which I was super bummed about) the glass cutting. I pinned this a few weeks ago and was excited at the prospect of trying it (and kicking myself for not knowing how to do this in college when I had way more glass bottles at my disposal). The instructions were found at http://valueplus.tumblr.com/post/18772917574/accidentalcharm-i-am-a-girl-who-likes-her. I was very careful (and so should you if you attempt to recreate this) and followed all of her instructions.
She used a Jameson bottle, I had an empty Woodchuck Cider bottle. I bought butcher twine at the grocery store (100% pure cotton), and used regular nail polish remover. The idea is to measure the twine to wrap around the bottle, dip the twine in the acetone, tie it around the bottle, clean up any residual acetone (and for god sakes wash your hands), and light the mother up (I also had a sink full of cold water, she had a bucket).
The problem was that the string would not stay on fire. If the lighter was next to it it would burn (but only where the flame was) but as soon as you unclicked the lighter it stopped burning. We tried two different times, making sure the twine soaked in the acetone for a good 3 minutes and still it was nothing like what the other blogger got to happen.
Now we are fans of Mythbusters and in true Mythbusters fashion we couldn't let this go as a total failure. So I soaked more twine in isopropyl alcohol for over 20 minutes, used a thinner bottle (had to sacrifice a Bud Light Platinum, beer gods forgive me), and Joe got out the torch. Here are the results:
No comments:
Post a Comment