Pralined Pecans

These winter days that look like this:

Are making me long for this:

 The Beach....oh, the beach, how I have missed you..

I know to some of you  pralined pecans may seem like a holiday food, but to me they remind me of the beach. At the little beach town that we stay at year after year, there are tons of little gift shops. My daughter's favorite shop, we refer to as "The Shark Store." This store features a giant shark with the open mouth landing right at the front entrance of the store. The teeth dangle above your head as you walk in. My littles ones just love the idea of walking into the sharks mouth. Anyways, at the shark store, like any beach town I suppose, they sell a selection of taffy, fudge and pralined pecans. The pecans, kept warm, are usually sold in little white paper cones. I've lusted after them for many years. Finally, as I was looking for some sharks teeth one day to  hide on the beach for my sweet husband (he just loves it when I do things like that:), I finally bought some. And I have lusted for them every day since. Can you tell I adore them?

So, I was very excited to find a recipe that was so similar over at Cookin' Lean Like Paula Deen . And by the way, if you haven't visited Lindsay's blog, it is certainly worth a look, especially if your New Years resolution involved losing a few pounds. I altered this recipe just a touch because I was too chicken to use all splenda. Maybe next time, I will give the all splenda recipe a try. Instead, I used part splenda and part splenda brown sugar blend (half splenda/half brown sugar). Still, this is really so much lower in sugar than what you would find at your gift shops. Honestly, I couldn't even tell that it was low sugar. Perfect to make on a cold winter day when you're longing for the beach. Enjoy!

Pralined Pecans
adapted from Cookin Lean Like Paula Deen
Ingredients:

12 oz pecan halves
1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1/2 cup of Splenda
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Preheat oven 250 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, whip water and egg white until frothy. In a separate bowl, mix together Splenda, cinnamon and salt. Add pecans to egg white and water; coating nuts evenly. Add the sugar mixture to the bowl and mix until pecans are coated. Spread the pecans on a foil-covered cookie sheet (trust me, you'll thank me for this later when you're cleaning up). Bake for one hour; stir every 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Store in airtight container.