How To: Bake garlic and sugar spiced pecans for the holidays

Holiday nuts are a go-to snack during this busy season. But those canned cashews and almonds and pecans you can get at the store have been sitting there on the shelves for longer than you can imagine.

So treat yourself to some fresh, vibrantly flavored nuts this season by baking your own. Check out this food tutorial to learn how to make spiced pecans.

Pecans have an innate sweetness that makes for a great snack. Barbara Heiberg lightly toasts them stove-top in butter, garlic, black pepper, cayenne, salt and sugar to make them both sweet and savory. Once toasted, they're given a last-minute hand toss with sea salt and sugar in this how2heroes video. While this recipe offers salty, peppery and garlicky pecans, you can also try toasting them in butter and cinnamon and use peanuts or walnuts. Variety is the spice of life.