This beautiful sweet pecan kugel was passed along to my mother many years ago and she’s been making it at holiday parties ever since I was a child.
Sweet Pecan Kugel
This beautiful sweet pecan kugel was passed along to my mother many years ago and she’s been making it at holiday parties ever since I was a child. We have a variety of kugels in the family but this is a particular favorite of mine. It’s sweet, but it’s versatile. It can accompany breakfast or a light lunch, and it works well as a side dish with meat, chicken or fish for dinner. And it works great as a dessert! You make it very much like an upside down cake, flipping it over after it’s done baking and has cooled for a few minutes. You can make the first part (the topping) one or two days beforehand and leave it covered in the refrigerator. You can make the entire kugel ahead of time and freeze it; defrosting it the day before you use it. Enjoy!
Sweet Pecan Kugel
Ingredients
Topping:
- 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 large package whole pecans
Filling:
- 16 ounce bag broad egg noodles
- 4 large eggs
- 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
To make the topping:
- Melt the butter and pour evenly into the bottom of a 10 1/2 inch Bundt pan.
- Add the brown sugar to the pan and it spread evenly all around, combining with the butter.
- Next you will be placing whole pecans into the butter/brown sugar mixture in a decorative, circular designs- one inner circle, one outer circle. Sort through the bag of pecans and select nuts that look pretty and are similar in size. You'll need approximately 40 pecans. Keep in mind that you will be turning this upside down at the end, so the top side of the pecan will be pressed down into the sugar mixture.
- Start with the inner circle and carefully line up whole pecans one by one, the end of each pecan touching the center pole of Bundt pan until you've created the circle.
- Next, move the the outer edge of the Bundt pan. End to end, carefully make a circle of pecans around the outer edge of the pan, pressing them slightly into the sugar/butter mixture.
- Place the Bundt pan in the refrigerator to set and harden for at least an hour.
To prepare the filling:
- Boil noodles for 3-5 minutes. Don't overcook them; they'll be cooking further in the oven. Drain well and set aside.
- Beat the eggs lightly.
- Add the sugar, melted butter, cinnamon and salt to eggs and combine evenly.
- Add egg mixture to the egg noodles.
To assemble the kugel:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
- Take chilled, set Bundt pan out of the refrigerator.
- If the egg/noodle mixture has settled, give it a quick stir. Carefully pour it into the Bundt pan. Spread the noodles evenly.
- Place the Bundt pan into the oven on the center rack. Bake for 45-60 minutes, until set.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Then carefully run a knife along the edges or gently shake kugle to loosen.
- Using a pot holder, put a plate under the hot Bundt pan. Holding the Bundt pan firmly against the plate, invert the kugle. Carefully remove Bundt pan.
- Some of pecans may have dislodged; simply replace them into the circular design.
- Serve warm or room temperature.
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Recipe Troubleshooting
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thanks for this recipe, my sister asked me if I could make this, and it is just as she described it! Can you tell me if It is okay to refrigerate it if I make it a day ahead of time??
Ty
Hi Allyn! You can definitely make this a day ahead of time and refrigerate it! Cover it with plastic wrap or, preferably, a cake stand top if you have one to avoid messing up the pecan topping. The pecans are fairly easy to replace if some of them get moved around, but if you use plastic wrap you can also use some toothpicks on top to separate the plastic. Enjoy!
I rarely look on the internet for recipes but needed a holiday dish to bring to a potluck! What a wonderful idea, and thank you for such a treat. I made kugel for my kids who are now grown up, and now I am feeding my friends! Thanks for such a creative idea for kugel. Debbie
I have a question about the sweet pecan kugel. Have you ever added raisins? Do you think that would work? Would you need to make any recipe adjustments?
Thanks, Val
I’ve never added raisins, but that should be totally fine! No adjustments necessary. Let me know how it turns out! :)
When I made a version of this recipe, it called for apricots in the noodle layer. Excellent.
If I make on Tuesday should I freeze or keep in fridge for Friday night?
Thanks for posting this recipe–I grew up with a variation of this and have missed it. In trying to remember back then, I seem to recall that my family’s version also had cottage cheese in it (I seem to recall cottage cheese flecks throughout). Have you ever tried adding a cup (or 2?) of cottage cheese to this recipe? Likewise, I see that many other kugel recipes will add sour cream (and some cream cheese as well) and wonder how that would fair here–it may be, however, that sour cream would add too much of a liquid addition for a bundt pan turnout (which is what our family recipe called for as well). Thanks for any tips–and for this recipe!
By the way, you cleverly have solved the pecan dilemma with this recipe (the brown-sugared pecans always were the desired prize for us), by increasing my family’s use of a pecan in each bundt pan section to continuous pecans, and two rows of them, at that–good show! :)