A Sweet Little Recipe

Gentle friends, I've had quite a few requests for my recipe for the pralines I've been making.  It's one I made up from watching about 30 really wonderful cooks on youtube making Pralines all different ways with little tweaks .... and then I did my due diligence and read numerous recipes using all kinds of ingredients and different techniques... There are as many ways to Pralines as there are stars in the sky.... this is just my way and those that have gotten them this year have had nice things to say ...

so here goes...

Pralines

Yield 22 to 26

1 1/2 C white sugar

1/2 C Dark Brown Sugar

4 Tbls Salted Butter

1/8 teas Baking Soda

3/4 C 1/2 & 1/2 

2 C Chopped Pecans

1/4 teas salt

1 teas Vanilla 

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You have to get everything ready before you turn the stove on.... chop up the pecans...

... get the vanilla and salt .....

... layout the piece of parchment on the counter and get the tablespoons ... 

... now you can turn the stove on... put the sugars, butter, soda and 1/2 & 1/2 in a heavy pot, turn the stove on a little higher than medium-high.... start that sucker going...

... keep stirring, not briskly but enough to keep everything a'moving... as it all comes to a boil...

... when the temp hits 211 (by the time I got my camera for the shot it got to 214) I like to add them at this point as the cooking of the nuts makes the praline have a nuttier flavour.

...add the chopped pecans and turn the heat to just under medium-high heat...  by adding the pecans this will bring the temps down a bit and slows the cooking up ...  you now just keep stirring constantly and letting the temp get to 236 on the thermometer...  I missed that shot...  as it cooks the viscosity changes and you'll see the praline pulling away from the bottom of the pan...

... when the temp hits a solid 236 immediately take it off the heat and add the vanilla (or bourbon) and the salt and beat for 3 minutes...

... after the 3 minutes beating drop by tablespoon full onto the parchment paper, this must be done quickly as it will start to get firm the cooler it gets... I let them sit out on the counter overnight before bagging them up...  enjoy!  This takes about 35 minutes or so to make and yields about 22 to 26 pralines depending on the size you make them.

Now, what I was aiming for was a bourbon flavoured praline when I started out and nowhere did I find one so I just replace the vanilla.... and the teaspoon of bourbon in place of vanilla hit the mark and was popular with those that like bourbon, and the alcohol burns off with the heat leaving just the delicious flavour.  But, vanilla it's traditional and for gifting works lovely.  I'm thinking of other flavours of praline and will be experimenting during the year.  

Let me know if you've any questions, This season I've made a few hundred of these suckers one recipe at a time... and they have been a hit so far!!

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There you go sports fans.  Thanks again for stopping by do stop again!!

Good Thoughts!  Good Words!  Good Deeds!

edgar


Addendum: I had a couple of questions.... 1/2 & 1/2 is a blend of regular milk and light cream... more fat than milk but less fat than cream... I always have some in the fridge as that's what I prefer in coffee, so I thought why not and it worked a dream  I think just cream would work fine or you could thin out the cream with a little milk. 

When I say beat for 3 minutes I mean to keep stirring vigorously for the three minutes.  I also found a couple of times that the praline mixture started to seize up during this time as it was cooling too fast, and I just popped it back on the warm burner for a few seconds to get it back to the right consistency before dropping onto the parchment paper.  I think in the last few weeks I've made enough that I've gotten to that point of knowing the "feel" of the candy, it just comes with practice, but the mixture has to be loose enough to scoop and stiff enough not to run all over the place.  I hope this helps.