1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 each egg
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preparation time: 25 minutes Baking time: 10 to 12 minutes
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and egg. Stir in
flour, vanilla and pecans. Mix well by hand. Shape into balls about
the size of walnuts, place on cookie sheets and flatten to about 1/8
inch.
2. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until brown. Remove from oven and
allow to cool completely and harden.
Winner Jean McGree of Flossmoor "bores everyone," she says, with
this family tale of Christmas praline cookies: "Since the time Mom
had been a little girl, each November Grandma would surround her back
yard pecan tree with sheets to catch the falling nuts. But most of
the nuts had to be knocked from the branches with her long-handled
broom. Then she would spend hours stooped over those sheets, picking
up the pecans and sorting the good ones from the black and hollow
shells.
"When her daughter married and moved away, the nuts were carefully
picked over, packaged and shipped 'up North.' Free time in the first
week of December was always marked for shelling the pecans. Sore
hands and stiff backs were repaid with secret nibbling and promises
of praline cookies for Christmas.
"Soon, I'll start looking for a package from Great-Grandma in South
Carolina. Then, as we crack the pecans, I can retell the 'pecan
story' to Michael and Ann, who know that Santa always looks for
pralines on Christmas Eve." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food
Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 4, 1986
Servings: 36 servings
1986 Winner: Praline Cookies Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Candy; Cookie
The History of Recipes
Academics have traced the existence of recipes back into antiquity, in fact as far back as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and possibly even further. Interesting though that maybe, mostly, these ancient cook books were just primitive hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for preparing food.
The truth of the matter is, the oldest recipe found, according to academics are a few clay tablets in Sumerian describing the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel exhilarated. As we move into Roman times 25BC a man called Apicius created a number of scripts detailing recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. In his scrolls, he recounts how the meals of wealthy Romans were divided into hors d`oeuvres, entrees and desserts, something that is very familiar to us today. Additionally, he informs us how the ancient chefs used a wide range of spices, including a few that are still present in modern kitchens such as thyme, rue and parsley. As we move on, we have two recipe books from the 14th Century : one book called `Forme of Cury`, and another entitled `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are somewhat misleading tho`, these books are nothing to do with the indian curry that appears on menues today, but rather accounts of the types of meals on the menus of the rich and powerful of that time. Later, in the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought us many foods, spices and herbs from the holy land, including coriander, parsley, basil and rosemary. The introduction of these new culinary ideas created a surge in recipe books, some of which are now in private cookery archives. During the next few centuries, the rich families of the West competed to offer the best banquets, and consequentially the best cooks and their collection of recipes were greatly in demand. However, it wasn`t until the 1800s that cookery and recipe publications rose to prominence. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the USA, devoted their lives to assembling, testing, and recording popular recipes of the day. By the advent of the 20th century, cooking publications were in great demand, due to better eduction, people having more leisure time and having more money. |
We hope you enjoy this 1986 Winner_ Praline Cookies recipe.
