Ingredients
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar, granulated
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp corn syrup, dark
8 oz pecan halves
3/4 cup water, boiling
24 cupcake papers
Directions
Place the white sugar, brown sugar, milk and corn syrup in a heavy
about 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir to thoroughly
dissolve.
Measuring the temperature with a candy thermometer, stir constantly
with a long-handled wooden spoon. When the mixture reaches "jelly"
temperature on the thermometer (220 degrees), it will bubble
furiously. Splattering is a danger (this is why you want a spoon with
a long handle). You may wish to wear heavy rubber gloves for further
protection. Continue stirring until mixture reaches 256 degrees
("medium-ball" stage).
Remove from heat, add vanilla and let it sit for 10 minutes. During
this time, set out the cupcake papers on the countertop and place 3-4
pecan halves in each paper.
Beat the mixture by hand with the wooden spoon, while it is still in
the pan, until it loses its glossy sheen. This can take up to 10
minutes or more, and calls for a strong arm.
At this point, the mixture will very quickly begin to form lumps and
harden in the pan. As this begins to happen, return the pan to low
heat; add boiling hot water a tablespoon at a time, and beat out the
lumps until nearly all are gone. Add just enough water so that the
mixture is somewhat runny and has lost much of its previous lumpy
consistency (no more than about
3/4 cup of water, and often much less.) Leaving a few lumps is
permissible and often unavoidable.
Remove from heat and spoon it into the cupcake papers. Let it harden
for 20-30 minutes, then remove papers. Be sure not to let the papers
remain on after the candy has hardened somewhat or they will be
difficult to remove later.
Store the pralines in an airtight container.
NOTES:
* Texas-style creamy pecan cookies -- My family is from Texas, and
we dearly love "authentic" Mexican food. Authentic as defined by my
father: home-style Tex-Mex. (On a trip to Acapulco, he complained
that he couldn't find any real Mexican food in the whole damn town.)
We feel that the perfect ending to an orgy of tacos, enchiladas,
tamales, beans, rice and Dos Equis beer is pralines. However, we have
been consistently disappointed by the pralines served at restaurants.
They are always either crystalline and crunchy, or sticky like
undercooked taffy. Both are equally unacceptable.
At the age of 10, I decided to try my hand at making pralines, and
happened on a recipe in a current (1958) issue of _The Ladies Home
Journal_, which I accidently adapted to make the perfect praline, not
gooey, not crunchy, but of a solid consistency that becomes creamy in
texture as it is eaten. The secret is to first screw up the recipe
(at this point you are tempted to throw the whole thing out,
including the pot) and then rectify the mistake into a wonderfully
sinful sugary concoction. Now, no Mexican dinner or Christmas candy
plate at our house is complete without them. Yield: Makes 16-24.
: Difficulty: moderate to hard.
: Time: 30 minutes cooking, 30 minutes cooling.
: Precision: Measure the ingredients and the temperatures.
: Pamela McGarvey
: UCLA Comprehensive Epilepsy Program
: {ihnp4!sdcrdcf,ucbvax!ucla-cs,hao}!cepu!pam
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Servings: 1 batch
Pecan Pralines Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Candy; Nut; Pecan
The History of Recipes
We are able to trace the history of written recipes far back into the far past, at least as far back into recorded history as the ancient Egyptians, and potentially, even further back. In practice though, in the main part, these old recipes were just simple pictorial instructions for preparing food.
As we move into The time of the roman empire 25BC a man called Apicius created a number of documents which described recipes cooked by wealthy Romans. In his works, Apicius describes how the meals were divided into appetizers, main course and desserts, known in latin as `Gustatio, Primae Mensae and Secundae Mensae`. This early Roman chef tells us how the cooks of his times used many different aromatic flavours, including some familiar names like bay, rue and dill. Over the next few centuries, the rich families of Wesstern Europe tried to serve up the most exotic banquets, and because of this the best cooks and their recipes were greatly in demand. Nevertheless, it was during the nineteenth century that cookery and cookery books really came of age. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated their lives to collating, trying out, and writing down recipes that were common in the better off homes of the day. The introduction of television brings us celebrity TV chefs and the accompanying recipe books. Which brings us neatly up to date and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everyone to search through thousands of recipes like those on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Pecan Pralines recipe.
