Sunday, May 23, 2010

SMS Butterscotch Pralines


I first tried to make pralines after a visit to Savannah, Georgia at least fifteen years ago. The candy shops along River Street entice you into their shops by handing out melt-in-your-mouth pecan pralines and I couldn't wait to recreate the experience at home. Unfortunately, my pralines were a disaster! The recipe is simple, yet the sugar has to be cooked to just the right temperature to get the right consistency. This failure kept me from trying pralines again until now.

Tess over at the Cookin Chemist selected Butterscotch Pralines as this week's Sweet Melissa Sunday's recipe. Several of the SMS bakers had trouble cooking the sugar and/or getting it to the right consistency but they all thought the taste of the candies was great. I readied myself to be frustrated by sugar that would take forever to get the right temperature and then still not set up properly. BUT, it didn't happen! Everything worked beautifully! I made sure to have everything in place so that when the sugar reached the right temp, I would be ready to mix and scoop quickly. I also changed my sugar cooking strategy from babysitting it to just turning the burner on, throwing in the candy thermometer and then walking away until it reached about 225 degrees. At that point, I just checked it every few minutes until it reached the correct temperature of 238 and then got it off the heat. The mixture does set up insanely fast and I would have liked all of my candies to puddle a little more to get the traditional praline shape but the shape doesn't affect the flavor at all. I toasted my pecans in the oven for a few minutes since this recipe has so few ingredients and I wanted the pecan flavor to be prominent. I also was a little short of a full cup of light brown sugar and used dark brown to make up the difference.

The pralines are incredibly SWEET but delicious. I really like the butterscotch flavor and have had to hide them or I will eat them until I am literally sick. This recipe is definately a keeper!

Thanks for hosting this week Tess! You can find the recipe on her blog here and check out the other SMS bakers, here.



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15 comments:

  1. Candace,

    Your pralines look great. I like how you put them on the pecans.

    (Tess' link does work for me...you may want to check the link to see that it works).

    Carmen

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  2. These look great! I'm like you - I've never had success boiling sugar - UNTIL this recipe! Woohoo, we've overcome our candy making problems! :)

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  3. Hooray for a successful candy-making experience! I'm so glad it went well for you! Your pralines look wonderful :) My pralines didn't set up but I left the butterscotch chips out so I'm sure that was the reason. I made a different recipe without butterscotch and those turned out perfectly!

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  4. Your pralines look beautiful! I tried one today and don't really care for them, too sweet for me.

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  5. What a smart idea to toast the pecans -- I wish I'd thought about that. I used dark brown sugar too, it was good!

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  6. Yum these look great! I am definitely craving me some pralines now!

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  7. Yeah! So glad they worked out for you!! I thought they were insanely sweet, too. I bet the toasted pecans tasted great.

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  8. How did you get your perfect circles? my patties were amorphous blobs... But they are pretty tasty aren't they?

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  9. Your pralines look perfect :) Job well done.

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  10. Your pralines turned out beautiful! I agree they are insanely sweet. Glad to hear you didn't have any issues getting them to behave. Candy is so fickle.

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  11. Great idea to toast the pecans. We really enjoyed them too - my husband even made me make more :-) Thanks for boiling sugar along with me!

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  12. Your prailines look great. I'm glad that you tried making them after that first time.

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  13. Sweet candy success! Very exciting. Your pralines look terrific.

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  14. Your pralines turned out beautifully! I love the photo! I over-mixed mine so the praline mixture was stiff. You are right about the candy still tasting great =0)

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  15. i'm such a praline freak, i can't believe i've never even thought of making them at home before

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