Pralines
By Cecelia JenkinsPublished on June 12, 2020
Time
45 minutes, plus 1 hour cooling
Yield
Makes about 16 candies
Ingredients
Before You Begin
You will need a digital instant-read thermometer for this recipe. It is important to use a long-handled metal spoon to stir and portion these candies so that your hands remain a safe distance from the hot sugar. In step 4, you may end up with fewer than 16 pralines. The 3-inch circles on the underside of the parchment paper will help with portioning. A standard 12-ounce can of evaporated milk is about 3 inches in diameter.
Instructions
- Using pencil, draw 8 evenly spaced 3-inch circles, in 2 rows of 4, on each of two 16 by 12-inch sheets of parchment paper. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with marked parchment, marked side down.
- Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, evaporated milk, butter, and salt in large saucepan. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently with long-handled metal spoon. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and continue to boil, stirring frequently and making sure to scrape corners of saucepan, until mixture registers 236 to 238 degrees, 9 to 13 minutes longer. (To take temperature, tilt saucepan so sugar mixture pools to 1 side.)
- Reduce heat to low and stir in pecans. Stir constantly over low heat for 3 minutes (mixture will thicken slightly and lighten in color).
- Keep saucepan over low heat. Working quickly, spoon approximate 2-tablespoon portions of praline mixture onto each parchment circle and immediately spread with spoon so mixture fills out circle (use dinner spoon to help scrape mixture from long-handled spoon if necessary).
- Let sit until firm, at least 1 hour. (Be careful when moving sheets; underside will be hot after portioning pralines.) Serve.
- Pralines can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
to make ahead
Time
45 minutes, plus 1 hour coolingYield
Makes about 16 candiesIngredients
Ingredients
Ingredients
Why This Recipe Works
This famous New Orleans candy is made of boiled sugar and enriched with butter and milk and laden with pecans. It’s cooked to a melt-in-your-mouth texture that is set but crumbly, not crack-your-teeth hard. For our version, we started with a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar (for deeper flavor) and added them to a large saucepan with evaporated milk, butter, and a good amount of salt to balance out the sweetness. Using evaporated milk—milk with 60 percent of the water removed—gave us a head start in boiling the moisture out of the mixture. Achieving the pralines’ signature texture came down to two main factors: boiling the mixture to about 237 degrees, which meant the finished pralines were soft, and stirring it (frequently before adding the pecans and constantly for 3 minutes after), which meant the pralines set up once cooled. Portioning them was tricky and meant working quickly so that the mixture didn’t set up too early. A few factors remedied this: We kept the pot over low heat so that the mixture stayed fluid and used a long-handled spoon that kept our hands a safe distance from the hot sugar.
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