Pralines (butterscotch)

If you're a fan of butterscotch, you'll love this recipe.
That being said....

Butterscotch was probably my favorite flavor when I was a kid. Butterscotch candies, butterscotch pudding, butterscotch pudding pops (anyone remember those?). Up until a few years ago, I would have been all over this recipe, since the first ingredient is a package of butterscotch pudding mix. But now I'm wary of processed foods like this, especially with artificial colorings and flavorings, which make my kid sick. I've become one of those people who dislikes the idea of all those unnatural chemicals circulating through my system. It's gotten to the point where I don't care for the taste of things I used to love, like the butterscotch candies I adored as a little girl.

I'm not a die-hard about it, though. If I'm invited out for dinner, I won't turn down food just because it came out of a box. My pantry stock includes crackers, chocolate chips, and Clif Bars. And of all the unnaturally-flavored and -colored, chemical- and preservative-laden processed foods out there, the worst one is my greatest weakness: Velveeta, in the form of hot cheese dip. I can't help myself.

In any case, for the sake of this baking project, I didn't hesitate to make this recipe along with the Pralines de Mexico, because taste tests are fun!

The list of ingredients is different, but the directions are identical: melt ingredients together, boil, add nuts, boil, stir, drop onto waxed paper, cool. The cooking part was easy, as long as I kept an eye on my candy thermometer so I didn't overcook the syrup.

 

Making the other recipe first, I learned that if I stirred the syrup too long before spooning it out onto the baking sheet, it hardened in the pot before I could finish. With this recipe, I learned that if you drop the syrup onto the baking sheet too soon, you end up with blobs of sticky goo.

Sadly, of the three dozen pralines I portioned out, the first two dozen never set up, so I had to trash them. The moral of this story is that the syrup needs to be stirred and cooled to a certain point (about a minute) so that it will crystallize properly on the baking sheet.

At least I had enough good ones to do the taste test with the other recipe. The butterscotch praline is on the left:

I don't know how much my bias against the pudding mix is getting in the way, but I prefer the Pralines de Mexico. That doesn't mean I dislike the butterscotch pralines, though. In fact, I thought they were good, too. I may have liked them more if I hadn't known about the pudding mix. I took the two batches over to a friend's house to share with her family, and they loved both kinds.

The butterscotch batch actually produced nicer-looking patties than the other pralines, so aesthetically, at least, this recipe wins.
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Pralines
1 pkg butterscotch pudding mix [not instant]
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup evaporated milk
1 tbsp. butter or margarine
1 cup pecans [whole or chopped]

Combine all ingredients but nuts. Cook over low heat, stirring all the time. Add pecans and cook slowly until it forms a soft ball in cold water [about 236F]. Remove from fire and beat [about 1 minute]. Mixture thickens rapidly. Drop quickly be teaspoon on waxed paper [use a second spoon to scrape mixture off the dipping spoon].
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