Pralines de Mexico

I found two recipes for Pralines in the yellow box, so I decided it was time for another taste test. "Test" isn't an accurate term, though, because I'd already picked out the winner just by reading the ingredients. I'm generally against anything that includes pre-packaged processed foods, so the Praline recipe that called for a box of butterscotch pudding and evaporated milk was automatically #2 against this simple combination of butter, sugars, and nuts. I can't say the other recipe tasted bad, but I prefer this one.

Candy-making is tricky, though. My grandmother (along with the rest of her generation) tested the readiness of her fudge, divinity, etc., by drizzling a sample into cold water to check the firmness. I'm sure with a LOT of trial and error, I would eventually get the hang of the old-fashioned way, but I'm very much a novice, and very much reliant on my candy thermometer. Even so, I overcooked my first batch by stepping away from the stove for two minutes. The syrup hardened faster than I could spoon it out of the pot, so all I could do was dump the rest of it into a sad pile at the end of the baking sheet:

The clumps that I did manage to form ended up too hard and grainy for a proper praline patty. The good news is that they still tasted good, and were perfect for crumbling into a praline topping for ice cream! I even stirred some crumbles along with cooled caramel sauce into homemade vanilla ice cream, and oh-my-yumness, it was one of the most delicious desserts I've ever made.

I still wanted to make this recipe correctly, so I tried again the next day, with much better (though not perfect) results.

Everything but the nuts goes in the pan. Easy!

Stir occasionally until boiling (I used a wooden spoon), then add the nuts and bring to a boil again. Still easy!

I kept a close eye on the candy thermometer, and turned off the heat when the temperature hit 238F.

The next part of the instructions says to stir rapidly until mixture just begins to lose its gloss. That's a little vague, so I wasn't entirely sure if I stopped stirring at the right moment, but I at least managed to get the whole batch spooned out into individual portions, even if they weren't exactly pretty.

Between this batch and the second Praline recipe I made afterwards, I learned that the main trick is stirring prior to portioning out the mixture. If you spoon it out too soon, it stays glossy and sticky without ever setting up firm. If you stir too much, it turns opaque and hardens in the pot. The largest portion in the photo above (lowest row, second from left) was the last scrapings of the pan that I barely managed to clump together. Most of the rest of them oozed into nice little patties before setting up, and even though they aren't the pretty rounds you can find in Southern candy counters, I was really pleased with the flavor and texture (firm, but soft to bite into).

I'll have to work on my portioning technique before I go giving them out as part of my holiday goody box, but I am definitely adding this recipe to my sweet-treat repertoire.
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Pralines de Mexico
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 tbsp. butter or margarine
5 tbsp. water
1½ cups chopped pecans or 2 cups whole pecans

Combine all ingredients except nuts in a 2-quart saucepan. Bring to boil. Add nuts and continue mixing over medium heat until mixture reaches soft ball stage of 238F. Remove from heat and stir rapidly until mixture just begins to lose its gloss. Quickly* drop candy from teaspoon onto waxed paper. Allow to cool and harden.
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* Recruit a buddy to help spoon out the portions double-time.
   Also, use a second spoon to scrape the syrup off the dipping spoon.

Caramel Sauce

 
I don't have time to go back and reread all my recipe posts, but if I have ever claimed that any confection other than caramel is my favorite, I was lying. Actually, it can be almost anything in the general family of cooked sugars, with an overwhelming preference for recipes that include butter and cream. Pralines, toffee, and brittle are definitely in this category (except peanut brittle, because the legumes don't do it for me). Probably, though, if you set out a buffet of all possible sweets, I would grab a spoon and dig in for a warm slurp of buttery, smooth caramel sauce.

 
This one is perfect. I don't even have any other comments about it. Just follow the directions.
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Caramel Sauce
½ cup sugar
½ cup white corn syrup
¼ cup butter or margarine
1 cup half & half
1 tsp vanilla
 
In a saucepan, place sugar, syrup, butter, and ½ cup cream. Cook slowly, stirring frequently, until a little mixture dropped in cold water forms a hard ball [about 260F on a candy thermometer]. Add ½ cup cream and cook until a little mixture forms a thread when dropped from a spoon [about 230F]. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Serve warm. [Yield: approx. 1-½ cups]
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**BONUS TIP**

Sprinkle a tiny pinch of coarse salt (fleur de sel if you wanna get really fancy) over the caramel before serving.

**EXTRA BONUS TIP**
 Make homemade vanilla ice cream, then lightly stir in crumbled pralines and cooled caramel sauce. Mmmmmmm! (I'd share a photo, but I already ate it.)

 

***EXTRA BONUS TIP UPDATE***

Even though I ate the praline-caramel-swirl ice cream, I recreated the delicious results by spooning caramel and praline crumbles on top of plain vanilla ice cream. This time, I remembered to take a photo. How yummy does this look??

Cinnamon Almonds (radio)

A quick and simple recipe: I had these almonds in the oven and the clean-up done within fifteen minutes.

I do like them, though don't think they're worth raving about the way I have with some other gems I've found in the yellow box. There are sugared nut recipes I prefer over this one, but this sure was a super easy way to turn a bag of plain almonds into a tasty snack!

The recipe didn't say to stir the nuts while baking, but I got concerned and stirred them at the halfway point, just in case. Bad idea. They clumped up and took a couple of minutes to spread back out evenly in the pan, and it ended up being pointless, because the few nuts I didn't stir turned out just fine, and looked nicer with a smooth sugar coating (front/bottom of the photo).

I'm glad I had a nonstick mat to protect the baking sheet - I highly recommend using one, or at least a layer of parchment paper to prevent sticking.

I let them cool completely, then broke the nuts apart to store.
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Cinnamon Almonds
(Radio)

2/3 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves

1 egg white and 1 tbsp water beaten together
2 cups almonds

Dip (stir) nuts into egg white, then into sugar mix. Bake in oven 20 min at 350 degrees.

Chocolate Thins

 



What a delicious little chocolate cookie this is!

I had high ambitions for Christmas-cookie-baking this holiday season, but I didn't get very far. This was the only new recipe I ended up making... but it's a winner. As opposed to the Cocoa Drop Cookies that disappointed me two years ago, this rather dull-looking wafer delivers a lovely, rich taste of chocolate. I only wish I could make them look as pretty as they taste.

It was my first attempt at slice-and-bake cookies. I guess I've always been too impatient; when I want cookies, I want them NOW. This dough needs to chill for at least 12 hours! But it was worth it.

Rolling the dough into a log was easy enough, but when it came time to slice it, I found that the slices toward either end fell apart and I had to scrunch the dough back into a disk on the cookie sheet. The lesson learned was that the dough log needs to be well-compressed from end to end so it holds its shape when sliced. I made extremely thin slices using a sharp little Pampered Chef paring knife, and ended up with more than the predicted 48... probably closer to 60. The cookies really expanded and puffed up while baking, then settled into a delicate, crisp little wafer out of the oven.

I will definitely be making these again.
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Chocolate Thins

½ cup (1 stick) margarine [I use butter] softened
⅔ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp. brewed coffee
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1¼ cups flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Beat together butter and sugar until light; beat in egg. Stir in coffee and chocolate. Combine dry ingredients and stir to mix well, then add to the chocolate batter. Mix.

Turn dough onto a double layer of wax paper and roll into a log about 2 inches in diameter. Refrigerate until ready to use -- at least 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 400°. Cut dough into 1/8-inch slices; place on cookie sheet [allow space for expansion]. Bake 7-8 minutes until cookie is crisp and dry but not too brown.

Makes 48 cookies.
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Cheese Ball (Alcott)

I wanted to prepare a cheese ball from the Yellow Tin Box for our Christmas party this year. There were several recipes, and this one sounded more interesting than most others.

I was tempted to substitute red for the green bell pepper since I am not a fan of green, but I resisted for the sake of authenticity on this first try. Besides, I figured it was only one little teaspoon, so the flavor couldn't be that overwhelming. I also diced all the veggies very, very, very small -- minced, really -- to avoid any chunky bites and to distribute the flavor as much as possible.

Because we weren't having a very big party, I decided to halve the recipe so we wouldn't have a lot of leftovers. It wasn't until after I had mixed everything together that I realized that I had halved the cheeses, but not the rest of the ingredients! D'oh! So what I ended up with was double flavoring and veggies in the cheese ball, but y'know what? I thought it tasted just fine, so I left it as it was, chilled it for a while, then formed the ball and rolled it in finely chopped pecans.

I prepared the mixture the morning of the party, so the flavors had several hours to marry, which made it even better. Unfortunately, in the flurry of trying to prepare everything else, I forgot to take a photo until about halfway through the party. Here's what I ended up with:

That little chunk on the lower right corner of the center plate is all that was left -- and it didn't last much longer.

Our party guests absolutely raved about the cheese ball. It was a definite favorite of the party spread. One friend immediately asked for the recipe, so I handed her the card from the box, and she took photos of the recipe with her phone. Everyone agreed that it was perfect with the double-strength ingredients, so if I make it again, I will do the same. I may even use green bell pepper again... maybe.
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Cheese Ball
by Alcott 12/24/71

2 8oz pkg cream cheese
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese (shredded)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp onion, chopped fine
1 tsp green pepper, chopped fine
1 tsp pimiento, chopped fine
dash salt
dash cayenne pepper
finely chopped nuts

Cream the two cheeses. Blend in the other ingredients [except nuts] and chill. Make into ball and roll in chopped nuts.
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Lemon Squares

Funny: I was looking online for a lemon bar recipe, found one that claimed to be the "best ever," and it turned out to be almost identical to this one!

People have such different opinions when it comes to lemon-flavored treats, I don't think there can be one version of lemon bars that will please every palate. This one is more sweet than lemony, but you can definitely taste the lemon. I've made it a few times now, and started adding the zest of one lemon to give it an extra flavor boost.

For the bottom crust, the recipe I found online calls for the same ingredients, but says to blend it in a bowl using softened butter. It's simpler (requiring one less bowl) to melt the butter in the pan in the oven, but the first time I tried it, I left the pan in too long and scorched the butter a little. That could be a good thing, giving the crust the "nutty" taste of browned butter, if that appeals to you.

Two medium lemons produce approximately the 6 tablespoons of juice called for, but I've found that it doesn't have to be precisely that amount to turn out well. A bit more or less juice is fine. Plus, as I said, adding lemon zest gives it a nice kick, if you're looking for more lemon flavor. It isn't necessary, but I strained the pulp from the juice before stirring in the zest. I haven't tried bottled lemon juice, but I imagine it would suffice if that's all you have to work with.

Other than that, it's a good recipe that doesn't take much time to prepare. From the 9"x13" pan, I cut it into 12 squares.

I'd never made lemon bars before, but this recipe is going to be in my regular sweet-treat repertoire from now on!

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Lemon Squares

Crust
1 cup oleo [butter is best]
2 cups flour
½ cup powdered sugar, sifted
dash of salt

Filling
4 eggs
6 tbsp. [or ½ cup] lemon juice
[zest of 1 lemon]
2 cups sugar
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

Melt oleo [butter] in 9"x13" pan; mix flour, powdered sugar, and salt, and add to oleo. [Alternatively, using softened butter, beat ingredients in a bowl until blended.] Press down firmly in bottom of pan. Bake 20 min at 350° [until lightly browned].

Beat eggs and lemon juice - set aside. Sift sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. [Add lemon zest.] Mix with eggs. Pour on top of crust while hot. Bake 25 minutes at 350° [until lightly browned].

Sprinkle powdered sugar on top while warm.
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Chocolate Scotcheroos (Mrs. Hora)

On a snowy Sunday in December, my daughter and four other teenagers were at our house working on a school project, and the Mrs. Cleaver in me felt compelled to provide them a sweet afternoon snack. I didn't have much spare time, and didn't want to worry about waiting for something to bake in the oven, so I picked out this recipe, clipped from the now-defunct Tulsa Tribune. I was short just one of the ingredients -- the butterscotch chips -- but I was pretty sure the dessert would taste just fine without them.

The process is very similar to preparing Rice Krispie Treats -- perhaps even simpler and less messy -- but the end result is more dense and chewy. The peanut butter and chocolate go well together, of course, but I would add vanilla to the sugar mixture; the flavor seemed to lack a little something, and vanilla seems the obvious fix (as with brittle). If I make these again, I will also look for butterscotch chips (Walmart didn't carry them last time I checked); I'm sure they would enhance the overall flavor that much more.

Since there were only five kids to serve, I made a half-batch:

The recipe says to "chill until top is firm," but after an hour or so in the fridge, the block was extremely difficult to cut into squares; I think I strained some muscles in my back. Instead, I might let it sit in a cool area of the kitchen for a few hours and see if it's easier to slice.

The important thing was that the plate was empty at the end of the afternoon, so the teenagers definitely approved!
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Chocolate Scotcheroos
by Mrs. Hora

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup peanut butter, smooth or crunchy
[1 tsp vanilla]
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chocolate chips

Bring sugar and syrup just to a boil. Remove from heat and add peanut butter [and vanilla]. Then blend in Rice Krispies. Press into a buttered 13-by-9-inch pan.

Melt chips in the top of a double boiler. Spread over top and chill until top is firm. Cut into 48 pieces.
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