Pralines

I live in Charleston, South Carolina now and when we go down town we always get free praline samples... but we never buy them because they are 16 dollars a pound... not gonna happen!!! So my friend Jen came to visit me and she suggested we look up a recipe and try to make them ourselves!! Genius!! They turned out really good, a bit too sweet if you have more than one! I think I'll try tweaking it a little but I was really happy with the results!

I got this recipe from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pralines/Detail.aspx

I used half and half instead of milk and I didn't have a thermometer (gotta get me one of those!!) but we just guessed and it turned out pretty good, we probably let it go just a bit too long like 30 seconds or so but it was still good :)

Pralines

1 1/2 cups toasted pecans (I used pecan halves and only roasted them for a few minutes)

1 1/2 cup white sugar

3/8 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup half and half

In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine pecans, sugar, butter, brown sugar, half an half, and vanilla. Heat to between 234-240 degrees F or until a mall amount of the syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball the flattens when removed from the water and placed on a flat surface... like I mentioned we just kinda guessed at when it was ready. Drop by spoonfuls onto a prepared baking sheet and let them cool completely. Instead of a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil I just buttered up my counter (we have a silestone counter top... not quite the huge marble slab they use in Charleston but it worked great!