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Pralines
1 7/8 cups powdered sugar 2 cups hickory nut or pecan meat, cut in pieces 1 cup maple syrup 1/2 cup cream Boil first three ingredients until, when tried in cold water, a soft ball may be formed. Remove from fire, and beat until of a creamy consistency; add nuts, and drop from tip of spoon in small piles on buttered paper, or mixture may be poured into a buttered tin and cut in squares, using a sharp knife.
A New Orleans-style praline built on maple syrup rather than the more usual brown sugar, and worked like fudge rather than poured hot. Everything depends on stopping the boil at the right stage and beating at the right moment.
- "Powdered sugar" hereIn books of this period powdered sugar generally means finely granulated sugar, not modern confectioners' sugar with its cornstarch. Use ordinary granulated; confectioners' sugar will not boil to a clean soft ball.
- The odd measure1 7/8 cups is 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons, about 13 oz / 375 g. Rounding to a level 2 cups will not ruin the batch, though it firms the candy slightly.
- Soft ball, in numbersSoft ball is 235-240F (113-116C) on a candy thermometer. The cold-water test still works: a spoonful dropped into ice water should gather into a ball that flattens between the fingers when lifted out.
- When to beatThis is the hinge. Let the syrup cool somewhat off the fire before beating, then beat until it loses its gloss and thickens. Beating a boiling-hot syrup tends to give coarse grain; waiting too long sets the mass in the pan.
- Watch the creamThe half cup of cream makes this a milk candy that scorches easily. Use a heavy pan, stir until the sugar dissolves, and keep the heat moderate rather than fast.
- NutsHickory nuts are a foraged item now and rarely sold; pecans are the practical choice. Toast them lightly and warm them before adding, so they do not chill the candy into setting prematurely.
- Buttered paperParchment, lightly buttered, is the modern equivalent. Work fast once the nuts go in: the mixture stiffens within a minute or two.
- YieldSomething on the order of 1 3/4 lb of candy, roughly 30 dropped pralines or an 8x8-inch tin cut into squares. Store airtight; humid weather makes them weep.