Pralines
2 cups powdered sugar 1 cup maple syrup 1/2 cup cream 2 cups nut meats Boil the sugar, maple syrup and cream together until a little dropped in cold water will form a soft ball. Remove from fire; beat till creamy; add the nuts and drop by spoonfuls on buttered paper or tins.
A straightforward maple-pecan praline, but two words in the ingredient list mean something different now than they did when it was written.
- "Powdered sugar" is not confectioners' sugar"Powdered sugar" here is probably not modern confectioners' sugar: in American books of this period powdered sugar often meant a finer grade of granulated sugar, ground finer than the sugar sold as granulated but not the cornstarch-cut product sold today. Ordinary granulated is the safer substitute, since the cornstarch in modern confectioners' sugar behaves differently in a boiled syrup.
- Soft ball, in numbers236-240F on a candy thermometer. Use fresh cold water for each test, since water that has warmed will let the sample form a looser ball and make the syrup seem less cooked than it is.
- CreamHeavy or whipping cream, around 36% fat. Half-and-half or light cream will work but gives a softer, more fudge-like set.
- The hinge: let it cool before beatingThe hinge: cooling before beating -- The recipe says to beat as soon as it comes off the fire. Beating while the syrup is still very hot tends to throw coarse crystals and a grainy praline; letting the pan stand undisturbed to cool somewhat first, then beating until the mixture loses its gloss and thickens, gives a finer texture.
- Nut meatsPecans are the nut traditionally associated with pralines, though this recipe specifies only "nut meats"; walnuts work. Have them measured and ready, because the mixture stiffens quickly once it turns creamy.
- Maple syrupUse real syrup, not pancake syrup, which is corn syrup and will change both the flavour and the set. A darker grade gives a more pronounced maple note.
- Buttered paperParchment or a silicone mat, no butter needed. Waxed paper is unreliable against candy at this temperature.
- Weather and yieldBoiled sugar candies misbehave on humid days; the pralines stay tacky and refuse to set. These quantities make a large batch, well over two dozen pralines, firm within about half an hour.
The praline began in France as a whole almond coated in cooked sugar, and the name is generally traced to a 17th-century French nobleman whose cook is said to have made them. What crossed to Louisiana became something else entirely: a flat, creamy, crystallised patty built on pecans, the nut that grew locally in quantity. This version shows the sweet moving north, where maple syrup stands in for some of the sugar.