Woah Nellie!
‘Pecan Pralines’: A nice addition to a holiday dessert tray. Warning: Sweet tooth mandatory!
by Mary Jo David
This month, I was busily scrolling through the 100-year-old issues of the Stockbridge Brief-Sun for December, hoping the perfect Christmas recipe would jump out at me. The lack of holiday build-up in Nellie Maxwell’s December food columns 100 years ago really underscored for me how over-the-top our current holiday hype has become.
Unlike nowadays, with stores displaying their Christmas decorations and sales beginning the day after Halloween, back in 1924, only a few recipes offered a Christmas spin, even in December, and those were only featured during Christmas week.
A “Chocolate Layer Cake with Orange Filling” caught my eye in the Christmas Day issue, but upon close scrutiny, I noticed the recipe did not call for chocolate, so I decided perhaps Nellie had been dipping into the holiday eggnog, and there would be no telling what other ingredients she might have left out!
Back to the drawing board I went, scrolling for a good December recipe. I quickly passed over a few. I ask you, dear readers, does anything say, “Join us during the holidays,” like “Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Prunes,” “Horseradish Apple Sauce with Cream,” or “Mother’s Oyster Soup”? Yeah—I didn’t think so either!
I finally landed on “Pecan Pralines.” If they turned out well, they could make a nice addition to my Christmas sweets tray this year.
At first glance, “Pecan Pralines” is a simple recipe, but I have always been gun-shy about making candy because it’s so important to get the hot sugar mixture to just the right temperature for the candy to set. OK, I admit it—I have a history of candy-making flops in my past! But it is 2024, after all. Maybe it’s time for me to pull up my big-girl panties and try Nellie’s “Pecan Pralines” recipe.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve known the importance of reading a recipe completely before starting, and that has helped me avoid most disasters in the kitchen. Reading the “Pecan Pralines” recipe a couple of times through prompted me to 1) chop the pecans before melting anything, and 2) prep a baking sheet in advance. (I covered it in waxed paper and sprayed the paper lightly with nonstick spray.)
To the best of my knowledge, Nellie did not mistakenly leave out any ingredients. So that was a plus. From past experience, I knew the trick was going to be boiling the sugar mixture long enough to ensure the sugar would melt but, when combined with pecans, the mixture would harden to a praline consistency.
To that end, Nellie instructed to “boil until the mixture forms a hard ball in cold water,” so before I started boiling anything, I placed a glass measuring cup with ice water next to the stove. I occasionally dropped small amounts of the boiled sugar mixture into the cold water. After about five minutes of a heavy boil and performing multiple water tests, I decided it was the right time to pour the pralines onto the baking sheet.
Upon completion, I’d give Nellie’s “Pecan Pralines” recipe an A+ for presentation. (I used dark brown sugar instead of light, but that’s a personal preference.)
However, the resident taste tester and I both agree (and that doesn’t happen often!) that the pralines were just too sweet. In all fairness, I know pralines are very sugary, so if that’s what you like, you should definitely give this recipe a go. As for me, I’m already thinking how I can break up the pralines and use them as a ribbon of crunch inside a pecan streusel coffeecake.
All photos by Mary Jo David
