Boudreaux's World Famous Pralines
Utensils
- 5 quart pot. Tall sides required to prevent boiling over.
- Large serving spoon
- Heavy silicone spatula
- Candy thermometer
- put newspaper or foil under wax paper to keep it from sticking to your countertop.
- An adult helper for the spooning-out. It's big, it's hot, and you have to move fast.
Ingredients
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 stick butter
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoons Caro white syrup
- 1.5 cups pecan halves (or chunks)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Combine first 5 ingredients in pot, cook approximately 20 minutes on medium-high.
- Stir occasionally until sauce reaches softball stage (240-242°F on the candy thermometer)
- Remove from heat
- Immediately stir in pecans, which will start cooling the sauce down, then add the vanilla. If you're helper's not here, get them over here!
- Stir until sauce begins to lose its gloss (sauce will begin to thicken)
- Spoon small portions onto wax paper --work fast!--
- The pralines should be about the size of a deck of cards.
- You know you got it right if the pralines develop small white clusters of tiny, stellate fractures as they cool.
Enjoy
Corey Boudreaux
New Orleans, Louisiana
USA
Postscript
This is the world famous Boudreaux praline recipe. Corey and Stephanie Boudreaux lived across the street from us in Gretna, Louisiana. Corey worked on the docks, Stephanie stayed home with the four kids. Once a year or so, Corey would make pralines, usually a double batch, and everyone would be begging for one! Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to make pralines, he'll have pralines for life. So I asked for instruction. I bought all the ingredients and waited. And waited. After six months, there was finally a day where Corey was home (he worked nights half the time), and I was home (I was a fourth year medical student, working ridiculous hours in the hospital half the time).
The ingredients are pretty straight forward. That's one thing we really learned in Louisiana: don't use too many ingredients. Stick with the basics. There's always plenty of room for nuance though. I find a mix of pecan halves and chunks gives the best mix. In Virginia, our neighbor had a pecan tree and we would gather pecans in October and November. Shelling pecans invariably takes a while and leads to a mix of halves and pieces. If you want to shell your own pecans, I recommend inviting someone else over, and while a big meal is cooking, those not in the kitchen can sit around the table, talk, and shell pecans.
-- Niels Olson