Deep South Eats: Sea-Salted Praline Pecans

When preparing for our National Championship Game party, I really wanted a "wow" dessert. I was tempted to fall back on my house standard of cupcakes with decorative picks, but at last minute I decided to whip out these Praline Pecans for a fun treat. Accompanied with a king cake, we had a taste of New Orleans for the night.


I changed the original recipes by decreasing the amount of pecans to a more manageable amount. I also added a sprinkling of sea salt to balance the overwhelming sweetness of a praline. I made half with sea salt and half without. The sea-salted pralines won by a long shot.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups pecan halves
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tablespoons corn syrup
• Sea salt

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and lay your pecan halves on a baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Watch closely as to not let your pecans burn. Remove from oven when toasted and allow to cool.
• Stir together granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter, milk and corn syrup in a heavy medium sized saucepan.
• Bring to a boil over medium-heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly for 7 to 8 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 234 degrees.
• Remove from heat and vigorously stir in pecans. Drop heaping spoonfuls of pecan mixture onto wax paper. Sprinkle with sea salt and allow to dry for 20 minutes or until firm.
• Gently remove from wax paper and store in air-tight container or freezer bag in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or freezer for up to 1 month.

It is necessary to have a candy thermometer for this recipe. They are very inexpensive and can be found in the kitchen accessories aisle at Wal-Mart or Target. 

Original recipe found at MyRecipes.

Ever have cooking questions or want to request a recipe, comment or email me at deepsouthsweets@gmail.com. You can also visit Deep South Sweets on Facebook or follow me on Pinterest!

P.S. The fabric-covered magnet board post is coming as soon as my fabric gets delivered...it is running a little behind.