By Georgia Osten
Or, in my case, trying to bake. I have, for so many years, had my regular Christmas collections like my Jam Strip Teasers, crescents, fudge and sugar cookies. This year, I wanted to try something different. My first fiasco was the crock pot candied almonds. For 2 ½ hours I went to the crock pot every 30 minutes to stir this glob of almonds, sugar and gummy stuff. I could smell it burning, so I turned it down a little too late. At the end, I spooned it out on parchment paper as I was instructed. Thinking it wasn’t so bad, I proceeded to put them in a pretty Christmas tin to take with us on our journey.
Next, I made candied pecans – the kind you bake in the oven for an hour on a really low temp, stirring every 15 minutes. Oh my gosh, they turned out so great, I decided to throw the almonds away! They were no contest for the pecans.
The chex mix went great, not too much you can do to mess those up.
But PRALINES, are you kidding me? What do you have to do to make a good batch of pralines? I even bought a candy thermometer to get the stuff to the right temp, spooned them out in tidy circles on the wax paper, then nothing … They never hardened, just a soupy mess of sugar and pecans. I resurrected the pecans into a baggy and into the freezer. There has to be something I can do with them later. The recipe practically sets you up for failure, telling you what you can do with the pecans if you end up with a soppy mess.
My Christmas Crack turned out great – that’s ritz crackers with a spreading of dark brown sugar and butter, then topped with melted semi-sweet chocolates and chopped pecans. After freezing it, you “crack” it up and put it in an air-tight tin.
At this point, I figure I was 3 out of 5 attempts and failures. Not being one to give up too easily, I got another praline recipe from a friend and I plan to try it again tonight. I’ve already spent a fortune on pecans, might as well go for the record. We’ll talk again next week, but in the meantime, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
[12-19-2016]
GO’s Sand Bucket is only one beach bum’s journal of life at the beach, probably something each of you can relate to. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts, visions and/or feelings of just exactly what the beach means to you. Email: [email protected]
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How did the new pralines turn out?