Pecan Pralines - New Orleans Style

When I was younger and my family would head back home to see the grandparents each summer. As we traveled, my parents would look for a Stuckey's Pecan Candy Shoppe for a break from driving. Stuckey's were known for their wonderful candy, like pecan rolls and divinity. At our first stop my parents would always buy a couple of boxes of divinity and pralines for us to enjoy as we traveled.

For my Praline Rooibos Opera Cake, I made these New Orleans style pralines for the flavoring of the cake. The recipe I used is from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking. In these pralines, the sugar is opaque rather than clear.

The flavor is delicious with a slight hint of caramel. My children weren't that fond of these candies, but my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Recipe

1 cup sugar
2 Tb glucose*
1/4 cup water
1 Tb mesquite honey
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 Tb vegetable shortening
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup pecan halves or pieces
small bowl of water
pastry brush
candy thermometer

1. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set out two sauce pans, a medium one for making pralines and another half filled with water. Place two soup spoons and a whisk in the water. Then set the pot on low and allow the utensils to warm while you make the pralines.

2. Dump in the sugar, glucose and water in the medium sauce pan. Cover the pan and set over medium heat for 4 minutes. At the end of this time, remove the lid and increase the heat to high. Bring the mixture to a boil. Insert a candy thermometer into the sugar mixture. Do not stir the sugar mixture until after the syrup is cooked. If any stray sugar crystals appear on the side of the pan, using a pastry brush lightly dipped in water.

3. The sugar will form bubbles that will get very large as it cooks. After the sugar has cooked for about 8 minutes, it will turn a light golden brown. When the temperature reaches 335 degrees Fahrenheit, remove the pan from the heat. Allow the pan to cool for about 1 minute before adding the other ingredients.

4. Pour the honey, brown sugar, vegetable shortening and salt in to the pan. Using the warm whisk, blend the ingredients into the syrup. Then add the pecans and whisk again.

5. Scoop out a soup spoon sized serving of the praline with the warm soup spoons. Then set the spoonfuls on the parchment paper. If the praline begins to harden before you have finished scooping out the candy, place the pan over low heat until it softens again. Let the candy cool to room temperature before serving. Store the pralines at room temperature in a covered container.

* Glucose - I used Wilton's Glucose for this recipe, purchased it from Michael's Craft Store. I found it on the cake decorating aisle. You can substitute corn syrup or sugar syrup in place of the glucose.

Cream Cheese Cookies

When I was a kid, my Mom always had homemade cookies or bars in the house for us to eat. My brother's favorite were her blondies, my Dad loved her pecan pie and I craved her peanut butter sauce pan cookies. Mom was always making sure that she rotated her baking so that each of us got something we loved to eat.

For Christmas, Mom would do her baking and always made sure that there was a pecan pie. So that Santa could have a piece of pie. My brother and I, thought Santa would prefer cookies. Mom said, she had it on good authority that Santa preferred pecan pie and a nice hot cup of coffee.

Sometimes she would make these delightful little treats called cream cheese cookies. Slightly crisp on the outside, they are soft and chewy on the inside. My husband thinks these are some of the best cookies he's ever eaten. So, converting her recipe into a gluten free version had become a necessity.

This gluten free version has the crisp exterior, soft interior and all the fabulous flavor of the original wheat version. When my husband realized I had made these cookies for him, he was thrilled. All he could do was smile and reach for a handful of cookies as he made his way to the kitchen table. My daughter thought they were really good, although my son isn't all that keen on the flavor of cream cheese. I thought they were fabulous. Thanks Mom for a terrific recipe.

Recipe

4 Tb vegetable shortening, softened
2 oz cream or Neufchatel cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup cane sugar
3 Tb brown rice flour
3 Tb chestnut flour
2 Tb sweet rice flour
1 tsp chia seed meal
1/4 tsp + pinch cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 Tb chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a cookie pan with parchment paper.

2. In a mixing bowl, dump in the butter and cream cheese. Cream on medium speed and then pour in the sugar. Continue to cream until the sugar is thoroughly incorporated. Then dump in the vanilla extract and continue beating.

3. In a small bowl, pour in the flours, chia seed meal, cream of tartar and baking soda. Stir together, making sure the chia seed is mixed into the flour very well.

4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and beating on low speed. When the flour is mixed thoroughly mixed with the cream cheese dump in the pecans. Continue to mix until the pecans spread through out the dough.

5. Drop by spoonfuls on the parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before serving. Makes 21 cookies.

Substitutions

1. You can substitute the Neufchatel cheese with cream cheese. You can also substitute all the cheese with Tofutti cream cheese.

2. You may substitute 1/2 tsp xanthan or guar gum for the chia seed meal.

3. You can substitute the millet flour or more brown rice flour for the chestnut flour.

Toll House Kookie Brittle (Gluten-Free)

I grew up loving Toll House Kookie Brittle. While it is baking the house smells so good that you can't wait for the cookies to come out of the oven. My Mom always made these for the holidays or whenever we could convince her to make them. Developing a gluten-free version of Toll House Kookie Brittle has been on my wish list ever since my diagnosis.

We belonged to a church outside of Marquette, Michigan, during the early 1960's. The ladies of the church put together their incredible baking prowess and made a cook book. This book is invaluable to me for the variety and number of fine recipes that it contains. I have made many of them and I will endeavor to bake my way through the others. (I mentioned this book in an earlier post on Pumpkin Bread.)

The origin of this recipe was probably the Toll House folks and it made it's way into the church cook book. Since, I'm not sure who originally created it - I salute them all! This is a fine cookie recipe.

The change to gluten free took a couple of test bakes. The first batch turned out to have too much butter and not enough flours. I added kudzu powder to help hold the cookie together. Since this batch was too oily from the butter, I had to go to batch two. In this one I added more flours and I left out the kudzu powder. I wanted to see if the cookies would hold together without the kudzu. Batch two turned out beautifully and they hold together. So, how did I adapt it to be gluten free? Like this...

Recipe (1/2 recipe made in a 8 x 12 pan)

1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup oat flour
1/3 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup arrowroot flour
3 oz. mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 x 12 pan with parchment paper. Soften the butter.

After the butter is softened, put it in a mixing bowl and cream. Then add the sugar, vanilla and salt. Place all the flours in a bowl and mix. Once the butter mixture is blended slowly add the flour mixture. Once blended take the cookie dough and place it onto the cookie pan.

Then break up the dough into bite sized chunks and spread them around the sheet. Begin to press the cookie dough down with your fingers and cover the entire bottom of the pan with dough. (If the dough sticks to your fingers you can dampen them with a little water.) Sprinkle the top of the dough with the mini chocolate chips, spreading them around with your finger tips. Then lightly press the chips into the dough. Next sprinkle the chopped nuts onto the top of the dough and lightly press in.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. After you remove them from the oven, take a sharp knife and gently score the top of the cookies into standard sizes. Or you can let the pan cool and break the cookie sheet into irregular pieces like candy brittle.

What did my tough critics have to say? My son couldn't stop bouncing around the kitchen asking me, "Are they cool yet?" Once they were cool, he zoomed in for the attack and raced off with two cookies. He came back a minute later and asked if he could have some more. "So? What did you think?" I asked him. He started bouncing up in the air touching his heels together, saying "I like 'em!" Now my daughter (who is now The Toughest Critic in the house) looked at him trying to gain real altitude and said, "Really?" "Yeah!" he replied. She went to get a cookie and bit into it. She sat back down and quietly started chewing. She kept eating. I couldn't take it anymore... I blurted out, "So?" She put her thumb up and said, "Mmmmmm...good." Still airborne, my son said, "Really?" She smiled.

The kid judging was over. Well...except for the dog who very very patiently followed my son around picking up every single crumb that fell on the floor. As I put away a few cookies for my husband to try when he got home, I wondered if there were any clues to be hand in this sibling exchange. Let's see....good food causes my son to go airborne, if brother goes airborne then the food is really good, "I like 'em" is more emphatic than "Umm...their good," less talking and more eating means it better. I guess I could explore the sibling nonverbal signals next.....

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you about the pictures. There are nuts only one half of the cookies - it's the adult & Sheltie side. The chocolate chip only side is for the kids & the Sheltie.