BUTTERMILK PRALINES
It wouldn’t be Christmas at the Pressley house without these rich pralines. They are perfect for the holiday season.
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¾ cup of butter
- 2 cups pecan halves or pieces
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine sugar, soda, salt, and buttermilk in a large saucepan and cook over high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. Continue boiling and stirring until mixture begins to thicken and becomes slightly creamy (210 degrees on a candy thermometer). Add butter and pecans and continue boiling over medium high heat until the candy thermometer reaches 234 degrees (soft ball stage). Remove pan from heat and add vanilla. All mixture to cool about 2 minutes. Beat mixture until it begins to lose its gloss and is thick and creamy. Quickly, drop by spoonfuls in 2-inch rounds on waxed paper or foil to cool. If mixture becomes too hard, immerse the pan in hot water for several minutes and resume dropping candy. The hardest part of the recipe is knowing when to start dropping pralines onto the paper. I’ve dropped too soon and ended up scraping it all up to cook a little more. The best advice I can offer, other than trial and error, is to pay close attention to the mixture. Honestly the pralines are so good even if I had to scrape the mixture back into the pan and cook a little longer every time I made them it would be worthwhile. The pralines are creamy melt-in-your-mouth goodness.
TP
—Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food written by Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley
Over the weekend we attended the Pressleys annual Christmas party. As always it was a whole lot of fun. We didn’t get to have it last year due to sickness so it was especially enjoyable to see everyone this year.
As soon as the first hellos and hugs were exchanged folks started asking me if I brought the pralines 🙂
You can find our cookbook here.
Last night’s video: A Joyful December in the Mountains of Appalachia.
Tipper
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Looks and sounds wonderful!!!! Glad that you were able to have your family gathering !
Tipper, thank you for this recipe. It’s delicious and the more I eat of them, the more I want! I made these last year and they were loved by everyone. Thank you again for reminding me of something else that will be a hit at our church’s Christmas for kids night. I know they will love them just as I do along with all my family. The children at church are so sweet and kind and I love them every one. They deserve this unique treat. Have a Merry Christmas and be sure to give Granny another hug for me. Love you bunches!
Pralines are delicious!
send me some of that candy I’ll pay you for it, God bless you
If you included the information, I missed it.
How many pralines as pictured does your recipe make? Judging from the amounts of ingredients, I’m guessing a dozen or so. It would be good to know if one wanted to make them to give as gifts.
Robert-the recipe says 2 dozen, but that of course depends on how large or small you make them 🙂
Déjà vu? Have I asked this before? Is this similar in taste and texture to Demets Turtles?
Ed-more of a soft grainy texture 🙂
I think maybe I should be afraid to start on these pralines. In a crowd apparently there isn’t much danger seems like because they get gone too fast. Randy, I’ll bet you know one big reason that sausage was so good was because it was more thoughtfully and knowingly done than factory production is. There are extra steps to how our forefathers did things. We had a church member a number of years ago that made sausage the old-fashioned way and he couldn’t make enough.
Pralines seem to find favor with many; they have been a traditional Christmas candy for many years in my family. Our recipe ingredients are very close to yours. The only difference is a cup of brown sugar and a cup of granulated sugar; and a half a cup of milk instead of a cup! Other ingredients remain the same! We cook a minute or so longer and immediately beat until it starts to lose its gloss and then drop. This stage is the most difficult as it begins to firm up quickly due to the longer cook time • it is easier with someone helping drop the candy on the tin foil by spooning the candy out of your spoon. This recipe will give you a bit more grainy candy which I prefer, personally ……. It is a crowd pleaser, Tipper!
There’s just something very special about Christmas goodies isn’t there?
Tipper, here in SC PA we had snow falling yesterday to cover the grass but not the roads. Temps are coming up today and it was very foggy this morning. Will get rain to wash away snow on the grass:)
Oh my goodness, I can almost taste those pralines. Many years ago, my husband and I took a trip down to South Carolina where we were walking down the river walk and came upon this fantastic candy store. We walked in River Street Sweets on Market Street in Charleston, S.C., and tasted the melt in your mouth greatest Southern Pecan Praline I had ever eaten. Can’t remember the ingredients, but I sure remember how wonderful they tasted. When I get time, I’m going to try your recipe, it sure looks tasty:)
I just finished making Christmas Pecan Crescents/Ball cookies to send to our son down south.
Loved hearing Katie and Paul sing Joy to The World!
My wife makes all kinds of Christmas candies and cookies, I love them. Like Randy I wonder why sausage balls can only be made on holidays. Green bean casserole is the same.
Today is my wife and my 52nd wedding anniversary. Time flies.
Ron-Congratulations to you both!! Happy Anniversary 🙂
Tipper my mom made every year thumbprint cookies sugar cookies everyone wanted for Christmas 70 dozen hand out .
I always make Pretzel Bark and Cashew Brittle for Christmas. Today I am making Plum Bread. I use to make Brittle on top of the stove now I use the Microwave Recipe and it’s so much easier and faster you just have to be careful because the bowl gets very hot.
I loved your Christmas video of all the beautiful things Granny had made for Christmas and I loved hearing Katy and Steve sing ! What beautiful voices.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
May God Bless Granny this Christmas!
Joanna
Looks like a yummy candy to eat! Thankful all the Pressley Family was well so y’all could have your gathering this year.
If you readers haven’t made Tipper’s Praline Candy, you need to! I made it a few years ago and it stole the show among all the other Christmas desserts. The day Tipper posted the recipe, I made pralines for the first time. I couldn’t find my candy thermometer, I only had low-fat buttermilk and was exhausted from a long day at work, yet the candy turned out perfect.
My family’s favorite candy for Christmas is my homemade peanut butter fudge. I have been making it for years and everyone looks forward to it. Although it is becoming difficult for me to make (requires alot of stirring) my husband helped this year and we whipped up a batch. Merry Christmas everyone.
Sometimes Mom would fry cornbread. But she often would make what she called fried bread. It was made with self rising flour, milk and oil. Mix to form a thick batter and fry
In oil. It’s thicker than a pancake and we would eat with jelly. Grape was my favorite. Sometimes I still make it.
These look delicious. My 8 year old and I have been trying our hand at molasses candy. We haven’t got it just right yet but we’ve sure made some delicious mistakes 😉
Reading Jackie’s comment makes me think of how it once was in both mine and my wife’s family. Now most of the ones that were at the these get togethers have passed on and the few that are left have health problems and are unable to do this anymore. I still get together with two of my wife’s sisters and a few nieces and nephews. I told them back at Thanksgiving it is not the same as it once was, now we are the old ones and probably won’t be around much longer. I have told my boys ( son and 2 grandsons) the only gift I want from them is TIME to be with them while I am still on earth.
My wife never made Christmas candy but was known for her sausage balls, they were the best I have ever ate. She just used the same Bisquck recipe as most people but did not use grocery store Jimmy Dean sausage. The sausage she used was fresh sausage bought on Wednesday made from a large hog that was walking around in his pen on Monday morning. People come from miles around to buy these sausage. He once told me he had to kill 6 hogs that year to fill his Christmas orders for sausage. I made some at Thanksgiving that were pretty good but were not as good as hers, I guess the reason was because she was not here to stick her fingers in them. Why can women only make sausage balls at Christmas time? I think everyone knows I am a jokester, my sister in law, Kathy, would make chocolate peanut butter balls at Christmas that looked just like something you would find in a horse pasture. During the time she made them, her father in law still worked his garden with an old age mule, after the mule died, she stopped making this candy. I would tease her and ask her where those balls came from.
The pralines look absolutely picture perfect! I guarantee they were as delicious as they were PURTY. As you all know, there will be no Christmas here. Things on the home front are looking better. I almost have a bedroom and my driveway is flat and gravel filled with no hickory stump and hole through it. I’m changing roofers and look to get a new roof on shortly after NEW Years…. The other guy told me all high hatted to “get somebody else cause he didn’t care” and so I did….be blessed granny, grand babies and all of you. Be careful making hot candy… it’s no joke…been burnt and hollered over it…
Those pralines sound delicious and addicting.
So many wonderful recipes in your cookbook.
Oh my goodness, I can almost taste those pralines. They sound wonderful.
This is another recipe I have already added to my ‘favorites’. Perhaps consider making up a ‘Christmas’ cookbook on you favorites…candy and others. I got your first one, I believe on etsy a bit ago and don’t remember when. I would for sure get one of those. Prayers for Granny and God’s Blessing on all your ‘clan’.
We normally get with my wife’s family for Thanksgiving and my family for Christmas. We made the Thanksgiving get-to-gather with about 40 of us but due to a couple of medical procedures we will probably miss the Christmas fun this year. We missed both last year due to my medical issues. One of my sisters usually makes 4 – 6 flavors of fudge and another makes chocolate pies like Mom did.
those look soooo good, if I can find my candy thermometer I may just have to make it—or use the old timey way of knowing it is at right stage.