Tracy's Pralines (Prepare to Make a Mess)

For those who don't know, Pecan Pralines are a classic New Orleans candy. They're made by boiling milk and sugar until they reach the "soft ball" stage, around 240 degrees. These candies are semi-soft, buttery, and practically melt in your mouth.

Unfortunately, pralines can also be expensive. They can be bought in the check-out line in stores for around $3 for a single praline. They tend to be fairly large, but it's still a splurge. Making pralines is far less expensive in the end, but they are also generally challenging to perfect. It takes a lot of patience, mainly.

 I always think my own pralines could use some tweaking, but they go over SO well with people, and are so often requested, that I figure I might as well keep doing what I'm doing.

Tips:
1. Let milk come to room temperature before using, or microwave the milk to warm before adding.
2. If the cooled praline mixture gets too hard in the pot to drop any more candies, return the pot to the stove and heat on low to re-melt back to dropping consistency.
3. Words of caution: Hot. Molten. Sugar.

**UPDATE**
I'm using a wooden spoon in the below instructional pictures. Wooden is okay, but are infamous for absorbing odors. Basically, if you've been using the same spoon you've also used to stir sauces or chili or what have you, then the candies might have a slightly "off" flavor from all the aromas the spoon had absorbed in the past. So do yourself a favor (flavor), and invest in a silicone spatula. *And Now You Know!*

 Tracy's Pralines

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 cup Granulated Sugar

1/2 cup Whole Milk

3 Tbsp Butter

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 cup Pecans, chopped

1/2 cup Pecans, whole or halved

Special Equipment:
Small pot (NOT coated/non-stick), candy thermometer (optional if comfortable with "drop" method), parchment paper, silicone spatula (or wooden spoon, if no silicone utensil is available), measuring spoons, measuring cups

Preparation:

1. Lay out a long sheet of parchment paper (about three feet worth).

2. Put out a glass of cold water. This will be used to check the soft-ball phase of the candy later. 

Make sure you have the butter, vanilla, and pecans pre-measured and ready.

Method:
1. With a wooden spoon, combine sugars and milk in a medium-sized sauce pot. Attach a candy thermometer (or be ready to hold thermometer with an oven mitt).

2. Boil sugar until it reaches 240 degrees, the "soft ball" stage. Set on a heat-proof surface.

3. (Optional): Using the spoon, drop a bit of the molten sugar into a glass of cold water. If it hardens into a round oval/ball as it falls to the bottom, then it's ready for the next step.
If it squiggles and doesn't really harden, then it's not quite hot enough. If the sugar is far darker than in the beginning stages and hardens FAST, then it's overheated.
4. Set pot on a heat-proof surface, and add butter, vanilla, and pecans to the melted sugar. Stir quickly until the mixture begins to thicken.

5. Drop the pralines on the parchment paper. They should be a creamy light brown color, and fairly thick.
(If it looks runny, stir in and boil a little more white sugar, about 2 Tbsp worth, before dropping any more candies.)

6. Let  pralines cool until completely hardened. Store cooled candies in an airtight container so they don't dry out completely.