Praline Cookies

March 4th, 2009 by justJENN

I have been wanting to make pralines but with the moisture in the air, forget it. They’d never set. These cookies have the taste of a good old Southern praline. Plus they are awfully uniform and nice looking for an event.

ingredients:
1 cup pecan halves
1-1/2 cup flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. On a silpat lined sheet pan, lay out the pecans and toast them in the oven for 5 minutes. Take them out and set them aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and the vanilla. Beat until combined. Then slowly add the dry ingredients until combined.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfulls onto a prepped cookie sheet. I’ve found that a small teaspoon sized ice cream scoop works best, or you can just roll them with your hands, this dough is not that sticky.

Bake just 10-12 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

While the cookies are cooling, in a small saucepan combine the 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup cream over medium heat. Bring it to a boil, stirring constantly, then remove from heat. Pour into the sifted powdered sugar and whisk until combined.

Put a small half teaspoonful of the mixture on top of each of the cookies. Add a pecan on top to set.

These are pretty sweet, and so delicious. The cookies are even just fine by themselves without the topping!