Monday, February 15, 2010

Oh, That's Why You Add the Baking Soda Last or Mom, How Did You Mess Up a Microwave Recipe



We got over two inches of snow at our house last Friday, a rare and welcome occasion in the South. I thought I had remembered seeing a recipe for Snow Ice Cream in the cookbook and knew this would be my only chance to make it. There were only recipes for regular homemade ice cream so I was off the hook for that one.

Brittany was already making brownies and I wanted to be in the kitchen with her. We have had some pretty funny things happen to us when we try to bake together and I like to look for more opportunities to make that happen. I found a pretty simple microwave recipe for pralines and figured I would not really get in Brittany's way since she was using the oven and I would be using the microwave. Talking, laughing, and dumping the ingredients of a new recipe into a microwaveable bowl all at the same time should really be avoided.

The candy was to microwave for 12 minutes, stirring every four. Simple enough. I can do some math and I knew I would be stirring the candy three times. I had not noticed that the baking soda is to be added after the third stir and microwaved for just one more minute.

I am not sure what chemical reaction took place, probably something similar to the volcanoes we used to make for science projects. Those explosions are on purpose, the one that took place in my microwave was not. Words to describe the aftermath-sticky, icky, gooey, runny, foamy.

There was not a whole lot of substance left to spoon out onto the wax paper, but what little there was had a very good flavor. Overall, I think this is a good recipe. Easy and tasty.

The contributor? My dad, Tom. Famous for his Christmas fudge, now infamous for his Tout De Suite Pralines.

Tout De Suite Pralines

3/4 c buttermilk 1/8 t salt
2 c sugar 2 T butter
2 c pecan halves 1 t baking soda

Stir together buttermilk, sugar, pecans, salt and butter in a 4 0r 5 quart dish. Cook on hight 12 minutes in microwave stirring at 4 minute intervals. STIR IN BAKING SODA UNTIL FOAMY. COOK ON HIGH FOR 1 MINUTE. Beat unit tacky (about 1 minute). Drop by teaspoonful on a sheet of foil.

2 comments:

  1. Hilarious!!! I can imagine that cooking with you and Brittany would bring alot of laughs!

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  2. The pralines were really tasty, very rich, but light and sweet, like something you would make for Christmas goodies. The mess Phyl made creating this was amazing and as usual, hilarious! There wasn't nearly as much of the "stuff" in these as there otherwise would have been if Phyl hadn't blown up the recipe in the microwave. But I didn't know any difference - they tasted great to me! Terry's YUM factor 4.2

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