Once I stood in line in the grocery store behind a woman whose cart had a pretty ho-hum selection – except for the fourteen boxes of butterscotch pudding. I couldn’t resist asking why she was buying so many and she told me that she lived in Marble Falls and couldn’t buy them there.

What an unsatisfactory answer! Further questioning revealed that they were for a praline recipe so I scribbled it down on the back of my receipt.  I make them every year.

Pecans are plentiful only in alternate years.  The 2009 crop is expensive though not too costly for a holiday treat.

PRALINE RECIPE

1 small box butterscotch pudding and pie mix (not the instant kind).

1 c. white sugar

½ c. brown sugar

½ c. evaporated milk (not the sweetened condensed kind)

1 stick butter

1 ½ c. pecan pieces

Boil the whole lot, stirring often, until it forms a ball when tested in a little cold water. This takes about 20 minutes.

Drop tablespoons, one at a time, onto wax paper.

Thank you, dear lady from Marble Falls!

—JM

Jane Manaster is the author of Pecans: The story in a Nutshell, available at Amazon online or locally at BookPeople in Austin.

© 2009 Jane Manaster.  All Rights Reserved.