Jim Elbrecht wrote:
>
> C'mon y'all from south of the Mason-Dixon. I'm a NYer. I've
> made them a couple times and thought I'd failed. They have come out
> as a gooey cookie that is *almost* grainy caramel. It can still be
> broken, but it bends quite a bit before it comes apart.
>


That sounds right. Add some pecan halves and large pieces and it should
be good. Here's a recipe I saved a while back that looks right, but I
haven't made it yet. Notice it's made with water instead of milk and
has no corn syrup:

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Josephine's Pralines
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One day we went out to visit a cemetary in New Orleans called The St.
Louis Cemetary. All the folks in the St. Louis cemetary are buried above
ground in stone crypts because of the water table in New Orleans being
so close to the ground. Sheryl Ann said when she went she was going to
be cremated and have her ashes scattered over Hink’s Shopping Mall,
because that way she could shop for comfortable shoes for all time, what
with having bunyuns and all. I said she’d be ashes then and what would
she be needing shoes for, and she just gave me a dirty look. One of the
tombs at the cemetary was the tomb of Marie Leveau, who was a famous
voodoo priestess who lived in New Orleans. It is said if you knock three
times and draw three X’s on her tomb with chalk and ask her for a wish,
she will grant it. Sheryl Ann did just that, excepting she didn’t have
any chalk so she used an eyebrow pencil instead, and she asked her for a
pair of comfortable shoes. Then she asked to win the Fantasy Five the
next time she played the lotto back home and asked me if I thought she
should make three more X’s on the tomb. I said I figured she was better
safe than sorry, particularly seeing as how she used an eyebrow pencil
instead of chalk, because if she didn’t she might very well get only one
comfortable shoe, and wouldn’t that be a fine how do you do. We went
back to Lu Lu’s where Josephine had a nice batch of pralines waiting for
us. We told her about our visit to the cemetary and Sheryl Ann’s wish
for comfortable shoes and her eyes got very wide and she wrote an
address on a piece of paper. After we ate the pralines we decided to
visit the address, which was in the French Quarter, and it turned out to
be Marie’s Orthopedic Shoes, where Sheryl Ann got a very nice pair that
did her feet well for the rest of the trip.

Josephine’s Pralines

1/4 Cup water
2T margarine
1 Cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 Cup Confectioner's sugar
1/2 teasp vanilla extract
1 Cup chopped pecans

Place large towel on counter w/wax paper on top; In medium saucepan, add
water and butter; Bring to boil; Stir in sugars; Bring back to boil;
Boil and stir 1 minute only; Remove from heat;
Stir in vanilla and pecans; Beat by hand until it begins to thicken
slightly; Note: DO NOT OVER BEAT! candy will harden too soon;
Immediately drop from teaspoon on to wax paper; Cool and store in
covered container;