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15 Mardi Gras recipes

Recipes from Stir It Up! bloggers to bring some pizazz to your Mardi Gras menu.

Easy New Orleans pralines

The Runaway Spoon
French settlers brought pralines to Louisiana and New Orleans. Pralines have become a classic sweet treat to help celebrate Mardi Gras.

By Perre Coleman Magness / The Runaway Spoon

Mardi Gras pralines can easily be made using a microwave. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Easy pralines
Makes about 18 large pralines

2 cups white sugar

1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk

1/4 cup butter, cut in pieces

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1-3/4 cup chopped pecans

Pinch of salt

Cover 2 baking sheets with waxed paper and set aside.

Place all the ingredients in a large microwave safe glass bowl. Glass is best so you can see the mixture bubbling. Stir well. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. The mixture will be bubbling vigorously. Carefully remove the bowl from the microwave wearing oven mitts and stir with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula.

Return the bowl to the microwave and cook a further 5 minutes. Remove with oven mitts and stir vigorously for 1 minute. The mixture should begin to look creamy and slightly thickened, but still loose. If the mixture has not started to become opaque, microwave in one minute intervals, stirring after each, until it is.

Using two spoons (one for scooping the mixture, the second for scraping it onto the pan), scoop mounds of praline mixture onto the prepared baking sheets. Leave lots of room between them for the pralines to spread. The hot sugar mixture is very hot and will burn, so don’t try to get your fingers involved. Work pretty quickly, but carefully. Leave the pralines to firm up, then peel them from the waxed paper and store them in an airtight container between fresh sheets of waxed paper.

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Mark Sappenfield
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