Cookbook Club – Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking

The book for August’s Cookbook Club was Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin. For a glimpse into what we sampled from those two centuries, go to my Cookbook Club site. For now – my dish!

At the last minute, I was able to secure a spot for my boyfriend to come along to this Cookbook Club event. So I had to scramble for a second recipe (Peanut Soup was my first dish) that used ingredients I had on hand. Pralines fit the bill, and they were something I’d never made before, so the decision was made.

I stirred sugar, brown sugar, molasses, and heavy cream over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolved.

I brought the mixture to a boil and continued to cook until the temperature reached 240 degrees F (about 5 minutes), at which point I stirred in butter, pecans, salt, and vanilla.

At this point, the recipe said to stir vigorously until thick, indicating it should take 2 to 3 minutes. After 3 minutes the mixture had thickened slightly, but not enough to spoon heaping tablespoons onto parchment paper as instructed. So I kept stirring. After another 3 minutes it still didn’t seem very thick, but since I was now at double the suggested time, I figured I’d just have to spoon as best I could and see what happened.

As you can see, it was too runny to be “heaping”. But the recipe said “allow to cool completely”, so I hoped that they would solidify once cool. They did not, and I ended up freezing them in order to get them solid enough to peel off the parchment paper.

Once finally solid, I tasted one and found it to be exceedingly sweet. With the thickening/solidifying problems and the extreme sweetness, I was not impressed with the recipe. But at the event, several people who have prior experience with pralines said they came out just as they’re supposed to in the end, so I guess that’s something.