Buttermilk Bacon Pralines

So, those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know all about my wild love affair with bacon.  The bacon cinnamon rolls.  The bacon pancakes.  The bacon cheddar bagel panini.  I thought I knew what true love was, bacon-wise.

And then one fateful day, I made buttermilk bacon pralines, and the universe shifted...bacon-wise.  As the devoted wife of a Southern man, I've had my share of pralines, those sugary, pecan-filled circles of heaven.  But until I ran across this recipe in Screen Doors and Sweet Tea,  I didn't know what a praline truly could be.  I actually didn't think I ever would or could make a praline.  But the bacon called out to me, and one afternoon I found myself with a candy thermometer, some pecans and a plate of bacon, and there was no turning back.

By the way, a quick word about candy thermometers.  I used to be terrified of them.  I would get to a recipe that looked fabulous, see the words "candy thermometer" and then wistfully turn the page.  And then I bucked up and bought this one, and my life has changed for the better, and believe me...if I can do it, so can you.

Back to the pralines.  I promise you, they are SO simple, and once you make them you will wonder how you lived so long in this life without them.  All you do is boil up some sugar, some buttermilk and a few other things for about 20-30 minutes or until your trusty candy thermometer tells you it is ready.   Then stir in some pecans, some vanilla, some orange peel and the BACON.  Drop it by spoonfuls onto parchment paper or a Silpat, and in about 30 minutes you will be changed forever.  While they are of course the perfect little dessert, the original recipe suggests they are equally perfect with a glass of wine before dinner...and I'm here to tell you that if you try that, you might not even NEED dinner.

 Buttermilk Bacon Pralines, from Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook 

• 
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon orange zest
• 4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

1. In a heavy deep saucepan, combine the sugars, the buttermil, corn syrup, baking soda and salt.  Cook slowly over medium heat for about 20 minutes, until the mixture reaches 235 on a candy thermometer.

2. Remove from heat and add butter, vanilla, pecans, orange zest and bacon and beat with a wooden spoon until creamy.  Be very careful - this stuff is HOT.

3. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a silicone mat or buttered parchment paper.  Let stand for 30 minutes or until cool and firm.

Print this!

Pecan Pie Muffins

Okay, so I have an issue to discuss today.  There are many times when I will run across a recipe for a pie or a cake that I would love to make.  The issue is that I live with the following individuals:

Exhibit A: The Southern husband.  Who is fully capable of having one small slice, saying all the right proper, appreciative, romantic things, and then not having any more.  Just leaving the rest of the pie/cake/other large dessert there on the counter, undisturbed.  I do not understand this man.  I love and adore him, but I don't understand him.

Exhibit B: The teenager.  Who does not like the following: Pecans. Piecrust. Walnuts.  Coconut.  Lemon. Peanuts (unless mashed into peanut butter than comes in a jar clearly marked "Skippy.")  Dark chocolate.  Strawberries.  I could go on and on.  I do not understand this child.  I love and adore her, and I spent many long hours birthing her so I know she is mine, but I don't understand her.

Exhibit C: The dog.  The dog will eat anything and everything that I put in front of her, behind her, drop on the floor or don't lock up or put on a very high counter.  I completely understand the dog.  It's just that dogs are not supposed to eat people food, and I try (as much as I can bear it) to follow the rules.

So here's the issue: if I go ahead and MAKE one of these nice big desserts, unless it is on a day when the teenager is having hordes of her less-picky friends over, there it sits on my counter.  Calling my name.  And so this is why I am so obsessed with cookies and muffins and other delicacies that at least have a little portion control going for them.  So when I ran across this recipe, which gives me pecan pie in a nice managable muffin size...well, yahoo!  It's all those great pecan pie ingredients...brown sugar, eggs, pecans...all in a convenient, willpower-friendly muffin form.  I added on to this recipe just a little by topping them with a little whipped cream and a shake of cinnamon sugar.

Just goes to show you that once again, pretty much anything gets that much better when you put it muffin form.  Happy sigh.

Pecan Pie Muffins, adapted from SOUTHERN PLATE

• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup light or dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 stick melted butter
• Whipped cream
• Cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pans with baking cups to fill 9 holes.  Coat with cooking spray.

2.  Combine the pecans, sugar and flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center of the mixture.  In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy.  Add the butter, then pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.

3. Spoon the batter into baking cups, filling 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

4. Remove from pans immediately and let cool.  Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Click here for printable recipe

Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Rum Raisin Filling

My brother and his lovely wife host Thanksgiving dinner for our noisy lovable family -- God bless him -- and every year I beg him for a little assignment, just so I can hold my head up. I mean, what self-respecting food blogger would sail through Thanksgiving without, um...cooking something? So this year he asked me to bring a dessert, which aside from bacon is my favorite thing to make in the kitchen. I knew my sister-in-law would be making her scrumptious and classic pumpkin pie, so I wanted to make something that would be a little different, but still sort of holiday-ish.

Then as luck would have it, my Southern husband brought home a copy of the 2009 edition of CHRISTMAS WITH SOUTHERN LIVING. And along with a variety of other recipes that I just might try over the holidays, it included this recipe for oatmeal sandwich cookies that are held together with a rum raisin cream filling. Now, I know my dad is a serious rum raisin fan, and the Southern husband is a big oatmeal cookie fan, and so it all seemed like fate to me.

Now I should warn you that these cookies are serious cookies. They are LARGE cookies. They are actually TWO large cookies stuffed with 3 tablespoons each of rum raisin filling. You could eat one today and not be hungry again until next Tuesday. But man! they are good. And Thanksgiving...heck, the whole holiday season...is when you are supposed to cut loose and eat giant rum-stuffed cookies? Right? Right. So go make them...you know you want to.

OATMEAL SANDWICH COOKIES WITH RUM RAISIN FILLING, adapted from 2009 Christmas with Southern Living

Cookies:

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 cups regular uncooked oats
• 3/4 cups chopped pecans

Filling:

• 1 3 oz package cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 tablespoons dark rum
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1pound package confectioner's sugar
• 1 1/2 cups raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Beat butter, shortening, corn syrup and sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Add egg and almond extract and beat until blended
3. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and cloves and gradually add to butter mixture. Stir in oats and pecans.
4. Shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Press down on each ball to flatten slightly.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely.
6. While cookies are cooling, make rum raisin filling. Beat cream cheese at medium speed until creamy Add milk, rum, vanilla and salt and beat until blended
7. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until completely combined. Stir in raisins.
8. Spread 2-3 tablespoons of filling on cookie bottom and sandwich with another cookie. Repeat until all cookies are used.
9. Close your eyes, take a bite and smile a really, really big smile.

Click here for printable recipe

Pecan Pie Winners!

Thank you to every one of you Gaiman-loving, pie-loving, movie-loving folks who entered the Pecan Bestseller Pie giveaway that I posted a few days ago. Before I get to the winners, I wanted to send out one more big THANK YOU to my guest blogger Elise Howard -- editor and pie-baker extraodinaire. And another giant thank you to one of the most amazing writers I know, the incredibly talented Neil Gaiman. If you haven't yet read THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, you need to go get your hands on a copy right this minute. It's simply spectacular.

Okay, on to the lucky winners, who were selected by www.random.org, because if I had to pick them out myself I just...couldn't...do it. The winner of the obviously way too easy question about what movie the line "Pecan Piiiiiiiie" came from is Photogramommy, who (along with everyone else) knew that it came from WHEN HARRY MET SALLY. (And a special thanks to all of you who also reminded me of the paprikash line. I just LOVE that dang movie.) Photogramommy, you win a copy of the very fun book AMERICAN PIE. Email me here to send me your mailing info.

And now for the three incredibly lucky winners of THIS incredible book:

First, Nutmeg Nanny, whose favorite pie is key lime pie. My Southern husband adores that one too, as do a LOT of the commenters on this post. So Nutmeg Nanny, you are winner #1, and I will email you through your own very lovely blog to get your address.

Winner # 2 is Seeks, who loves a good shoofly pie, and even included a link so that we would know what shoofly pie actually IS. Seeks, please email me here to tell me where to send your copy of the book.

And winner #3 is Mike, who couldn't decide between chocolate peanut butter pie and pumpkin. Mike, I totally understand your dilemma. While you are figuring it out, email me here with your address.

In the meantime, here's how all the many fabulous pie nominations broke out..

Who knew that there were so many strawberry rhubarb fans out there?

And last but not least, I have one surprise extra copy of THE GRAVEYARD BOOK to send to Alexis, who was kind enough to include an actual recipe in her comments, so that this post will not be recipe-less. Thanks for the Key Lime Pie recipe, Alexis, and please email me here with your address as well.

Alexis's Favorite Key Lime Pie recipe (from a postcard she got in Florida)

• 4 tsp key lime zest
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 - 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup fresh key lime juice
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted.

Beat together in order until well blended, then pour into into a prepared pie crust. (i use a regular baked pie crust, you could use graham crackers) Bake at 325 for 15 min (until set), remove, cool & chill. I prefer to serve with a dollop of whipped cream, but if you like meringue, use the egg whites left over from the 5 egg whites above.

Guest Blogger Elise Howard: Pecan Bestseller Pie

Photo by Leo Chapman


"Pecan piiiiiiiie."

Everyone leaving a comment telling me the movie that line is from is automatically entered in a random drawing to win a copy of the cookbook AMERICAN PIE. I have one delicious copy to give away -- and another fun giveaway at the bottom of this post.

Anyway, I love pecan pie and would have gotten around to blogging about it sooner or later, but as it turns out, my friend Elise is an awesome pecan-pie-baker, and not only that, has a better pecan pie story to tell than I will EVER have. So I knelt at her feet and asked her to be Framed's very first guest blogger. Therefore without further ado, I give you Elise Howard and her Pecan Bestseller Pie....

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Just over a year ago, HarperCollins published The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman, which I had the privilege of editing. It immediately went to #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Neil told us here at Harper that if we could keep the book at #1 for a month, there would be cupcakes.

We did, and he did, and they were divine – oversized delights with chocolate frosting, each emblazoned with “#1.” Then Neil set us a challenge: keep the book on the Times list till the end of the calendar year – more cupcakes. Sure enough, they appeared as promised. Late January brought news of a Newbery Medal win for The Graveyard Book, a return to the #1 slot, and still more cupcakes. I think. At this point, frankly, we were operating on a perpetual blissed-out cupcake high, and the exact course of events has become a bit of a blur. The next pivotal event I remember clearly, however. The Graveyard Book became a fixture on the Times list, and Neil set the challenge: keep the book there for a year, and we would be eating even more cupcakes. “If we stay on the list for a year,” I told Neil, “I will bake you a pie.”

When week 52 finally arrived, our hearts were in our throats. But since this is a guest post on a cooking blog, you will already have guessed that we made it.

That day, Neil wrote this on his blog: “I am sure there are many people who edit books and also casually produce pies. Elise, for all I know, may be one of these people. I do not believe she is. I liked to think that she was someone who, if The Graveyard Book stayed on the NYT Bestseller List for a year, would need to brush up on her pie-making skills, to navigate the unfamiliar twin territories of piecrust and filling. It would be an adventure.”

It suited me just fine that Neil did not know that I am, in fact, a proud if junior member of a Kentucky-based baking dynasty, that I have explored in depth the tough questions: Shortening, butter, or lard? Pastry blender, twin knives, food processor, or no utensil at all? Ceramic, glass or metal?

After toying with the idea of seasonal rhubarb and realizing it would be nearly impossible to ship, I baked the pecan pie Sunday, froze it hard, and sent it overnight on Monday in a beautiful shipping box constructed by my sweet spouse; it arrived in the Midwest by 11 the next morning, nicely thawed and ready to slice.

Here’s what it looked like as Neil posted it on his journal at neilgaiman.com:

Photo by Neil Gaiman

Was it a success? Let’s just say that if my editorial letters were greeted with half as much enthusiasm by my dear authors, I’d have the happiest job in publishing. Neil tweeted it, blogged it, and sent several e-mails with pictures attached of the pie in various stages of consumption.

And today I received news of a lovely coda to this story: Inspired or frustrated by all Neil’s talk of cupcakes and pie, the folks at needcoffee.com announced a Graveyard Book Dessert Challenge. Their results are humbling and inspiring – and they look delicious.

Meantime, here’s the recipe for my Pecan Bestseller Pie, if you’d like to try it yourself.

PECAN BESTSELLER PIE

Crust:

1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt (less if you are using kosher or sea salt)
½ cup very cold shortening
¼ scant cup cold butter
¼ cup ice-cold water

1. Combine flour and salt in a food processor with a couple of quick pulses. Handling it as little as possible, add the shortening in about eight large chunks. Pulse rapidly 5 or 6 times till the mixture appears to be fine crumbs. Add the butter, cut into several pieces, again handling as little as possible. Pulse another 5 or 6 times until the coated particles of fat are varied in size, with the largest about the size of an almond. Begin adding water in a trickle, just a couple of tablespoons at first. Pulse 2 or 3 times. If the mixture is still quite dry, add a little more water. Pulse 2 or 3 more times. When the dough begins to form a ball, stop right away.

2. Handling the dough as little as possible, using just your fingertips, shape it into a ball and flatten it on your countertop or whatever well-floured surface you will use to roll it. I like to use a cold (notice the theme?) marble pin, rolling the dough quickly and lightly with as few strokes as possible, working from the center out to the edges until the crust is about 1/8-inch thick and 13 inches in diameter for a 9-inch pie pan. (I prefer metal.) What’s up with all the cold ingredients and utensils? It keeps the fat, especially if you are using butter, cool and solid as you work, so when the pie goes in the oven, the variously sized chunks melt at last, producing a flaky, tender crust. Once the piecrust is in the pan and crimped however you like (a topic for a whole other blog post), stick it in the fridge while you work on the filling.

Pecan Filling (based on R. Chancellor’s Buckfield Pecan Pie, as shared by Ben Baglio many, many years ago)

¼ lb. butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 lb. light brown sugar
6 tablespoons half-and-half
3 eggs
2 teaspoons champagne vinegar
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped, toasted (4 or 5 minutes in a 350° oven) pecans

Pre-heat oven to 325°. Melt butter, let cool. Beat eggs in a small bowl and set aside. Mix flour and sugar; add beat eggs and half and half. Beat well by hand or in a stand mixer on a medium setting. Stir in vinegar and vanilla. Add butter and nuts. Pour into a chilled, unbaked pie shell (9-inch is perfect). Bake for one hour, or until mixture is gooey and thick, but not totally solid. It’s meant to be cooled before serving, but it’s really good still slightly warm and custardy inside, too.

Click here for printable recipe

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Thanks Elise! An amazing pie just in the nick of time for Thanksgiving baking madness. And now for giveaway number 2 of this post: everyone who leaves a comment telling me and Elise what their own favorite pie is will be entered into a random drawing for one of three copies of the #1 bestselling, Newbery Award-winning, pie-inspiring GRAVEYARD BOOK, by the incomparable Neil Gaiman. Get commenting...winners will be posted Saturday, November 21.