Sweet Praline Bites covered in Chocolate
Ingredients:
•1/2 Cup of pecans, halved (plus about 12 to garnish)
•1/2 Cup of walnuts, in big enough pieces but not whole
•1/2 Cup of white sugar
•1/2 Cup of brown sugar
•1/4 Cup of heavy cream
•1 Teaspoon of hazelnut or vanilla extract
•1 Tablespoon of butter
•1/2 Cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate
Cooking instructions:
1.Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2.In a small microwavable bowl, put your chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) and microwave for 10 seconds at a time, mixing between each time, until the chocolate is completely melted. Set the chocolate aside.
3.In a deep pan, put your 1/2 cup fo pecans and 1/2 cup of walnuts, both sugars, cream, butter and extract and mix it a bit to blend the ingredients. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of your pan. Bring to a boil on medium high heat and swirl the pot from time to time but do not mix with spoon. Let the mixture boil until the thermometer shows 236 F degrees/150 C degrees (this will take about 6 minutes or so, maybe less).
Note: if you haven´t candy thermometer, drop it a little to cold water and when it stiffen, it is ready.
4.Remove the pan for the heat and with a wooden spoon, mix vigorously for about 2 to 3 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and the nuts are suspended in the mixture. The mixture should not be liquidy. Fill heaping spoons with the mixture and drop them on the parchment paper. Take the melted chocolate and drop a dollop on each bite. If you have fleur de sel, drop a few grains on each bite. Place a pecan (the ones you kept aside to garnish) on each of the bites. Chill for about 30 minutes or until they are set.
5.You can freeze them in an air tight container.
6.Enjoy!
