GATOR DAY AT VANDERBILT

After an unexpected-but-amazing win over the Bulldogs last weekend (Florida took Georgia 38 to 20!), we’re off to Nashville tonight where the Gators will face the Vanderbilt Commodores at our last away-game of the season. 

And what better thing to have at a game between two old Southern schools, than Pralines?

These fancy French confections are really just homemade caramel — made by boiling buttermilk with white and brown sugar, butter and corn syrup with toasted chopped pecans mixed in before they set. Pralines are THE CANDY of the Old South.  More so in Louisiana, but they’ll be great for Tennessee, too!

Florida Head Coach Will Muschamp

BUTTERMILK PECAN PRALINES

2 cup(s) granulated sugar

1 cup(s) packed light-brown sugar

1 cup(s) buttermilk

1 stick(s) (1/2 cup) unsalted butter,  cut in pieces

2 tablespoon(s) light corn syrup

2 cup(s) (8 oz) pecans,  toasted and coarsely chopped

Line 3 baking sheets with nonstick foil.  Bring sugars, buttermilk, butter and corn syrup to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil 8 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 230°F (or when a small amount of syrup dropped into very cold water forms a 2-in. thread). Add pecans; stir 10 seconds or until bubbling subsides. Return to a boil; boil 5 minutes or until a candy thermometer registers 240°F (or when syrup dropped into very cold water forms a soft ball, which flattens when removed).

Remove from heat (take extra care not to spatter the hot sugar mixture) and stir vigorously 3 minutes or until mixture thickens and turns from clear to opaque.

Working quickly, drop tablespoons at least 1 in. apart onto prepared baking sheets. (Stir briefly over low heat if mixture gets too thick.) Cool completely. A candy thermometer is very helpful but not essential.

  

1929 Florida Gators Football