Mexican Brown Sugar

This week’s food item may not seem odd to all, but it was to me, so it counts. If you go to a specialty market, like Lola's, and see something unusual, it is odd. So to me, Mexican Brown Sugar is odd. Mexican Brown Sugar, also known as Panela and Piloncillo, is unrefined sugar that tastes like brown sugar and molasses and comes in a cool cone shape. It can be substituted for brown sugar in many recipes, but I wanted a recipe that called specifically for it. One popular recipe was Pralines, which normally uses pecans. The one thing I really do not like is nuts, except for pine nuts. And would you guess that they had a recipe using pine nuts instead of pecans?! They did! I headed to Safeway and bought a cup of pine nuts for $7.00. I was not happy with that price considering I paid .43 cents (where is the cents symbol on the keyboard?) for the brown sugar. I thought this would be a cheap meal.

In any case, I started the pralines by grating the brown sugar. This took an entire hour. One hour to grate a cone of Mexican brown sugar. An hour. Straight.

Did not get quite 1 3/4 cups, but it worked nonetheless.

After I complained a little more, I began to cook the brown sugar, salt and water. Now, its says to cook until it reaches 236 degrees, but I do not have a thermometer so I had no idea when it was supposed to be done. I just kept watching it boil until I felt satisfied. I would recommend low to medium heat for about 15 minutes. Until it starts to get really bubbly and thickens up a bit. I then took it off the heat, added the butter and vanilla and let it sit for 8 minutes to thicken up. If you do not think it is thick enough, put it back on the heat until it reaches your desired consistency. Lastly, I added the pine nuts and mixed them until all the nuts were coated with the sugar. I dropped spoonfuls onto my already prepared foil covered baking sheet and let them sit until they hardened, about 20 to 30 minutes.

These turned out extremely sweet and as much as I love sweets, if the majority of it is not chocolate, I do not want to eat it. The pralines were too sweet for my taste, but my friend Brian seemed to enjoy them. He ate 5 of them. I was getting tired of my roommates not enjoying anything I cook, so I let them off the hook as taste-testers this week. If you like the Nuts & Chews box from See's, I would recommend these. If not, spend $7.00 on something else.

-Em