Oh What?! Pralines!

Every Christmas I spend hours in the kitchen making candies and desserts to give as gifts to my friends and family.  Last Christmas I made pralines as one of the candies, and a good friend of mine took one bite and requested that as her birthday treat!  Well, her birthday was last week and so I came through.  The pralines I made for her were NOT paleo (shame on me), but as I was making them I realized how easy it would be to convert them.  Well, today I tried and succeeded!  They are SO good!  Don't be fooled, there is no chocolate in them.  I did use pastured butter in these, but I'm positive they would work with coconut oil if you can not do dairy.

Pralines

1/2 cup canned coconut milk

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 cup palm sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup pastured butter

1 1/4 cups pecan halves

dash of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Line a large cookie sheet or counter top with parchment of waxed paper. Mix coconut milk and vinegar together and allow to sit for a few minutes (this creates a type of buttermilk). Add milk, sugar and soda to a large saucepan over medium-low heat. (Make sure to use a large 3 qt saucepan because it rises very high and very rapidly!) Bring to a boil while continually stirring. Once boiling, boil and stir for 7 minutes making sure to stir even the bottom edges of the pan (you DO NOT want the sugar to burn!). Stir in the butter, salt and pecan halves.  Add a candy thermometer and continue to stir and boil until the thermometer reaches 236 degrees (soft ball stage). Remove from heat and quickly stir in the vanilla.  Drop by small spoonfuls onto parchment or waxed paper.  Cool completely and enjoy!