Praline Cookies

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Title: 1986 Winner: Praline Cookies
Categories: Cookies
Yield: 36 servings

1/2 c Butter
1 1/2 c Packed brown sugar
1 Egg
1 1/2 c Flour
1 ts Vanilla
1 c Chopped pecans

Preparation time: 25 minutes Baking time: 10 to 12 minutes
: 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugar and egg. Stir in
flour, vanilla
and pecans. Mix well by hand. Shape into balls about the size of
walnuts, place on cookie sheets and flatten to about 1/8 inch.
: 2. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until brown. Remove from oven and
allow to cool
completely and harden. (These cookies are chewy, not hard).
: Winner Jean McGree of Flossmoor "bores everyone,"
she says, with this family tale of Christmas praline cookies: "Since the
time Mom had been a little girl, each November Grandma would surround
her back yard pecan tree with sheets to catch the falling nuts. But most
of the nuts had to be knocked from the branches with her long-handled
broom. Then she would spend hours stooped over those sheets, picking up
the pecans and sorting the good ones from the black and hollow shells.
"When her daughter married and moved away, the nuts were carefully
picked over, packaged and shipped 'up North.' Free time in the first
week of December was always marked for shelling the pecans. Sore hands
and stiff backs were repaid with secret nibbling and promises of praline
cookies for Christmas. "Soon, I'll start looking for a package from
Great-Grandma in South Carolina. Then, as we crack the pecans, I can
retell the 'pecan story' to Michael and Ann, who know that Santa always
looks for pralines on Christmas Eve." from the Chicago Tribune annual Food
Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 4, 1986

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