Praline Uniques-A Recipe for Christmas

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Never heard of Praline Uniques? Me either until today.

One of my SilverSneakers participants caught me today at the YMCA and told me he had a Christmas present for me. He pulled a piece of paper out of his front jacket pocket and handed it to me.

I wasn’t really sure what I was looking at on the paper, but he explained it to me.

At the top of the page was a complete name, Ella Rita Helfrich, and her address was underneath her name.

Then the words, Dessert Category….Praline Uniques.

My senior participant explained to me that this gift was one of his mom’s favorite Christmas recipes, which I thought was a sweet enough gift to begin with because I love family recipes! I always like to ask people for the recipes of foods I have enjoyed over the years, and I especially love family recipes that have been passed down through the decades because these recipes unite us with our family before us through memories and flavors. They are irreplaceable!

The gentleman went on to tell me that his mom won a $10,000 prize for this recipe! She had been part of a Pillsbury baking contest and she also is credited with inventing the Bundt cake. What?! Wow! I love Bundt cakes! How cool is this?

So now not only has he gifted me a favorite family recipe, but the recipe also happens to be from the woman who invented the Bundt cake! Of course I had to do some research once I made it home. Here’s an interesting story about the prize winning Pillsbury recipe and the Bundt pan’s rise to fame. And here’s a story the Houston Chronicle published about her after her death in 2015.

Ella Rita Helfrich Recipes:

Here is the link to her most famous recipe the Tunnel of Fudge Bundt Cake.

Praline Uniques

Ingredients

1 box (9.5 oz) Triscuit Wafers
1 stick (1/2 cup) margarine
1 pound light brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 egg
2 TB vanilla
2 cups pecan pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 325. Spray an 11×16 jelly roll pan (or a cookie sheet) with non stick vegetable spray. Line bottom of the pan with 54 Triscuits (9 rows by 6 rows). Set aside.

Put margarine, brown sugar, flour, egg, and vanilla into large non stick skillet. Place over medium heat. Stirring constantly, cook until all the ingredients are melted together–about 4 minutes. Carefully pour or spoon the mixture over the Triscuits, using a rubber spatula to smooth and cover the wafers. Sprinkle pecans over praline. Press nuts down lightly so none are loose.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes. Cool. Cut into 54 Triscuit size squares.

My experience

So I had to make these! And they ended up delicious!

Of course I recommend them! They are quick and easy to make. You don’t need many ingredients. The recipe makes enough to serve a to a group or party.

Hints:

When you are suppose to stir constantly for 4 minutes, you really do need to be stirring.
I used butter instead of margarine and they were still delicious.
An 11×16 cookie sheet is a smaller cookie sheet.
You might need to break some Triscuits in order to fully cover the cookie sheet.
After it’s cooled you can flip over the whole “cake” and see where to cut the Triscuits apart.