Well, here we are into Desserts and I have the honour of leading off the chapter.
But I blew it.
Ingredients are pretty simple – almonds, sugar, vegetable oil, a sheet of aluminum foil and a potato. A potato? Yes, a potato.

I followed Marcella’s directions as to how to skin the almonds; made sure the melted sugar reached a “rich tawny gold”; spread the vegetable oil on the aluminum foil; used the potato as per Marcella’s instructions. BUT I deviated from one of Marcella’s directions which likely created my problem with this recipe. Marcella indicated that the almonds are to be chopped very fine using a knife, not a food processor, into pieces about half the size of a grain of rice. Well, I didn’t use a food processor, but I didn’t use a knife either – I use a hand-held food chopper, which likely resulted in too many very small pieces i.e. crumbs.

The end result (below) was not like praline, more like a very sweet granola. The ingredients didn’t bind together.

What I liked about this recipe:
Well, I like almonds and the list of ingredients is very small.
What didn’t I like about this recipe:
Since I didn’t follow one of the directions, I suppose I had a problem with that – couldn’t see myself chopping all those almonds into very small pieces.
Will I make it again?
No. I don’t think the effort is worth the reward, or is even a good idea for that matter. I am pretty sure I could do a better job on a second attempt, but I decided I didn’t want to make it again. About the last thing I need to be doing is making and eating more candy. I’m consciously reducing my sugar consumption – will reserve my splurges for other recipes in this chapter.