Jackson Jambalaya

Old timey advice says one should avoid attempting this candy recipe on a rainy day. Both my grandmother and mom would tell you cooking this recipe when the air is humid is a good way to fail at making an acceptable batch of Pecan Divinity since too humid conditions can make it drop into soft puddles. Avoiding rainy day cooking has not been a problem at our house since sometime back in July. I guess the only good thing I can say about the sixteen plus weeks we have gone without appreciable rainfall in Clinton is we have had more than enough dry days for us to make lots of Pecan Divinity.  

There were two older gentlemen seated on a bench in front of the Gin, watching a farmer offload his blue plastic wrapped rolled cotton bales on the gin lot to await their turn for ginning and I figured they could help me out. Unfortunately, they were involved in a serious discussion, and I chose to not interrupt as of them told the other, "You know, we always had a lot better weather when Mr. Woody Assaf was our weather man. We ain't had a decent year of weather since Mr. Woody retired and Channel 3 hired them folks they got doing the weather down there, now." His friend nodded and said, "I still notice you never miss watching that short-skirted girl they got at 6:00."

Anyhow, 

Here is how I make Pecan Divinity

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup white corn syrup
1/2 cup cold water
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1/8 teaspoon salt

 

Need a good thermometer. The recipe is temperature sensitive (Soft ball)

Need either wax paper or a non-stick sheet to drop the hot candy on so it can cool. More of this later.

Directions:

Prep ingredients. Everything needs to be ready (in place - Miz en place) before you start. 

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir only until sugar has dissolved. Do not stir the mixture after this point. 

Monitor the temperature with a candy thermometer and cook the syrup mixture until it reaches 260 degrees F on a candy thermometer. 260 F is 10 degrees hotter than the hard ball stage of 250 degrees F. Most recipes call for 250 F syrup (not 260). The extra temperature in this recipe helps prevent humidity in the air from affecting solidification of the divinity. At 250 degrees (standard hard ball stage) divinity success is very dependent on low humidity. The lower (less wet) the humidity of the air, the better (more solidly) the divinity will set at 250 F. At high humidity, it may never get above a thick creamy stage.  Many cooks will not make divinity on a rainy or overcast day. That might be a wise rule to follow, regardless of temperature.

While the syrup is cooking, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. 

If you have a heavy-duty mixing paddle, switch the mixer to it. I have seen divinity bend a wire mixer blade as it gets thick.

Once the sugar mixture reaches 260 degrees F, carefully pour a slow steady stream of syrup into the stiffly beaten egg whites, beating constantly at high speed. BE CAREFUL! THE SYRUP IS VERY HOT! Some will say they make divinity by hand stirring the syrup/egg white mixture. A mixer works better and is all we would use at our house. In fact, I would say your mixer needs to be a good one to withstand the torque required to mix divinity. Add the vanilla while the mixture is still very hot and continue to beat until the candy holds its shape and begins to lose some of its shine (approximately 4-5 minutes of strong mixing). As soon as the shine begins to dull, stir in the pecans and start scooping out the divinity immediately.

Using 2 spoons, drop/spoon scrape the divinity onto Silpat sheet or waxed paper, using 1 spoon to push the candy off the other. Size of the scoops is your preference. 1 X 2 or 2 X 2 inches seems like a reasonable size piece. If the divinity becomes too stiff, add a few drops of boiling hot water. You will need to work as fast as possible when scooping the hot candy, because it will set up quickly and you may be left with concrete in your mixer bowl. After you spoon the cooked sugar and nuts onto the waxed paper or Silpat sheet, you're done. Allow the candy to fully cool and store in a closed/airtight container for up to 2 weeks. It stores best with wax paper between the layers in the container.

 Occasionally (back in the good old days), Mom would substitute Candied Cherries - the green and red ones folks use in fruit cake. She would cut them into quarters or thirds and add them when she would normally add the pecan bits. They were good. Mom is 96 now and past her divinity making days. I have a few more years in me, but I guess everyone deserves to retire eventually.

Thanks for looking at my post.

God Bless You.