My dad had quite a sweet tooth. During the summer months, we would often go out for an evening drive and get ice cream. He LOVED chocolate and so did my little sister. My mom and I could take it or leave it…mainly leave it. While they usually ordered some sort of chocolate ice cream, mom and I would get whatever flavor that appealed to us at that moment: lime sherbert, lemon custard, vanilla, black walnut, pistachio, butter pecan, and pecan praline were the usual suspects. By the time I was in high school, pecan praline was probably my favorite ice cream after my mom’s homemade ice cream.
Today, I eat a lot less ice cream in the summer. Aside from an occasional scoop from Clumpies, most of what we eat is homemade or found in a carton in my freezer and vanilla. Vanilla is the best flavor to have on hand, in my opinion, if you are going to only have one flavor of ice cream because it is like a blank canvas. You can add any flavor of topping to it, including pecan praline.
Pecan Praline ice cream topping is not something you are necessarily going to find on your standard grocery store shelf. Luckily, it is very easy to make a delicious pecan praline topping yourself.
My version of a pecan praline sauce is based on one in Lehman’s Hardware’s Diamond Jubilee Aniversary Cookbook. It could be called a syrup instead of a sauce, although it thickens some when cooled. If you want it thicker like the sauce pictured in the photograph above follow the notes follow the notes for a thicker version in the recipe.
I have only made the recipe with golden syrup, but the original recipe called for light corn syrup.
Pecan Praline Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/4 c. unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 c. light brown sugar
- 2 rounded c. miniature marshmallows or 18 large marshmallows or fluff*
- 3 Tbsp. golden (cane) syrup or light corn syrup
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 c. evaporated milk or heavy cream
- 1/2 c. toasted chopped pecans**
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat.
- Stir in brown sugar, marshmallows*, and syrup.
- Cook until marshmallows are melted. stirring continuously.
- Add in salt.
- Bring mixture to a boil for 1 minute.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
- Stir in milk, pecans, and vanilla.
- Pour into jar or bottle.
- Serve warm.
- To keep warm you can place the jar or bottle of sauce in some warm water in a slow cooker on warm or low.
- Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
* For a thicker sauce, add another 1/2 to a scant cup of miniature marshmallows. NOTE: Adding the additional marshmallows does change the flavor a little. The brown sugar flavor is not as intense. If making the thicker version, store in a glass jar, not a bottle.
Two rounded cups of miniature marshmallows is about half of a 10 oz. bag . . .just SLIGHTLY more.
**I think adding the pecans when they are still warm from toasting adds more flavor to the sauce.
Nuts can burn quickly when toasting, Toast in a dry skillet on the stove top or for 7 to 10 minutes on a baking sheet in a 350 degree F oven. With either method, keep a close eye on the nuts as you heat them.