Pistachio Praline Candy Squares

Whenever I find a recipe in a magazine that i'm dying to try I cut it out and put it into my "Recipe book", which is actually a photo album with sticky pages that I quickly throw magazine clippings into.  I found this recipe quite some time ago in a Martha Stewart Living magazine but for some reason never got around to trying it.  When flipping through my book the other day I realized I had all the ingredients in my kitchen and now was the perfect time to try it out and boy am I glad I did.  It turned out being the perfect combination of sweet and salty and only took 15 minutes to make!

Ingredients:

2 cups shelled salted pistachios

1/4 cup water

2 cups sugar

vegetable oil

1. Chop the pistachios into small pieces

2. Pour water and sugar into a pot over medium heat, swirl pot to stir and boil for 10-12 minutes until mixture is amber colored.  Note: Be very careful not to touch the sugar mixture or get it on your skin, it is sticky and it will burn!

3. Cover a 13 x 9 inch baking sheet with vegetable oil and place parchment paper over it with about two inches hanging off of either end

4. Once the sugar and water mixture has turned amber remove from the heat and quickly stir in the chopped pistachios

5. Pour the mixture onto the parchment paper and spread evenly with a heat resistance spatula that has been coated with vegetable oil

6. Let the mixture cool for 2-3 minutes and pick the parchment paper up off of the baking sheet

7. Using an oiled knife but the candy mixture into desired shape (bars, squares, circles, whatever you like)

8. Allow candy to harden completely.  Candy can be stored in air tight container for up to two weeks, but once you try it I highly doubt it will last that long!