Day Trips
Enjoy some Golden Gal Pralines with Capt. Day Trips.
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Dec. 19, 2003
Golden Gals Pralines are irresistible. The pecan-filled candies with a delightful mix of butter and vanilla flavoring give new meaning to the phrase "sugar high." These coaster-sized patties are to be savored, but once you've tried one, they can't be ignored.
Popular in restaurants along the I-30 corridor from Abilene to Jonesboro, Ark., the pralines are also shipped around the world from the Northeast Texas kitchen where each batch is handcrafted. A little taste of Texas goes with each creamy delight given to homesick expatriates and wannabe Texans.
"People up North don't know what a praline is," says Gretta Moore, the former owner of Golden Gals Candy Company and now an employee of the sweet enterprise. Once someone sends a batch of Moore's pralines to a Northerner, she has a steady customer. "You can't buy pralines up North," she says, "least ways not pralines as good as ours."
That might sound like a brag, but Moore has a point. Golden Gals Pralines are to other pralines what a Lexus is to a Yugo. The candies are softer -- they come in original, chewy, and chocolate -- and they're not sugary hockey pucks filled with peanuts.
"There must be a million different recipes for pralines," Moore says, "but I've never seen one like ours." She says the secret is a combination of ingredients and technique that gives Golden Gals Pralines their unique texture. They're kind of a cross between fudge and a traditional praline. It's the texture that makes them stand out from other pralines.
The company began in 1988, when two little old ladies, Margarite Detweiler and Cheryl O'Brian, took a family recipe and perfected it. They named the company after the gold jewelry they used to sell at house parties. At first the pair sold their creamy wares mainly to area restaurants, but as word spread so did their mail-order business. Pretty soon the majority of their business was mailing fresh-made candies around the state, Moore says. The company grew by word-of-mouth advertising, and now they have regular customers in Bermuda, France, England, and Japan. Several pounds were shipped in time for Christmas to soldiers stationed in Iraq.
When Detweiler passed away in 1995, the ladies were making their pralines in a tiny house in Clarksville. Moore says the house was so small that the candy was cooked in the garage and wrapped and shipped in the house.
By 1998, O'Brian was ready to sell the company to Moore, who had grown up across the street from the queen of pralines. Moore was a stay-at-home mom looking for an employment opportunity. "I grew up making candy," Moore says, "but I soon found out that I didn't know as much about making candy as I thought I did."
O'Brian coached Moore through the process and the business continued to grow. In 2000, Golden Gals Pralines moved into a building off the town square in Clarksville. A year later, Moore added a tea room selling lunches. The chicken-and-dumplings special on Fridays was her grandmother's recipe, she says, and the pies and cakes were Moore's own tried-and-true concoctions.
In an average week, Moore makes 10 to 12 batches of pralines. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas that number rises to 10 to 12 batches a day, six days a week. Each batch yields 22 to 23 pounds of pralines. This past fall the company added flavored pecan halves to the list of products. All of the foods are sold in decorative baskets, bags, or tins.
With the kids grown and the business growing, it is no wonder that Moore was ready to take it easy. A couple of months ago she sold the candy company to Allen Carter, who is going to move the factory to Mount Pleasant to be closer to the traffic on I-30. This spring, Carter will reopen the Golden Gals Candy Co. with a complete offering of fudge, nuts, truffles, and, of course, their signature pralines.
At least until February, Golden Gals Pralines are available at 203 N. Locust in Clarksville. The sweets can be ordered by calling 888/318-4171, or to shop online go to www.goldengalspralines.com.
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