Mostachones

In a very tall heavy pot with a capacity of 5 quarts (4.7 liters), combine the sugar, milk, light corn syrup, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and butter. Bring the mixture to a boil stirring constantly. It should continue boiling until it reaches the soft-ball stage (235-240°F or 113-116°C on a candy thermometer), around 30-35 minutes (see note). During this period, you must keep stirring carefully and constantly.

Remove pot from heat. Discard the cinnamon stick and let the mixture cool until it reaches 180°F or 82°C, around 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile arrange the pecans halves facing down (so that later when you take the candies out of the paper liners, the pecans remains on the correct side) in small paper liners.

When mixture is cool, add the vanilla and beat by hand with a wooden spoon until it thickens and loses its gloss, This will take around 5 minutes.

Evenly pour the mixture into the small paper liners and flatten the tops with an offset spatula. Let them rest overnight. Then carefully remove the paper liners.

Enjoy!

Notes:
– You’ll need a candy thermometer for this recipe.
– Soft-ball stage means that when you drop a bit of the mixture into cold water to cool it down, it will form a soft ball.

Adapted from “My Sweet Mexico”