Praline Recipe

To me, praline had always been a “flavour”. And by that, I mean an added ingredient to something else. Like praline chocolates, pralines and cream ice cream, praline cheesecake.

You get the idea.

I knew that it was a tasty combination of nuts and syrup, but I had never heard of the phenomenon that is the New Orleans-style praline candies.

Scott had talked about his love for them (are you seeing a pattern emerging here? As someone who has visited New Orleans around 14 times, he loves EVERYTHING about the place), but I was confused as to what they actually were.

When I was making our Thanksgiving dinner last year, I knew I wanted a fairly light dessert (read: not a heavy cake or pudding) because there was going to be so much other food before it. And so when I came across a recipe for praline candies online, I knew that they would be a perfect American dessert which wouldn’t need too much stomach space.

Seeing as how I’d never eaten them (or even seen them!) before, a lot of what I was making was guesswork, but I followed the recipe to the tee and used Scott as the guide as to whether the end result had turned out well.

I was really pleased with the result. They were crunchy, sweet and crumbly but not as sickly as I had imagined they would be. They also took hardly any time to make.

However, I would definitely say that you need a candy thermometer to make these. Luckily the apartment we were staying in had one, because if you let the mixture get too hot, or even remove it from the heat before it’s hot enough, it would affect the overall appearance and consistency of the pralines.

New Orleans-Style Pralines Recipe

Recipe by Julia

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 3/4 cup light brown sugar

• 1/2 cup milk

• 6 tablespoons butter

• 1 1/2 cups pecans

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

• Combine all ingredients in a big pan and bring to a “softball stage” on your candy thermometer (238-240 degrees F – it normally reads “softball stage” on the thermometer at this temperature), stirring constantly. Once it has reached the desired temperature, remove from the heat.
• Stir until mixture thickens (again stirring constantly) and becomes creamy and cloudy, and pecans stay suspended in mixture. Spoon out onto wax paper, aluminum foil or parchment paper. When using waxed paper, be sure to place some newspaper underneath, as hot wax could transfer to whatever is beneath.
• This recipe made around 12 pralines for me, as I made them quite large, but in smaller sizes it could make up to 30.