The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) indicates that praline is a cream that is prepared with chocolate and hazelnuts or almonds . The term comes from the French language.
It is a paste that is used in the field of baking to cover cakes or cakes and to fill chocolates . It is important to keep in mind, however, that the concept can refer to other types of similar preparations, also known as pralin , pralinoise or praline (without the accent on the E ).
There are pastry chefs who explain that praline, specifically, is a cream of hazelnuts, almonds and/or walnuts that is mixed with a ganache (a combination of chocolate and milk cream ). The first step to make it is to caramelize the nuts; Then, once the caramel has dried, you have to grind everything. Finally, the combination is made with the chocolate and cream .
When caramelized nuts are crushed to obtain somewhat thick pieces, it is called pralin . If they continue to be crushed until they release the oil from the grains, a paste known as praline cream is produced. Another possibility is to mix the praline cream and melted chocolate in equal parts, generating a pralinoise .
Praline , meanwhile, refers to a traditional French candy that is made with almonds. In this case, the almonds are toasted and covered with caramelized sugar , which is usually flavored and colored.
As you can see, in colloquial language the word praline is used in different ways, although always linked to a gastronomic preparation with nuts .
Praline is often used to give our desserts a unique touch of flavor. In addition to being a very easy recipe to make, since a small amount is used, we can save the leftover to incorporate it into another preparation. Let's see below the steps to do it.
The ingredients used to prepare Hazelnut Praline are few: one cup of hazelnuts, half a cup of sugar, two tablespoons of water and two teaspoons of sunflower oil. It takes us no more than ten minutes to prepare and half an hour to cook.
First we must roast the hazelnuts at medium temperature, so that their skin comes off the center of the fruit. We remove them from the heat and finish removing the skin with a dry cloth. Afterwards, we leave them covered with another cloth so that they stay warm.
On the other hand, we place the water and sugar in a pot and boil it. We need a syrup to form, but we must be careful that the sugar does not caramelize yet.
We add the hazelnuts to the syrup and stir, trying to coat each hazelnut with sugar but remain separate from the others. Once they are all sugared, we turn on the heat again and continue mixing.
To know when we have the Praline ready we must observe our mixture . When the sugar begins to caramelize it will take on a dark color, and all the hazelnuts will begin to look brighter and golden.
When all the hazelnuts are golden, we remove them from the heat and spread them on a tray covered with baking paper. Once they have cooled, we grind them with a food processor. We must obtain a smooth and easy-to-remove paste with them. If we notice that it is a little dry, we can add a few drops of oil.
Once we have our Hazelnut Praline ready, we place it in a container with an airtight lid so we can use it when a recipe requires it. Every time we need it we will have to stir the mixture a little so that it is unified, since the oil tends to separate from the solids.