Want to learn step by step at your time but with my support ? Sign up a masterclass and :)
Sign up a master class and learn with me new recipes and tips.
All masterclasses >
French Praliné (caramelized nuts butter)
Praliné is my favorite spread ever. It’s very tasty, strong in nut flavor, plus it happens to be dairy-free and vegan !
It’s not difficult to make praliné, it takes a bit of time but you will be fully rewarded by the fantastic aroma and flavor of these caramelized nuts.
The only thing you need for this recipe is a very powerful food processor/blender.
The recipe I am providing is made with a mix of almonds and hazelnuts. I find that praline made with hazelnuts only is a little bit too bitter to my liking but feel free to only use them if you want. Actually, you can use almost any nuts you like for this recipe. Another favorite praliné of mine is with pistachios. You can also do it with peanuts, macadamias; pecans… the possibilities are endless !
Just make sure you buy your nuts raw and not already roasted. The main reason for that is that we will cook the nuts in a pan for 10-15 min. If you do this with roasted nuts, they will end up being over-roasted and your praline will taste very bitter.
You can spread it on a fresh slice of sourdough bread or even better, on a crepe. Enjoy!
French Praliné (caramelized nut butter)
Equipment
- A pan
- A very powerful food processor/blender
Ingredients
- 150 g hazelnuts
- 150 g almonds
- 150 g sugar
- 30 g water
Instructions
- Heat up water and sugar in a pan until it bubbles like shown in the photo.
- Add your nuts to the pan, lower heat to middle high. From this point on, never stop stirring!
- In the first few minutes, the sugar will crystallize around your nuts, it's normal. Again, keep stirring.
- Then you will reach a point where only half of your nuts will be caramelized, so reduce the heat to low to make sure that the caramelized nuts won't burn while the other half has time to get caramelized as well.
- Eventually, all your nuts will be caramelized! They are delicious on their own, you can keep them in a tight container for a month without a problem. Before you process them, make sure to wait until they completely cool down.
- To make praline, you need a very powerful food processor or blender. Otherwise, you might not be able to grind the nuts to butter, or even worse, damage your processor.
- Put your caramelized nuts in a food processor/blender and start processing. Grinding the nuts will release the natural oils in them that will make your praline liquid. The time it takes to do that entirely depends on the power of your food processor/blender. At first, you will get a powder, then slowly you will get a paste.
- Check every 30 seconds while processing that your paste is not getting super hot. If it does get hot, open up your food processor/blender and wait until it cools down. Otherwise, you will damage the machine, plus your praline will have a burnt aftertaste. Add one or two tablespoons of neutral oil (I use canola or grapeseed oil) if your processor has trouble grinding the nuts.
- Process until you get a paste that is liquid. You can keep it at room temperature for at least two months (if you can keep your hands off of it for that long). Enjoy!
It looks like there is chocolate in it or is just the nuts and caramel that make that colour?
Hello! Thanks for your comment. You are right There is a small amount of dark chocolate added to the praline picture displayed (I do not have a picture of the praline without chocolate yet) but the texture will be the exact same.
How much chocolate?
[…] hazelnut praline, use my recipe here. Use only hazelnuts instead of a mix with […]
[…] Heat up water and sugar in a pan until it starts to bubble. Add your nuts to the pan, lower heat to middle high. From this point on, never stop stirring! In the first few minutes, the sugar will crystallize around the nuts. It's normal. Again, keep stirring. Eventually, all the nuts will be caramelized. Let them cool down at room temperature for 20 minutes before crushing them in a Ziploc. (See the recipe with photos here) […]