Praliné vs Gianduja: interchangeable?

[pastryani]

Is this correct?

 

Praliné = nuts that are toasted with sugar and ground to a paste

Gianduja = nuts that are toasted with sugar and ground to a paste with chocolate added

 

Wybauw frequently uses both Praliné and Gianduja in the same recipe.  If you only had Praliné paste, could you just use Praliné paste and add some chocolate to it?  (If so, how much chocolate?)

[ChrisZ]

Gianduja specifically refers to hazelnuts, while pralines can be any nut (e.g. almond, walnut, pistachio and peanut).  I guess Gianduja is a specific type of praline.

 

FWIW, while I find nutella too sweet (it's a type of gianduja) I really love some of the artisan gianduja's around.  I used to live by a market where a stand stocked big slabs of Callebaut gianduja and they would cut off pieces to order... yum.  But that's getting off topic.

 

If it isn't made with hazelnuts, it isn't gianduja.

[pastrygirl]

There might also be varying amounts of sugar in praline vs gianduja, but I think you could fake it.  What %'s of chocolate do you have?  I think somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 praline paste by weight .  40% praline, 60% chocolate?

[Jim D.]

Gianduja specifically refers to hazelnuts, while pralines can be any nut (e.g. almond, walnut, pistachio and peanut).  I guess Gianduja is a specific type of praline.

 

FWIW, while I find nutella too sweet (it's a type of gianduja) I really love some of the artisan gianduja's around.  I used to live by a market where a stand stocked big slabs of Callebaut gianduja and they would cut off pieces to order... yum.  But that's getting off topic.

 

If it isn't made with hazelnuts, it isn't gianduja.

Although I am sure you are correct about hazelnuts and gianduja from a traditional point of view, Peter Greweling (in Chocolates and Confections) refers to gianduja made with almonds as well as the version with hazelnuts and writes of it being commercially made with both nuts (though I have never seen almond gianduja for sale).  He has a recipe called "Trifection" that has one layer of white chocolate almond gianduja, another of milk chocolate almond gianduja, and the third of dark chocolate hazelnut gianduja.

[pastryani]

Wow thanks ChrisZ for the clarification. That makes it easy. 

 

Pastrygirl - I've got a range of milk chocolates to very dark (80-something%).  I guess I could try just adding chocolate to my praline paste until my desired sweetness.

 

JimD - hence my confusion, I've also seen it used interchangeably.  But it's good to know what to default to when it doesn't specify what nut.  Thanks guys!

[chocofoodie]

When Wybauw lists Praline in a recipe (like on page 85 for Dulce de leche) does he mean a ready made one or does he mean one that he includes a recipe for?

[Jim D.]

When Wybauw lists Praline in a recipe (like on page 85 for Dulce de leche) does he mean a ready made one or does he mean one that he includes a recipe for?

I have always thought he means a commercially made product.  In the books I have I don't think he provides a recipe.  Some recipes (Andrew Shotts has one) do call for making hazelnut praline paste at home, but most experts say that, at least with hazelnuts, it is impossible to make a really smooth praline at home.  I should add "unless you have a stone-type grinder," as I believe Kerry Beal has.  L'Epicérie in New York carries two kinds of praline, one that is more coarse (with bits of hazelnut in it) and another (from Cacao Barry) that is perfectly smooth.

[Kerry Beal]

I think purchased would be what he is referring to - I'm happy enough to make homemade hazelnut paste - but praline is ground sugar (either caramelized or not) and hazelnuts and very hard to make smooth.