On 3/6/2023 at 7:28 PM, Jim D. said:My initial use of the melanger has gone mostly well. I'm making a 4Kg batch of almond praline paste. The melanger is doing very well--not a morsel has flown out of the bowl, even when the amount was small at the beginning. I "pre-ground" the almonds in a food processor until they were fine and barely beginning to exude their oil. Then I made the caramel, and therein was the issue. The caramel was going well until near the end, when the sugar began to crystallize--which leads to that horrible sinking feeling, "I know where this is going to end." So I added some water and began again. The same thing happened a second time, and then a third time. Now a sensible person would have thrown out that 1.6Kg of sugar and started over, but being sensible is not always a virtue of mine (after all, I do make chocolates). The fourth time I divided the caramel in half and melted each half by itself, using a smaller pot. This time it worked. I have no idea what went wrong earlier. The humidity today is around 30%, and I followed the same procedure I always do (I prefer a wet caramel). In any event, I pre-ground the caramel in my old food processor (the sides of the bowl were already scratched from grinding caramel, so I used it), then added the caramel slowly to the melanger, along with some sea salt, and so far so good. It tastes great, needs some more grinding.
Jim, when making almond praline, do you use almonds with skin on? Also do you add any flavorings? I made almond praline yesterday with blanched almonds and the end product didn't taste like almonds at all. It tasted like a nut paste with caramel notes but you couldn't tell what nut it is. ( I did roast the blanched almonds until golden or a bit more). I caramelized the sugar as well. Thanks!