Simplified Praline?

[prashamk]

From what I've read on internet and seen on Youtube, I understand that Praline is result of a long process to mix nut/dry fruit and caramel. Can I simply grind some nuts and add caramel to it till it reaches the required form or will it be different than what's done traditionally? 

[pastrygirl]

Are you referring to the method of making a sugar syrup, adding nuts and stirring until the sugar crystallizes then continuing to cook and stir until the sugar caramelizes?  That's a nice way to get nuts that are individually coated, but if you're going to grind it all up into  paste you could simply caramelize the sugar then pour it over the nuts and grind them together and save yourself the stirring.

[Pastrypastmidnight]

14 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

Are you referring to the method of making a sugar syrup, adding nuts and stirring until the sugar crystallizes then continuing to cook and stir until the sugar caramelizes?  That's a nice way to get nuts that are individually coated, but if you're going to grind it all up into  paste you could simply caramelize the sugar then pour it over the nuts and grind them together and save yourself the stirring.

Kriss Harvey recommended toasting the nuts and making the caramelized sugar separately, cooling on a Silpat and the just processing the nuts and shards of sugar. Super easy.

 

Also, I don’t have little globs of caramelized sugar fly out of the pan and glue my eyelids together with this method. Don’t ask  .

[prashamk]

The process that I saw on youtube was that first sugar was caramalized. Then it was poured over some nuts and was cooled till it solidified. Then the mixture was grounded till it became gooey like peanut butter (it appeared so in the video  ). Since it felt more time consuming, I simply grounded some nuts and then started pouring ready to use caramel till the mixture become gooey like peanut butter. 

 

Since I have never tasted praline before I don't know if what I made was actually praline, as I followed different procedure. 

[keychris]

caramelised sugar is different to a ready to use caramel sauce. If you want to make a nut praline paste, you'll need to caramelise the sugar.

[pastrygirl]

6 minutes ago, keychris said:

caramelised sugar is different to a ready to use caramel sauce. If you want to make a nut praline paste, you'll need to caramelise the sugar.

 

Right. Nut butter plus liquid caramel sauce is probably delicious, but praline paste would not normally include liquid. If the praline has only nut oil and no water, it can be mixed into chocolate and tempered like gianduja. If there is water from milk or cream and you mix the paste into chocolate, you’ll get a softer ganache. Water in the mix isn’t necessarily bad, but it means shorter shelf life and different applications. 

[prashamk]

I am glad that I asked this question. I've already sent some "Praline" (maybe Pralinish ) Chocolates to few friends. I just asked to put the chocolates in refrigerator and consume them quickly.

 

I will make some REAL Praline today. Lets see how it turns out. 

[prashamk]

4 hours ago, prashamk said:

I am glad that I asked this question. I've already sent some "Praline" (maybe Pralinish ) Chocolates to few friends. I just asked to put the chocolates in refrigerator and consume them quickly.

 

I will make some REAL Praline today. Lets see how it turns out. 

 

As told in morning I tried making some Almond Praline in afternoon. I am facing 2 issues as below:

 

1) I grounded the mixture for a while (scrapping the side ocassionally) but all I've got is fine powder instead of gooey liquid.

 

2) When I tasted it its got after taste of slightly burnt sugar. 

 

What to do?

[pastrygirl]

The caramel looks a little dark, if you’re getting an unpleasant aftertaste simply caramelize the sugar to a lighter color next time. Otherwise, isn’t slightly burnt sugar flavor what you wanted when you caramelized it?  

 

As for grinding the nuts into a paste, that can take a while, especially with the added sugar. Just keep going!  Many of us have the wet grinders designed for the Indian market to grind rice and lentils for idli and dosa. If you have access to one of those, it should  take that powder and turn it into a completely smooth paste. A food processor will get it 90% smooth if you let it run long enough but there may still be a few small hard bits. And if it really refuses to turn into paste, you could add some more fat. Almond oil, flavorless cooking oil, coconut oil, melted cocoa butter etc.

[curls]

That burnt sugar taste of caramilized sugar can work very well in your praline paste. Try it again once your filling is in a bonbon or used with other pastry components and see how you like it. After that, evaluate the flavor and decide if you want the next batch of caramel to be cooked more or less.  

 

At this years eGullet Chocolate workshop, many of us in the master class made praline as one component for a recipe. Each group took their nuts and caramel to a different degree of cook. I sampled a few of them as praline and in the bonbon -- the results surprised me -- the praline I liked the best on its own was not my favorite  bonbon. The one that I thought worked best as a bonbon was the one I thought was way too caramilized/burnt as a praline. The bonbon that was made with that just under burnt praline had the best flavor -- the nut flavor came thru and the bitter balanced very well with the sweet chocolate. Of course, this is just my opinion & my taste buds. Everyone has their own favorite... there is no perfect thing that everyone will enjoy. Figure out what you like, share, and see how many share your preferences.

Edited September 28, 2018 by curls
cleaning up text -- catching some grammar errors (log)

[prashamk]

Finally as per the suggestions from experts I managed to make the praline paste. I grounded the powder a bit more and the oils started releasing but fearing that more grounding may make the caramel taste more burnt, I finally added a few drops of sunflower oil (I use it in my cakes) to make it appear like a paste. 

 

I have following queries now:

 

1) I was inspired to make praline by seeing Cadbury's Praline (as in the picture). I had not thought this through. I understood that the liquid on top is praline and completely ignored that actual praline is the paste below the liquid. Now the question arises, what's the top liquid? Is it caramel?

 

2) The Praline I made doesn't have very (almond) nutty flavour to it. What to do?

Edited September 28, 2018 by prashamk (log)

[Jim D.]

5 hours ago, prashamk said:

2) The Praline I made doesn't have very (almond) nutty flavour to it. What to do?

 

 I had exactly the same problem making caramelized almond paste. I think of almonds as having an assertive taste, but somehow they do not when ground into a paste. I would have used easy-to-find almond flavoring (which is usually alcohol-based), but because I needed the paste to be water-free (as I was using it in a bonbon to surround a cookie and didn't want to dissolve the cookie), I searched online and finally found this almond oil. It is delicious, and only a few drops made my almond paste fragrant. It comes in annoying packaging (tiny vials that release it drop by drop), but I love it.

[pastrygirl]

2 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 I would have used easy-to-find almond flavoring (which is usually alcohol-based), but because I needed the paste to be water-free 

 

You could try adding almond extract to the hot caramelized sugar, it should be hot enough to evaporate the liquid. 

[Jim D.]

36 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

You could try adding almond extract to the hot caramelized sugar, it should be hot enough to evaporate the liquid. 

Yes, but that would require guessing what the eventual flavor would be without any possibility of tasting it before pouring the caramel. The almond oil allows for tasting.

[pastrygirl]

@prashamk, did you roast the almonds separately?  Roasting brings out more flavor ... assuming you want roasted nut flavor

 

2 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Yes, but that would require guessing what the eventual flavor would be without any possibility of tasting it before pouring the caramel. The almond oil allows for tasting.

 

Well, you could take it off the heat and stop the cooking, drop a little on a cool plate or in cold water and taste it.  Where there's a will, there's a way!

[prashamk]

Guy thanks for the suggestions. I think I've sorted out the praline taste issue but I am still not clear on what's the liquid in the below image?

 

 

[keychris]

The description on their website is "Milk chocolate with hazelnut filling and chocolatey filling", which is not particularly enlightening.

 

It doesn't matter what that is, pair the praline with a flavour you like!

Edited September 29, 2018 by keychris (log)

[prashamk]

I am thinking of using Hershey's Caramel Sauce in place of the liquid shown in above pic. So from top it will be chocolate layer then caramel sauce then almond praline and chocolate to seal it off. How long would a Hershey's Caramel last in such enclosure?

 

Or is there another way to keep flavoured chocolate in liquid form inside the chocolate?

 

Also can one make a caramel sauce devoid of water (to increase shelf life of chocolates) ?

Edited September 30, 2018 by prashamk (log)

[pastrygirl]

6 hours ago, prashamk said:

 

Also can one make a caramel sauce devoid of water (to increase shelf life of chocolates) ?

 

 

If there was no water, what would make it saucy?

[prashamk]

1 minute ago, pastrygirl said:

 

If there was no water, what would make it saucy?

 

Just came across a recipe here on egullet itself that probably used butter instead of water. 

[pastrygirl]

 

The fluidity of caramel is determined by water content. Are you familiar with the cooking stages of sugar - thread, soft ball, soft crack, hard crack, etc?  If you cook sugar and water together, as the water evaporates the temp goes up and the finished product is harder.  The water in a soft caramel or caramel sauce comes from cream or milk; if you cook it all away you will have hard candy. Or if you cook sugar and butter to caramel, it will be a hard toffee not a sauce.  

 

Edited September 30, 2018 by pastrygirl (log)

[prashamk]

My bad... Didn't realise butter may also contain water. So ultimately there is no caramel that's devoid of water.

 

But then how do companies sell chocolates/toffees filled with caramel? Wouldn't water content reduce shelf life?

[pastrygirl]

Caramel has a lot of sugar, so that helps. 

[Jim D.]

40 minutes ago, prashamk said:

My bad... Didn't realise butter may also contain water. So ultimately there is no caramel that's devoid of water.

 

But then how do companies sell chocolates/toffees filled with caramel? Wouldn't water content reduce shelf life?

Those companies may well add preservatives to their product, and there are many techniques for lowering water activity in a product (adding sorbitol is one example). Actually the Aw (activity of water) reading for caramel is relatively low (a caramel so thick that it can barely be piped from a pastry bag will last a long time), but the more fluid it is (as pastrygirl implied), the more issues there are with shelf life. And there is also the complex issue of migration of water and fat inside a bonbon. You can't successfully put a filling with substantial water content (such as a ganache) next to anything crunchy and expect the crunch to last. As I said, commercial manufacturers have many ways of increasing shelf life to the point where the product is financially viable for them. All of this is explained far better than I can by Peter Greweling in the book I recommended (particularly in the 2nd edition).