Kids’ have a school break for 10 days. So I plan to make few desserts. Praline was the first thing I choose to make as it would be useful for the dessert toppings. I am sharing the recipe of crunchy praline that is made by grinding sugar coated nuts. The recipe needs just 3 ingredients – refined sugar, almonds and butter. You can replace almonds with any of your favorite nuts. Making praline at home is simple and easy. It can be made just under 20 mins. This recipe makes little over a cup. You can store in a glass jar and use for a couple of months. Praline can be used as a topping over Ice creams, sundaes, Cakes, waffles and even on Pancakes. This post will help you to make perfect praline that doesn’t taste bitter, doesn’t crystallize and doesn’t turn soft when cooled down.
How to make praline for desserts
- Add sugar to a dry heavy bottom pan. Begin to melt it on a medium flame. Within seconds you will see the sugar begins to melt.
- Do not use a spoon or ladle to stir the sugar. Instead swirl the pan when ever needed to spread it evenly. Be attentive and reduce the flame to lowest.
- You can gently push inside the sugar stuck to the edges. Be ready with a tbsp of butter. As soon as you see the entire sugar has melted completely, it will begin to smoke up. Quickly take off the pan from the heat. Add the butter. Do not let it smoke for longer.
- I placed the pan over a cork pad. Note that the mixture is no more on the heat. Mix well. The mixture will bubble up a lot.
- Add chopped almonds.
- Pour it to a greased plate or parchment paper. Cool this completely.
- The entire mixture will cool and come out as a brittle. Break it to pieces.
- You can transfer this to a zip lock bag or a clean cloth. Cover it and crush with a rolling pin to a coarse powder. I used my mixer jar to powder it. If using a mixer then break them to small pieces and use a large jar. Using a small jar may damage the lid as the pieces bounce up to it. Just pulse the mixer to get coarse praline. Do not run for longer as the praline will become fine powder.
- I removed the large chunks and ran the blender once more.
- Transfer this to a clean glass jar and store it in the fridge. Top your ice cream, waffles, pancakes and cakes with a generous amount of praline.