Salted Caramel Almond Pecan Pralines Recipe

Did you know there are actually several different types of pralines? In Belgium, the term is used to describe a filling used for chocolate candies, but in both France and the U.S. it refers to confections made from sugar-coated nuts. French pralines tend to be made with almonds, while American ones involve pecans, but here we're going with a hybrid version by using both types of nuts. "This recipe," says developer Jennine Rye, "is a quick and delicious way to make melt-in-the-mouth pralines." She goes on to say, "The lightly toasted nuts pair really well with the sweet, slightly soft, and chewy caramel."

You can, of course, use either one nut or the other, and Rye also suggests switching up the proportions as necessary. "If you only have a few almonds and lots of pecan nuts at home the recipe will work just as well," she assures us before adding, "I just think they taste best with a good mix of both." Before you plan your praline-making, it's best to know that the weather can affect your homemade pralines. Pick a day when the temperature isn't too hot and there's no rain in the forecast as humidity can cause the sugar in your candies to crystallize.

You actually won't need too many ingredients to make these pralines. In addition to the almonds and pecans, you'll be using sugar, evaporated milk, butter, vanilla, and salt for the sugar syrup. If you want to add a trendy touch, you could also sprinkle some optional flaky salt over the top.

Heat the oven to 350 F. Scatter the nuts over a baking sheet, making sure not to crowd them. Bake them for 7 to 8 minutes, by which point they should be light brown and starting to smell nutty. Do not over-cook them, though, as dark brown nuts are over-roasted and won't taste good in your pralines.

Once the nuts have cooled down, chop them into rough chunks.

Mix the sugar, evaporated milk, butter, vanilla, and salt in a pan and heat the mixture until it reaches 235 to 240 F. If you let the temperature creep up to 250, you'll get pralines that are the consistency of hard candy, which is fine if that's what you want. Don't let the syrup get any hotter, though, or it's likely to burn.

Stir the nuts into the syrup, then keep stirring as the praline mixture cooks for 2 minutes.

Pour spoonfuls of the praline mixture onto a lined cookie sheet. Parchment paper will work, as will foil and wax paper, but you could also squirt your chosen pan liner with cooking spray to make sure that the pralines come off easily once they've cooled. As for the size of the pralines, Rye suggests that 2 to 3 inches is good, but admits "They are a little rustic and spread out by themselves on the baking paper so there will be a bit of natural variety." If you want to sprinkle them with flaky salt, do so now, then let them cool.

Once the pralines are completely cool, store them at room temperature in an airtight container. You may want to use wax or parchment paper to separate them, too, since they can get kind of sticky. Rye says they should last for about 2 weeks, but warns that once they get past that point, "They start to deteriorate as the sugar begins to crystallize." You can, however, freeze any leftovers before they get to that point.