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Title: Praline  
Author: World Heritage Encyclopedia
Language: English
Subject: Belgian chocolate, Belgian cuisine, Caramel, Confectionery, Al Nassma Chocolate
Collection: Almonds, Belgian Cuisine, Chocolate, Confectionery, Cuisine of New Orleans, Louisiana, French Cuisine
Publisher: World Heritage Encyclopedia


Belgian pralines
Type Confectionery
Place of origin France
Main ingredients Chocolate, nuts, syrup
Cookbook: Praline 
Pralin (crushed praline)
American pralines cooling on a marble slab. Unlike European pralines, American pralines are made with cream.

Praline (US ; UK ) is a form of confectionery containing at a minimum nuts and sugar; cream is a common third ingredient.

There are two main types:

Belgian pralines consist of a chocolate shell with a softer, sometimes liquid, filling, traditionally made of different combinations of hazelnut, almonds, sugar, syrup and often milk-based pastes. These high-fat, low-melting point chocolates are at the luxury end of Belgian chocolate and represent an important product of many Belgian chocolatiers.

A praline cookie is a chocolate biscuit containing ground nuts.


  • Varieties 1
    • European nut pralines 1.1
    • Belgian soft-centre pralines 1.2
    • American cream-based pralines 1.3
  • See also 2
  • References 3


European nut pralines

Praline shop in Brussels. Such luxury shops typically also sell chocolate truffles

As originally inspired in France at the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte by the cook of the 17th-century sugar industrialist Marshal du Plessis-Praslin (1598–1675),[1] early pralines were whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar, as opposed to dark nougat, where a sheet of caramelized sugar covers many nuts.[2] Although the New World had been discovered and settled by this time, chocolate-producing cocoa (native to the New World) was originally not optionally associated with the term. The European chefs used local nuts such as almonds and hazelnuts.

The powder made by grinding up such caramel-coated nuts is called pralin, and is an ingredient in many cakes, pastries, and ice creams.[3] After this powder has been mixed with chocolate, it becomes praliné in French, which gave birth to what is known in French as chocolat praliné. The word praliné is used colloquially in France and Switzerland to refer to these, known simply as "chocolates" in English, i.e. various centres coated with chocolate.[4] In mainland Europe, the word praline is often used to mean either this nut powder or the chocolate paste made from it, widely used to fill chocolates, hence its use (by synecdoche) in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom to refer to filled chocolates in general.[5] In the United Kingdom, the term can refer either to praline (the filling for chocolates) or, less commonly, to the original whole-nut pralines.

Belgian soft-centre pralines

Pralines from Belgium are also known as "(soft-center) Belgian chocolates", "Belgian chocolate fondants" and the somewhat vague "chocolate bonbons" in English-speaking countries — cases of chocolate (if from Belgium usually a quality, branded lower-melting point Belgian chocolate) filled with a soft centre. They were first introduced by Jean Neuhaus II, a Belgian chocolatier, in 1912.[6]

There have always been many types and shapes: nearly always containing a chocolate shell with a softer filling. Confusion can arise over the use of the word praline in Belgium as it may refer to filled chocolates in general known as pralines and it may also refer to a traditional praline filling common in Europe (caramelised hazelnuts (noisettes) or almonds (amandes) ground into a paste, sometimes with whey powder, condensed milk or cream) described as praliné . Belgian chocolates (pralines) are not limited to the traditional praliné filling and often include nuts, marzipan, salted caramel, coffee, a spirit, cream liqueur, cherry or a chocolate blend that contrasts with the outer shell. They are often sold in stylised boxes in the form of a gift box. The largest manufacturers are Neuhaus, Godiva, Leonidas, and Guylian.

American cream-based pralines


Pralines have a creamy consistency, similar to fudge. It is usually made by combining sugar (often brown), butter, and cream or buttermilk in a pot on medium-high heat, and stirring constantly, until most of the water has evaporated and it has reached a thick texture with a brown color. Then it is usually dropped by spoonfuls onto wax paper or a sheet of aluminum foil greased with butter, and left to cool. [2][7]

'Pralines and cream' is a common ice cream flavor in the United States and Canada.

See also


  1. ^ Food Timeline Praline History
  2. ^ a b The Creole Confection – New Orleans Pralines
  3. ^ Julia Child (1961), Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Alfred A. Knopf
  4. ^ You Say Praline, I Say Praline, and They Say Praliné at the Wayback Machine (archived December 8, 2008)
  5. ^ Belgian Pralines
  6. ^ Amy M. Thomas (December 22, 2011). "Brussels: The Chocolate Trail".  
  7. ^ Praline Definition
