Classic New Orleans Pralines

Pralines have to be the quintessential confectionary of New Orleans. These creamy, caramel-like candies with pecans tucked in the middle are hard to resist. It is the general concensus that the Ursuline nuns brought the recipe for pralines with them when they immigrated from France to New Orleans in 1727. The nuns adapted the recipe to include local ingredients such as sugar cane and pecans rather than almonds and hazelnuts. Supposedly, they taught the recipe to the young girls entrusted to their care as part of the girls’ education. When the girls married and began their own families, the recipe spread throughout the city. I was pleasantly surprised, actually really surprised, when I opened a cookbook called Recipes and Reminiscences of New Orleans and found the Ursuline nuns’ recipe for pralines. Like gumbo, every New Orleans cook has their own spin on how to make pralines. I have no idea whether or not the nuns’ recipe in this cookbook is authentic or the original one. I do know that my own praline candy recipe is very, very similar and makes out-of-this world pralines.

A bit of trivia about New Orleans and Sugar Plantations

I love historical trivia, so here are some facts about the first sugar cane in Louisiana — which is now an important agricultural crop for the state. The Jesuit priests first brought sugar cane to Louisiana in 1751 from Saint Dominigue. They planted it where their church now stands on Baronne Street in New Orleans. In the 1700’s, several plantations thrived in what is now the city limits of New Orleans. One was in Audubon Park, now called Uptown New Orleans and just minutes away from the main city. In 1794, a New Orleans planter, Étienne deBoré, planted a Cuban cane variety on a plantation on the “outskirts” of the city in what would eventually become Audubon Park and now houses the city’s zoo. Étienne de Borgĕ — who interestingly was born in the territory of Illinois to French parents — was the first to deveolp granulated sugar for commercial use in 1795 with the help of Antoine Morin, a “free man of color.” Morin was a chemist and originally from Saint Domingue. On the Boré plantation, Morin developed a new process that allowed for sugar granulation. He is credited with making commercial sugar possible in these territories. deBoré’s gamble to invest his life savings from growing indigo to growing sugar cane paid off!

These sugar cane fields are along the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish and this photo was taken in October when the cane was ready for harvest.

What are Pralines?

Pralines are a very simple candy made of sugar, cream, pecans and vanilla extract. As the sugar boils and melts, the syrup is transformed into caramel. (It actually changes chemical structure from sugar to caramel.)

There are many variations to praline recipes. Every cook has their own process and recipe for making pralines. The nuns’ recipe uses cream. For my pralines, I substituted evaporated milk for the cream. And I add a small amount of butter. Our recipes include both brown and granulated sugar. Some recipes add cream of tartar — which helps keep the candy from crystalizing — and others add corn syrup — doubtful that the nuns added this type of sugar when cane sugar was plentiful.

Making Candy

Pralines are candy, and like making any other candy, it is an art and a good amount of technique is involved. It requires patience and perseverance. Making pralines is easy — but making creamy pralines which don’t crumble takes patience. It takes practice to make candy with is smooth rather than candy which is grainy and course. Making pralines uses the same techniques as making fudge and peanut brittle. (Here is peanut brittle perking away on the stove in the photo below.)

This is one of those recipes which you almost need to make twice. All stoves heat differently. What works in my kitchen and stove may work differently on your stove. You have to adapt these instructions to your own cooking equipment — pots, thermometers, stove, humidity, etc. The first attempt is a trial run, then comes the real thing.

My tips for making pralines are:

1. Use a heavy pot and a candy thermometer. Cooking the syrupy sugar mixture to the correct temperature is one keys to getting the pralines to “set” rather than becoming a soft piece of candy. Although you can guess when the syrup is cooked, or use other methods of testing the temperature of the syrup, a candy thermometer is the best.
   
2. Use alot of patience. It can take 10 minutes – perhaps even 20 minutes — for the syrup to “super-concentrate” enough so that it will form a solid candy when it cools down rather than a liquid syrup or hard pirece of candy. You just can’t rush this process. Cook the syrup over medium heat and in a pot which is no more than 1/2 full. Turn the heat on the stove down to medium-low (or even low) if the syrup boils too rapidly so it doesn’t burn.
   
3. Don’t stir the pot while the candy is cooking after the syrup comes to a boil. That’s another key point. The idea here is that small sugar crystals stuck on the sides of the pot can drop into the mixture and “seed” the candy making super large and grainy sugar crystals. And we don’t want that. I wash down the sides of the pot with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove the sugar stuck on the sides just as the pot begins to boil.
   
4. Once the candy reaches the correct temperature, remove it from the heat, let it cool down for 10 minutes and then stir it until it thickens slightly but still has gloss. Why? That’s just part the process. It also helps prevent those large, grainy sugar crystals. The candy will still be warm and will spread out as it cools and hardens.
   
5. I have a marble slab which I use for making candy such as peanut brittle. The hot candy won’t hurt the marble when you pour it out of the pot. However, I discovered that the pralines stuck to the marble. Oiled wax paper worked much better. Just pop the pralines off from the bottom of the wax paper after they cool.
   
6. Don’t try to make candy on a humid day. The candy just becomes sticky — that is advice from my mother. But it is true — not just an old wive’s tail. The candy cools too quickly on a humid day and can actually re-absorb moisture becoming grainy and sticky. The humidy should be below 35%. However, my husband says that low humidity level is impossible in Louisiana. On a very humid day, run the air conditioner if you need to to lower the humidity in your house. The humidity was 45% on the day I made these pralines — which is okay.

Making Pralines

Let’s make pralines. This is what I do.

Here’s my marble slab for making candy. The hot candy syrup doesn’t affect the marble.

However, I learned the hard way that the pralines stick to the marble slab. A better solution is to oil wax paper. After the pralines cool and harden, just pop them off the wax paper from the back.

Attach the candy thermometer to the pot you are using to making the candy. Place the thermometer so it doesn’t touch the bottom of the pot.

I have a digital thermometer — set the desired temperature goal, and the thermometer begins to beep when you get within 3 degrees of the goal.

However, today was one of my cooking disasters. The digital thermometer fell backwards into the soup pot on the back burner ending that thermometer Oh well, On to “Plan B.”

The pot for making candy should ideally be a heavy pot — with straight sides — one which is neither too large or small – the sugar and evaporated milk should not come more than 1/2 the way up the sides when the candy is boiling.

Ready to go….. Add the granulated and brown sugars and evaporated milk to the pot.

Stir with a wooden spoon until the sugars dissolve. Do this over medium heat. Avoid high heat at all costs.

Sugar will splash on the sides of the pot as you stir. Rinse any sugar crystals which are stuck on the sides of the pot down with a pastry brush dipped in water.

Once the sugar syrup begins to boil, stop stirring. Just let it cook away until it reaches the temperature of 240 degrees F or soft-ball stage. This can take from 10 to 20 minutes. Cook the syrup over medium heat and lower the heat on the stove if the syrup boils too rapidly. (I just turned the heat down on this pot.)

Once the temperature reaches 240 degrees F, remove the pot from the stove. Let the pot set on the kitchen counter for 10 minutes to cool slightly. (It will still be warm.) Then stir in the butter, vanilla extract and pecan pieces.

Slowly beat the candy in the pot with a clean and dry wooden spoon for 5 or more minutes until the candy begins to thicken. It will still be glossy.

Use a spoon to transfer dollups of the candy to the oiled wax paper-lined tray. The candy will spread out into patties and then harden and become opaque as it cools.

And we have pralines! Creamy and smooth in texture. Not to brag, but these are the best anywhere around. I am sure that you will impress all your family and friends if you can pull this off. (These pralines will become opaque after they cool down and harden.)

How many batches of pralines did I make today? Four batches. The first batch cooled too quickly and didn’t spread out.  I chopped these up, added a little water and boiled them again for a “second” batch. This batch stuck to the marble slab. I chopped them up, too, for a “third” batch. The below photos are from the fourth and final batch. Perfect. Delicious. And I have lots of pralines to share with neighbors!

References:

https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/45193/why-is-it-that-caramel-sauce-should-not-be-stirred-after-it-has-boiled

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2022/12/12/how-to-make-caramel#:~:text=Like%20dry%20caramel%2C%20you%20want,the%20agitation%20can%20cause%20crystallization.