Chocolate Pecan Pralines
I'm making this post because I can't leave you with the impression that my previous praline post is the way 'real' pralines look. And, it's a great way to use some leftover chocolate ganache that has been sitting in my fridge crying to be useful.
I added some of the minor changes I made here to the original recipe above.
1) I used chopped pecans and NOT pecan halves. This let me reduce the amount of nuts I used to 1/2 cup rather than 1 cup. Besides being more economical it also gave me a thinner and neater praline, and you got to taste the pecans in every bite as they were distributed more evenly through the pralines rather than being found in in big chunks.
2) In this case only, because I added the chocolate in the form of ganache (equal parts cream and chocolate) that I already had, I mixed it in with the sugar mixture before I cooked it to the soft ball stage. There was about 3/8 of a cup of ganache to which I added an additional 1/4 cup of whipping cream. If I were to make the chocolate pralines again, I would just add the 2 oz of chopped chocolate along with the nuts once the praline mixture had reached the soft ball stage.
Can you see how thin this praline is? It was one of the first poured so just a bit thicker would have been perfect.
3) I also added a teaspoon of vanilla along with the nuts.
4) I started spooning out the mixture after stirring for exactly 2 minutes once I took it off the heat.
The result - Instead of 10-11 pralines that looked like ...
piles of doggy doo-doo,
I ended up with TWO DOZEN of these much prettier patties, even if my first one (lower left corner) spread out a bit bigger than I wanted as the mixture was still pretty warm.
Closer shot of the pralines
As the pralines start to cool, you can see the sugar recrystallizing.
Side view
NOTE: If I had had a helper, they could have held the pan tilted so that I could scoop out and pour the pralines without wasting time stirring to make sure each spoon got some nuts. I would also have been able to make more pralines if the pan had been progressively more tilted so that the mixture would pool (staying warmer longer) in one location. I'll have to chop up the last couple of pralines, which were thicker and lumpier, and use them as ice cream topping rather than serving them directly. Such a hardship, I know. :)
I added some of the minor changes I made here to the original recipe above.
1) I used chopped pecans and NOT pecan halves. This let me reduce the amount of nuts I used to 1/2 cup rather than 1 cup. Besides being more economical it also gave me a thinner and neater praline, and you got to taste the pecans in every bite as they were distributed more evenly through the pralines rather than being found in in big chunks.
2) In this case only, because I added the chocolate in the form of ganache (equal parts cream and chocolate) that I already had, I mixed it in with the sugar mixture before I cooked it to the soft ball stage. There was about 3/8 of a cup of ganache to which I added an additional 1/4 cup of whipping cream. If I were to make the chocolate pralines again, I would just add the 2 oz of chopped chocolate along with the nuts once the praline mixture had reached the soft ball stage.
Can you see how thin this praline is? It was one of the first poured so just a bit thicker would have been perfect.
3) I also added a teaspoon of vanilla along with the nuts.
4) I started spooning out the mixture after stirring for exactly 2 minutes once I took it off the heat.
The result - Instead of 10-11 pralines that looked like ...
piles of doggy doo-doo,
I ended up with TWO DOZEN of these much prettier patties, even if my first one (lower left corner) spread out a bit bigger than I wanted as the mixture was still pretty warm.
Closer shot of the pralines
As the pralines start to cool, you can see the sugar recrystallizing.
Side view
NOTE: If I had had a helper, they could have held the pan tilted so that I could scoop out and pour the pralines without wasting time stirring to make sure each spoon got some nuts. I would also have been able to make more pralines if the pan had been progressively more tilted so that the mixture would pool (staying warmer longer) in one location. I'll have to chop up the last couple of pralines, which were thicker and lumpier, and use them as ice cream topping rather than serving them directly. Such a hardship, I know. :)